Today the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed the United State's second case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). UC Davis faculty members have conducted BSE-related research and provided educational programs for a wide variety of consumer, producer and veterinary groups. A highly sensitive livestock feed test aimed at preventing BSE has been developed by UC Davis researchers and is nearing commercialization. And the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory at UC Davis serves as one of seven laboratories throughout the country approved to conduct rapid screening tests as part of the nationwide surveillance for the disease. If you need more help, contact Pat Bailey, News Service, (530) 752-9843, pjbailey@ucdavis.edu.

SECURITY OF FOOD SYSTEMS -- Jerry Gillespie, director of the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security at UC Davis, is a veterinary pathologist with special expertise in the area of food animals and food safety. He is confident that the risk posed by mad cow disease to U.S. consumers is minimal but supports improved management systems for the beef production and processing industries. He was raised on a beef cattle ranch and still manages the family ranches. Before coming to UC Davis, he served as first executive director of the Joint Institute for Food Safety Research, coordinated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Contact: Jerry Gillespie, Western Institute for Food Safety and Security, (530) 757-5757, jrgillespie@wifss.ucdavis.edu. He is available today through Sunday by cell at (530) 867-4394.

PROTECTING AGAINST MAD COW -- James Cullor is a UC Davis veterinary professor and director of the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching and Research Center in Tulare, Calif. (Tulare County is the No. 1 dairy-producing county in the United States.) He is an authority on dairy cattle and dairy farming. Cullor can discuss the biology of mad cow disease/BSE, how it spreads and is controlled, the adequacy of U.S. surveillance programs and the prevention of BSE in large dairy herds. He can also discuss the proportion of dairy cattle in the U.S. beef supply. His research lab developed a quick test that uses DNA forensic techniques to detect the presence in livestock feed of prohibited materials from cows, sheep, goats and deer. The University of California has applied for a patent on the process, and the test should be in commercial use sometime next year. Contact: James Cullor, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, in Tulare at (559) 688-1731 (extension 202), cell (559) 936-0510, jscullor@ucdavis.edu.

CONSUMER ATTITUDES -- Christine Bruhn is a UC Davis food-science marketing specialist, director of the UC Davis Center for Consumer Research and a national expert on consumer attitudes about food. She can discuss the public reaction to mad cow disease/BSE and compare it to other current food-safety concerns, such as irradiated meat and produce, and genetically modified foods. Contact: Christine Bruhn, UC Davis Food Science and Technology, (530) 752-2774, cell (530) 219-2888, cmbruhn@ucdavis.edu.

MODELING MAD COW DISEASE -- Physics professors Daniel Cox and Rajiv Singh use mathematical models to investigate how faulty proteins called prions can cause damage to the brain and nervous system in mad cow and similar diseases. Their work tries to address, at the molecular level, such issues as incubation time, possible treatment strategies and prion strains. Mad cow disease is an example of "emergent behavior," where interactions between large numbers of simple units give rise to complex behavior that is hard to predict from studying individual units. Cox is also chief executive officer of the International Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter (I2CAM), a partnership between UC campuses, national laboratories and European research institutions to investigate emergent behavior. The institute is funded by the National Science Foundation. More information: http://icam.ucop.edu/i2cam.html. Contacts: Daniel Cox, UC Davis Physics, (530) 752-1789, cox@physics.ucdavis.edu, or Rajiv Singh, UC Davis Physics, (530) 752-4710, singh@physics.ucdavis.edu.

FOOD SAFETY -- Dean Cliver, a UC Davis professor of food safety, is a national expert on mad cow disease/BSE. He was a member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's advisory committee on BSE for four years and served on the Institute of Medicine's committee on advancing prion science. Cliver served on an international BSE forum, has met with other scientists from China and Canada, and has lectured in Mexico. He can discuss the security of the U.S. beef supply and regulatory measures to ensure human and animal health. Contact: Dean Cliver, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, (530) 754-9120, docliver@ucdavis.edu.

BEEF CATTLE -- John Maas, a UC Davis Cooperative Extension veterinarian, is a national expert on raising animals for food, particularly for beef. He also has been an active cattle rancher for 35 years. Maas has been to several European countries on a USDA mission to review mad cow disease/BSE diagnosis, testing and control systems. He is a frequent speaker to consumer, beef producer and veterinary groups and to the media. Maas can discuss U.S. cattle-tracking methods and disease-surveillance programs from regulatory, industry and university perspectives. Contact: John Maas, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, (530) 752-3990, jmaas@ucdavis.edu.