FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - A California Holstein discovered to have
mad cow disease in April was an isolated case and didn't pose a
threat to the food supply, a report issued Friday by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture said. A three-month investigation
looked into the movements of the infected dairy cow, her
offspring and the food eaten by the herd. The investigation
turned up no other cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
"The results of this thorough investigation confirmed that at no
time was the U.S. food supply or human health at risk, and that
the United States' longstanding system of interlocking
safeguards against BSE continues to be effective," said John
Clifford DVM, USDA's chief veterinary officer. The 10-year-old
dairy cow, only the fourth with the sickness ever discovered in
the United States, was found as part of an Agriculture
Department program that tests for the fatal brain disease in
about 40,000 of the 35 million cows slaughtered each year. It
was unable to stand before it was killed and s