AUGUSTA – State Veterinarian Don Hoenig told members of the Legislature’s Agriculture Committee Friday that Maine’s herds are as safe as they can be against bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, otherwise known as Mad Cow Disease.

When a single case of BSE was uncovered in Alberta, Canada, last week, many questions were raised about the security of Maine’s dairy and beef industry. Hoenig said the tragedy that occurred with BSE in Britain 20 years ago will not happen in Canada nor will it happen in the U.S. because of a number of safeguards now in place.

“Things have changed considerably since the mid ’90s,” Hoenig said, including the international response to the BSE case, which the veterinarian called “way overboard.”

The three most important changes are specialized education of veterinarians, particularly those specializing in large animals, continued testing of suspicious deaths or symptoms and a federal ban on ruminate-derived feed. Since 2000, Hoenig said Maine has tested 13 animals for BSE that have either died under suspicious circumstances or were euthanized after exhibiting symptoms consistent with BSE.

Hoenig said the disease attacks the cow’s central nervous system and is contracted through contaminated feed.

The tests were conducted by a federal laboratory specializing in Mad Cow Disease. All tests were negative.

A risk assessment conducted by Harvard University last year revealed the chances of a U.S. cow contracting BSE are extremely low. “But if we do get a case,” said Hoenig, “the likelihood that it would spread is even lower.”

Hoenig explained that BSE is spread through contaminated feed and not from cow to cow or cow to human. Humans can get the human variant of BSE, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, by eating contaminated beef, but Hoenig said the U.S. beef industry is safe.

Britain had its first confirmed case of BSE in 1986 and did not put a ban on ruminant feed until the mid-1990’s. The ban has been in place in the U.S. since 1997, said Hoenig.

“The big question now is how did that single Canadian cow get the disease?” he said. Hoenig said the BSE cow was at least six years old and was born just prior to the feed ban.

“It is all being sorted out by Canadian and U.S. officials. We have a team up there, and we are going to continue to take a unified approach to future surveillance efforts,” said Hoenig.