What is the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food doing to protect Utahs beef supply?
Utah does not have BSE and never has. The animal in question never entered the food system. The animal was a “downer” that could not walk and was delivered to a rendering plant for animals unfit for human consumption. The government banned downer cows from the food supply just days after the 2003 case. The ban on downer cows is one of many safeguards aimed at keeping the disease from getting into the food or feed supply. Every beef or dairy cow that is slaughtered for human consumption or other reasons in Utah is inspected by a veterinarian for a variety of animal diseases…including bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or Mad Cow disease. Diseased animals are removed from the system and tested. All slaughtered cows have their brain and spinal material removed prior to processing. That material is sent to rendering where it is not fed back to humans or cows. This is an important food safety step because the only way cows and humans can contract BSE is by eating material contaminate
