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United States

USDA Announces Transition To New BSE Surveillance Program

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will transition to a bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) surveillance program appropriate to an extremely low prevalence of the disease, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced today. 

"It's time that our surveillance efforts reflect what we now know is a very, very low level of BSE in the United States," said Johanns in a USDA statement. "This ongoing surveillance program will maintain our ability to detect BSE, provide assurance that our interlocking safeguards are successfully preventing BSE, while continuing to exceed science-based international guidelines."

The program will sample approximately 40,000 animals each year and the USDA will continue to collect samples from a variety of sites and from the cattle populations where the disease is most likely to be detected. 

The program complies with the science-based international guidelines set by the World Animal Health organization (OIE), and provides testing at a level 10 times higher than the OIE recommended level.

BSE Surveillance Program Factsheet

United States

USDA Announces Transition To New BSE Surveillance Program

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will transition to a bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) surveillance program appropriate to an extremely low prevalence of the disease, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced today. 

"It's time that our surveillance efforts reflect what we now know is a very, very low level of BSE in the United States," said Johanns in a USDA statement. "This ongoing surveillance program will maintain our ability to detect BSE, provide assurance that our interlocking safeguards are successfully preventing BSE, while continuing to exceed science-based international guidelines."

The program will sample approximately 40,000 animals each year and the USDA will continue to collect samples from a variety of sites and from the cattle populations where the disease is most likely to be detected. 

The program complies with the science-based international guidelines set by the World Animal Health organization (OIE), and provides testing at a level 10 times higher than the OIE recommended level.

BSE Surveillance Program Factsheet