(AP)--Texas animal health officials said July 27 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had not contacted them about the latest case of suspected bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

Testing indicated the presence of the disease in a cow that died in April on the farm where it lived, said John Clifford, the federal department's chief veterinarian. The agency would not say where the farm was but Clifford said the animal probably was born in the United States.

The cow was at least 12 years old and died of complications during calving, Clifford said. The department is conducting further tests and is sending a brain tissue sample to the internationally recognized laboratory in Weybridge, England.

That testing follows last month's protocol leading up to the USDA's announcement June 29 that a 12-year-old Brahma-cross beef cow born in Texas was confirmed infected with the nation's first native-born case of the brain-wasting disease.

Neither animal entered the human food or animal feed supply.

The Texas animal and the one being investigated were born before a 1997 ban on feeding cattle protein or bone meal made from other cattle or other ruminants.

The U.S. has had one other case of BSE. A Canadian-born Holstein was confirmed with the disease in December 2003 in Washington state.

News of another possible case surprised Texas Animal Health Commission officials who said they've heard nothing from the USDA about this latest case.

"We have not been informed by the USDA that it is or is not from Texas," commission spokeswoman Carla Everett said. "We haven't been informed of anything."

In last month's case, though, the state's animal health officials were not informed the animal was from Texas until just before the USDA announced the animal's home.

"They give a very short window before they make a public announcement about what state the animal is from," Everett said. "I have no idea where the animal is from."

The USDA suspected in November that the Texas cow was diseased. An initial screening, known as a rapid test, indicated the presence of BSE but more sophisticated follow-up tests were negative.

Troubled by the conflicting results, the USDA's inspector general in early June ordered more thorough testing, and the lab in England concluded the animal had mad cow disease.

Even before the USDA's confirmatory announcement, though, state animal health officials had placed a hold order on the Texas farm, the location of which the USDA still hasn't released. No animals were allowed onto or off the premises.

After the announcement, USDA investigators culled the herd for animals born within a year of the infected cow. Within two weeks, 67 animals were killed and all tested negative for the disease.

The quarantine was lifted July 11, and federal officials began tracing market documents for animals that left the farm.

"We still have our trace efforts going," said Jim Rogers, spokesman for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, an arm of the USDA.

In the latest case, a private veterinarian removed brain tissue for sampling but forgot to send the sample to USDA until this month, Clifford said.

Date: 8/10/05