(Reuters) – The U.S. Agriculture Department said on Friday it has been asked by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to outline events leading up its announcement this week of a new case of mad cow disease, rumors of which roiled cattle markets before information was released.
Cattle futures fell the daily permitted maximum before the fourth case since 2003 of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), known as mad cow disease, was formally announced by the USDA on Tuesday.
Rumors were prevalent among cattle traders and futures prices plunged 3 cents per lb running up to Tuesday’s USDA press conference, which began at 2:15 p.m. ET (1815 GMT).
“CFTC reached out to USDA with questions on the BSE announcement timeline for their routine market analysis,” said USDA in a statement.
While there are no rules barring insider trading in commodities markets, the CFTC has checked for market improprieties in at least two previous cases involving the release of information from the USDA.
A CFTC spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
The brain-wasting disease was found in an elderly dairy cow from a dairy farm in Tulare County, California, according to the USDA. It was 10 years, seven months old and became lame before it was killed and the carcass tested for mad cow when it was hauled to a rendering plant.
Source: Reuters
Posted by Haylie Shipp
