To most people, 20 years ago is a distant memory. It was the year that the business social media platform LinkedIn was launched, iTunes Music made its debut, and the iPhone was still four years away.
For cattle producers, another landmark event came at the end of 2003: the first confirmed case of BSE in the United States was announced by then U.S. Secretary of Ag Ann Veneman on December 23rd.
“Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or BSE is a disease diagnosis that the cattle industry never wants to hear, bringing back memories of uncertainty and fear from two decades ago.
Though time flies, twenty years ago the first case of BSE in the United States was confirmed in a 6-year-old Canadian-born cow in Washington state.
Since then, due to extensive and in-depth practices and protocol, few cases have occurred in our country and globally there has been a decline in the disease as well.
Worse than the Grinch, The Cow That Stole Christmas upended the U.S. cattle industry, and dramatically changed U.S. beef exports.
Yet the silver lining of a bad situation came through learning what will be needed in the event of another animal health emergency.
Worse than the Grinch, The Cow That Stole Christmas upended the U.S. cattle industry, and dramatically changed U.S. beef exports. Yet the silver lining of a bad situation came through learning what will be needed in the event of another animal health emergency.
Listen in to this special report from Will Jordan on The Cow that Stole Christmas.