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Press Release

USDA CERTIFIES SEVEN LABORATORIES FOR BSE SAMPLE ANALYSIS

WASHINGTON, March 29, 2004—The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service today announced the approval of seven geographically dispersed state laboratories that will assist in the surveillance program for bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

“USDA’s intensive BSE surveillance program requires increased laboratory capacity strategically located across the country,” said Dr. Ron DeHaven, deputy administrator for Veterinary Services. “Reducing the distance to the nearest lab will help ensure that we have the most rapid turnaround time possible.”

On March 15, USDA announced an enhanced BSE surveillance program which incorporates recommendations from an international scientific review panel and the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis; both have reviewed and support the plan. Under the program, sampling some 268,000 animals would allow for the detection of BSE at a rate of 1 positive in 10 million adult cattle with a 99 percent confidence level. In other words, the enhanced program could detect BSE even if there were only five positive animals in the entire country.

The following laboratories will receive federal funding as needed for high throughput testing equipment: California Animal Health and Food Safety Lab System, University of California-Davis; Colorado State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory; Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (College Station); Wisconsin Animal Health Laboratory (Madison); Washington State University Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory; Athens Diagnostic Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia; and NY State College of Veterinary Medicine, Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, Cornell University. Other laboratories that meet specific criteria may be certified to analyze surveillance samples in the future.

These laboratories are part of an existing network of state and federal labs that assist APHIS with animal disease testing as needed. These labs will use approved rapid tests for BSE. USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa remains the national reference lab for BSE and will conduct confirmatory testing.

More information on the BSE surveillance program is available online at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/issues/bse/bse.html.

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