January 4, 2004 Reuters by Randy Fabi

The discovery of mad cow disease in a Holstein dairy cow in Washington state has focused new attention on how cattle are raised and slaughtered.

While the Agriculture Department rushed to impose a series of new food safety rules, FDA officials have said it would take time before deciding whether extra precautions were necessary to protect U.S. cattle herds from the brain-wasting disease.

Since August 1997, the FDA has banned the use of cattle remains as an ingredient in feed for other cows, goats and sheep -- a practice blamed for spreading mad cow disease throughout Britain in the 1980s and 1990s.

"The FDA's animal feed regulations provide the first and best line of defense against BSE," said Rep. Lee Terry, a Nebraska Republican.

Officials believe mad cow disease was spread to the Washington cow after it ate the brains, spinal cord and other remains of an infected cow.

Experts say the best way to prevent mad cow disease is to ban this "high risk" material from human food and animal feed.

"Taking the brain and spinal cord out is the single most important, most cost effective and most easy to implement in protecting human health," said Will Hueston, veterinarian at the University of Minnesota and member of an international panel appointed to review the U.S. mad cow case.

Hueston said a cow with mad cow disease holds 80 percent of infectivity in its brain and spinal cord.