'Atypical' Mad Cow Disease Discovered In Alabama

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on Tuesday that routine surveillance at an Alabama slaughterhouse had revealed an "atypical" case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) — more often referred to as mad cow disease — in an 11-year-old animal.

The USDA statement explained that the animal "at no time presented a risk to the food supply," and the case was not expected to impact the price of U.S. beef in domestic or international markets or the BSE risk status as assessed by the World Organization for Animal Health.

BSE is an irreversible nerve disease that results from misfolded proteins called prions, which cause a chain reaction in nerve tissues leading to fatal deformation of the brain and spinal cord. The atypical variant of BSE is believed to arise spontaneously in cattle populations — it typically affects older animals and is not considered to pose a serious risk of transmission due to the presence of industry safeguards.

Classical BSE, in contrast, is linked to the practice of using meat and bone meal from cattle and other mammals as feed for cattle. This variant was responsible for the epidemic of BSE in the U.K. cattle population from 1986 to 1998, and the concurrent rash of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, which killed over 200 people, most believed to have been infected due to consumption of British beef.

A case of classical BSE discovered in Washington state in 2003 led many countries to ban imports of U.S. beef, causing cattle prices to tumble dramatically. The current atypical case is unlikely to result in similar action by major importers of U.S. beef, Bloomberg reported.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has prohibited the use of mammalian protein in cattle feed since 1997. Mad cow disease remains an issue of concern, however; in 2014, the USDA recalled 4,000 pounds of beef for cautionary reasons, and the U.S. only lifted the ban on beef from Ireland in 2015.

Two cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease caused a scare in Italy in 2015, and a case discovered in a Canadian animal in 2015 prompted a response from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Skittish about eating beef? Try these 15 Vegetarian Cookout Recipes That Will Make You Forget Burgers and Dogs.