Associated Press
This Tuesday, April 24, 2012, photo shows an exterior view of Baker Commodities transfer station, where a cow with mad cow disease was discovered, in Hanford, Calif. The first new case of mad cow disease in the U.S. since 2006 has been discovered in a dairy cow in California, but health authorities said Tuesday the animal never was a threat to the nation's food supply. The infected cow, the fourth ever discovered in the U.S., was found as part of an Agriculture Department surveillance program that tests about 40,000 cows a year for the fatal brain disease. (AP Photo/The Fresno Bee, John Walker )
FRESNO, Calif. _ The carcass of a dairy cow slated to be rendered at a Fresno County, Calif. plant is infected with mad cow disease, federal and plant officials announced Tuesday.
The discovery of mad cow disease _ only the fourth in U.S. history and the first in California _ was made during routine testing of a dairy carcass headed to the Baker Commodities plant in Kerman.
Federal officials would only say that the carcass came from a “Central California” dairy, and local agricultural officials say they don’t know whose cow it was. The central San Joaquin Valley is one of the largest dairy producing regions in the nation, with hundreds of dairies.
In announcing the find, federal and state officials were quick to reassure the public that the food supply is safe.