APHIS Adjusts BSE Sampling Protocols
US - The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Veterinary Services has stopped collecting samples from calves less than 12 months of age as part of its ongoing bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) surveillance testing.
24 October 2014
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The American Meat Institute said that this is a change from the previous process where cattle of any age showing central nervous system (CNS) signs are tested for BSE.
APHIS says the change has been made because classical BSE has never been detected in an animal born in the United States, though more than one million animals have been tested since the beginning of the BSE surveillance program.
BSE has also never been detected in cattle less than 12 months of age worldwide and neither the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) nor the APHIS BSE surveillance system assigns a surveillance value or points to cattle less than 12 months of age.
