USDA reports case of mad cow disease in United States but negative trade implications ‘unlikely’
The United States has reported an atypical case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the disease has been detected in a five-year-old cow in South Carolina.
It said the animal had never entered slaughter channels and at no time presented a risk to the food supply or to human health.
"Given the United States' negligible risk status for BSE, we do not expect any trade impacts as a result of this finding," a USDA spokesperson said.
"Atypical BSE generally occurs in older cattle and seems to arise rarely and spontaneously in all cattle populations."
Mad cow disease is a transmissible, slowly progressive, degenerative and fatal disease that affects the central nervous system of adult cattle.
The USDA said it was the nation's seventh detection of BSE.
"Of the six previous US cases, the first in 2003 was a case of classical BSE in a cow imported from Canada. The rest have been atypical (H or L-type) BSE," the spokesperson said.
Trade impacts unlikely
Global Agritrends analyst Simon Quilty said that unlike recent BSE outbreaks in Brazil, the US was unlikely to face any trade implications.
"So far, there have been no trade implications, but all eyes are on China because of the precedent that's been set earlier this year and [in 2021] with Brazil and the BSE case(s) they've had," he said.
"Under the trade agreement between the US and China, they said no ban could be put in place on any atypical BSE case should it occur, which is almost the complete opposite of what the situation was between Brazil and China."
Mr Quilty said the last atypical BSE case in the US was in 2018, which led to no trade implications.
"So you can only assume the same will happen this time around," he said
"But we do know the situation between the US and China has been somewhat strained politically, and so you can never rule out some sort of implication, but at this stage, it looks unlikely."