The beef industry looks to reassure Iowa consumers that no trace of the so-called “mad cow disease” has found its way into America. Nancy Degner, a spokeswoman for the Iowa Beef Industry Council, says recent reports about a possible infection in Texas are false. Degner says the problem in Texas was a compliance issue where a feed mill got rendered cattle into feed. She says that won’t cause the disease.Degner prefers the term B-S-E rather than mad cow disease. That stands for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy. Degner is confident no B-S-E has infiltrated any part of the American beef industry as officials have closely kept watch. She says there’s been 10 years worth of effort to keep the infection out of the U-S.Degner says there’s also been “misinformation” about diseases that have struck animals other than cattle, which she says are not related to B-S-E.She says the major area of confusion has to do with the misunderstanding of different diseases with similar-sounding names.
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