Mad cow disease detected in California, but no price drop expected

Posted by IronPlanet on Apr 25, 2012 7:03:00 AM

Mad cow disease has been detected in a cow in California, but it's expected to be an isolated incident rather than a full outbreak, reports Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Farmers have to be on a constant lookout for the brain-wasting disease, as outbreaks in the past have led to severe problems for the agricultural industry. In fact, detection of the disease in merely one animal could cause prices to plummet for crops in the country where the affected animal lives.

However, it doesn't appear that will happen this time around, according to the news source. The single animal confirmed to have the disease did not enter the human food chain and there's no evidence to suggest it's more than an isolated case, according to a statement released by the Secretary of Agriculture.

The U.S. has had three confirmed cases of mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), in the past. Each time the disease was reported, prices fell for American crops and farmers all across the country were affected.

"The discovery of the disease means that the surveillance process is working, and that means very limited impact on corn or soybean demand," Steve Nicholson, the chief economist for International Food Products, told the news source. "The global demand for food, especially from China, is not going to slow, even if the world economy continues to struggle."

In fact, the news source reports that China may have purchased 1 million tons of corn last week to help build its reserve stockpiles, according to the news source.

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Topics: Industry Headlines