The Agricultural Defense Agency of the State of Pará (Adepará) confirmed today (22) a case of mad cow disease in the interior of the state. The agency did not specify the municipality, stating only that the case occurred in a small town in southeastern Pará, on a property with 160 head of cattle. According to the agency, the property has already been isolated, inspected and preventively interdicted. Samples were sent to a laboratory in Canada to verify whether the occurrence is a classic case, in which there is transmission from one animal to another, or atypical, in which the disease develops spontaneously in nature, usually in elderly animals. In a statement, Adepará highlighted that it works with the hypothesis of an atypical case, without risk of dissemination to the herd and to humans. The body said it is in permanent contact with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock and that it deals with the issue with transparency and responsibility. On Monday (20), the Ministry of Agriculture reported that it was investigating a suspected case of mad cow in Brazil. At the time, the folder did not inform the location. Death on pasture increases the chances that the alleged case of mad cow originated “atypically”, spontaneously in the wild, rather than being transmitted through the ingestion of contaminated animal feed. This, in theory, reduces the chances of imposition of trade barriers. No communicable cases The last cases of mad cow recorded in Brazil occurred in 2021, in Minas Gerais and Mato Grosso. At the time, the cases were also atypical, but China, the largest buyer of meat in Brazil, suspended the purchase of Brazilian beef for three months, from September to December of that year. Until today, Brazil has not registered classic cases of mad cow, caused by the ingestion of contaminated meat and pieces of bone. Caused by a prion, a protein molecule with no genetic code, mad cow disease is a degenerative disease also called bovine spongiform encephalitis. The modified proteins consume the animal’s brain, making it comparable to a sponge. In addition to oxen and cows, the disease affects buffaloes, sheep and goats. Ingestion of meat and animal by-products contaminated with prions causes transmissible spongiform encephalopathy in humans. In the late 1990s, there was an outbreak of cases of mad cow disease in humans in Great Britain, which caused the consumption of beef to be suspended in the country for several months. At the time, the disease was transmitted to humans through cattle fed contaminated animal feed.
Agência Brasil
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