US authorities have announced they will slaughter 450 calves that could be linked to the country's first case of mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy).
One of the calves is the offspring of the cow found to have the disease, which scientists have connected to a fatal brain-wasting disease in humans.
The calves, all males and barely one month old, are being held on a farm in Mattawa, Washington, a US Department of Agriculture spokesman said.
"One of them is the offspring of the mad cow that was discovered in Washington state," the spokesman explained. The first US case of BSE was found in the state last month.
He said the emergency measure was considered the quickest and safest way of isolating a potential spread of BSE.
The department's chief veterinarian, Ron DeHaven, told a briefing the calves would be taken to an abattoir this week. He said the slaughter facility was not in current use and that the slaughter would be done in a humane manner.
He said animal safety experts would be on hand to oversee the slaughter, but he declined to reveal other details.
He said the animals were unlikely to be BSE carriers, and that incineration was unlikely.
However, the government official stressed that "none of the materials from those animals will either go into the human food chain nor will they go into a rendered product".
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