Latest "Mad Cow" case will affect the lifting of bans against American beef

The U.S. Agriculture Department has confirmed that an Alabama cow suspected of having mad cow disease, did have the fatal brain disease.

The department says no beef from the animal entered the human or animal food systems.

The lucrative U.S. livestock industry is now working overtime to reassure U.S. consumers that they should keep eating all forms of beef.

But it will be more difficult to persuade countries that have banned imports of U.S. beef since 2003, to reconsider lifting their bans.

U.S. officials have currently been pushing Japan and South Korea to lift bans of U.S. beef, and the latest case could damage those efforts.

U.S. consumer groups are now urging the government to speed up the creation of an animal tracking system and make an animal identification system mandatory in January 2007, two years earlier than the 2009 target.

At present the system is voluntary and is in an early stage of development.

Mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is a fatal brain disease in cattle and scientists believe people can contract a similar fatal brain disease by eating material from infected cattle.

The Consumers Union has also urged the Food and Drug Administration to toughen its ban on the use of cattle parts in cattle feed and wants more cattle tested for the disease.

Four consumer groups have joined forces to create the Safe Food Coalition, and say successful mandatory animal tracking systems have been put in place in New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

But the American Meat Institute, which represents U.S. beef companies, says the current U.S. system of testing suspected animals for the disease is part of a "firewall system" to detect and stop BSE and says American beef is safe.