020741 USDA Bans Israel Meat on Mad Cow ConcernsJuly 20, 2002Washington - The US Department of Agriculture banned all meat imports from Israel after the Middle East country last month discovered its first case of the deadly mad cow disease. In a notice published the Federal Register, USDA said it would prohibit all live animals and meat products that have been in Israel in order to prevent the spread of mad cow disease into the United States. No US government figures were immediately available on Israeli meat imports, but the USDA said Israel was not a significant meat supplier to the United States. Israel last month confirmed its first case in a cow in Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, but Israeli officials were confident no infected meat had reached domestic markets. The ban is retroactive to June 4, when Israel reported its first case. The department said it was undergoing an economic analysis to determine the amount of imports affected. Scientists have linked beef from animals infected with mad cow disease--also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy -- to the spread of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which has killed more than 100 people, mostly in Britain. The United States has never reported a case of mad cow disease.
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