USDA Announces Inconclusive BSE Test
March 13, 2006

 

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Chief Veterinary Medical Officer John Clifford has announced inconclusive test results on a rapid bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) test.

Clifford made the announcement Saturday, March 11, stating that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is conducting further tests at the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa. The research team is using an immunohistochemistry (IHC) test, and USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) will also conduct a Western blot test.

Clifford said the results of the tests would be released as soon as they are completed, within the next few days.

“This inconclusive result does not mean we have found a new case of BSE,” Clifford said in a statement. “Inconclusive results are a normal component of most screening tests, which are designed to be extremely sensitive so they will detect any sample that could possibly be positive. In addition, this animal did not enter the human food chain nor the animal feed chain.”

Clifford said that since June 2004, all sectors of the cattle industry have cooperated in the USDA’s BSE-safeguarding program by submitting samples from more than 640,000 animals from the highest risk populations and more than 20,000 from clinically normal, older animals.

Visit www.usda.gov for more information.

 

— compiled by Crystal Albers, Angus Productions Inc.
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