USDA CHANGES DISEASE STATUS FOR CZECH REPUBLIC

USDA CHANGES DISEASE STATUS FOR CZECH REPUBLIC    The U.S. Department of Agriculture has amended its regulations to include the Czech Republic in its list of regions where bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, exists.
   The disease was recently detected in native born animals in that region. The effect of this action is the continued restriction to import meat    and meat products from the Czech Republic to the United States.
   “No case of BSE has ever been diagnosed in the United States,” the USDA said. “This interim rule is necessary in order to continue to safeguard American agriculture against this deadly neurological disease of bovine animals.”
   Since 1989, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has prohibited the importation of meats from all countries where BSE is known to exist in native cattle.