WASHINGTON — In what will likely come as a blow to an industry still reeling from the recent public outcry over “pink slime,” John Clifford, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief veterinarian, confirmed on Tuesday that a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or “mad cow disease,” has been confirmed in a dairy cow at a central California rendering facility.
The cow’s meat did not enter the food chain.
This marks the fifth confirmed instance of the brain-wasting disease in North America during the past 20 years, and the most recent since Clifford confirmed a case at a Texas facility in 2005.