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1 1 (January 31, 2006)

handle is hein.crs/crsmthabdtj0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Order Code RS22345 Updated January 31, 2006 CRS Report for Congress Received through the CRS Web BSE (Mad Cow Disease): A Brief Overview Geoffrey S. Becker Specialist in Agricultural Policy Resources, Science, and Industry Division Summary The appearance of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease) in North America has raised public health concerns and disrupted trade for cattle and beef producers. A major issue for Congress has been how to rebuild foreign confidence in the safety of U.S. beef and regain lost markets like Japan. Among other issues are whether additional measures are needed to further protect the public and cattle herd, and concerns over the relative costs and benefits of such measures for consumers, taxpayers and industry. This report will be updated if significant developments ensue.' What Is BSE? BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease) is a fatal neurological disease of cattle. It is believed to have spread mainly, if not exclusively, by feeding infected cattle parts back to cattle. More than 187,000 cases have been reported in 26 countries, about 183,000 of them in the United Kingdom (UK) where BSE was first identified in 1986. The annual number of new cases has declined steeply since 1992. Humans who eat contaminated beef are believed susceptible to a rare but fatal brain wasting disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). Although about 160 people have been diagnosed with vCJD since 1986, most in the UK, no case of the disease has been attributed to any Canadian or U.S. meat consumption. BSE In North America BSE has been reported in six cattle born in North America. The first was an Alberta, Canada, beef cow reported in May 2003. In the United States, a Canadian-born dairy cow was found in Washington state in December 2003, and a Texas born and raised beef cow was found in November 2004 (but not confirmed until June 2005). The other 3 were in Canada, the most recent reported January 2006 in a nearly six-year-old cow from Alberta. (A seventh case, in late 1993, was in a British-born cow imported earlier into Canada.) 1 This report, which replaces CRS Issue Brief IB 10127, Mad Cow Disease: Agricultural Issues for Congress, summarizes and updates information in other CRS reports, listed on page 6. Sources for facts and citation to reports and studies can be found in these CRS reports. Congressional Research Service . The Library of Congress

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