WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S.
officials this week will kill about 450 bull calves, including the offspring of
a dairy cow that tested positive for mad cow disease last month, the
Agriculture Department said Monday. "None of those animals will enter the human food chain,
nor will any of the product from those animals go into a rendered
product," said Ron DeHaven, the department's chief veterinarian, about the
animals, which are on a farm in The Agriculture Department will compensate the herd's owner,
DeHaven said. DeHaven would not disclose where the animals would be
killed. USDA officials are still trying to determine what to do with the
remains, department spokeswoman Julie Quick said. Because the offspring of the infected cow was not tagged at
birth, the USDA can no longer single out the animal, requiring the entire
herd's destruction, Quick said. The infected animal was a Investigators have tracked down 11 of the other animals in
that herd, and DNA tests to confirm the infected animal's origin are pending,
DeHaven said. Prions -- the rogue proteins that cause the disease bovine
spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE -- collect in the brain, central nervous
tissue and small intestines of cattle. Feed containing parts from infected cows
is blamed for its spread. Officials say the infected animal was born more than six
years ago, before Since the first Officials are trying to locate all the animals in the
infected cow's original herd not because there is concern that they could have
contracted BSE from the infected cow, but because it is possible they shared
the same food source, DeHaven has said previously. The decision about quarantining is not wholly based on
science, DeHaven said, acknowledging the tremendous impact that public
perception has had on the industry. Several countries have blocked imports of Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announced last week that
the BSE can make it impossible for infected cows to stand. The
disease is of concern to public health officials because it can cause variant
Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, a fatal brain disorder, in humans. Jen -- |
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