The U.S. officially begins to investigate human mad cow cases

Lead: Atlanta, April 19 (Reuters) - U.S consumers don't have to worry about reports that health authorities are investigating the first human case of mad cow disease found in the United States, scientists and cattle industry officials said Friday The Florida Department of health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta are studying a new case of Jacques's disease, a 22-year-old British citizen living in Florida, the Florida Department of Health said The patient allegedly contracted the disease overseas John Agwunobi, Florida's minister of health, said: 'we are very sure this is a case of Jakob's disease brought in from overseas Mad cow disease was first found in England in 1986, and Britain was also blamed for the spread of the disease The disease has caused consumer panic in Europe, causing thousands of cattle to be destroyed The disease in Japan last year caused nearly $3 billion in damage to Japanese agricultural enterprises Despite repeated assurances from U.S officials, livestock futures fell sharply on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange amid concerns that the disease could affect demand for beef Traders said the incident added to the negative atmosphere in the livestock market Agwunobi said she had visited the families of infected women who had lived in the United States since the 1990s 'we think it's someone who comes into contact with an infected beef product, maybe from another country, and then comes to the United States, where the symptoms start to develop,' Agwunobi said We are very sure that no cattle or beef products in the United States have been identified with BSE The U.S Department of Agriculture said it felt very certain there was no BSE in the United States "We are very certain that this Florida woman contracted human mad cow disease while living in the UK," said Alisha Harrison, a spokeswoman for the U.S Department of agriculture Newark's disease is a rare, degenerative and fatal brain disorder in the UK It is believed to be caused by the consumption of beef infected with BSE The scientific name of BSE is bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE for short The CDC said no BSE has been detected in the United States, and that if confirmed, the case in Florida would be the first to be found among U.S residents With a long incubation period for the disease, U.S officials say they believe the patient was infected in the UK The clinical diagnosis took place in the UK and the woman was sent back to the US The CDC said there was no evidence that the disease could be transmitted by humans George gray, the lead author of Harvard University's mad cow study published last November, said he didn't think consumers in the United States needed to worry about the case Last year's report said that American cattle were very unlikely to get mad cow disease Gray said it was not surprising that the case was found in the United States because many people traveled between the United States and the United Kingdom This case is a tragedy, but the origin should be the origin of the disease From the woman's contact with the UK, the UK is the place where she is most likely to be infected Carol Dubois, a spokeswoman for the American cattle association, said they were not overly worried about it and had not received a phone call from the beef processor about it The basic reaction of the beef processors was that it was a tragedy, but it proved that what we did was right, and that was to make sure that there was no BSE in the United States According to the CDC, there are 125 cases of mad cow disease (vccd) in the world, and almost all of them lived in the UK for several years during the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle herds from 1980 to 1996.