As for the Alabama case, state and USDA officials are working together to trace the infected cow's origins, said a USDA spokesman, noting that locating a cow's origins requires going through documentation manually, a process that becomes more difficult if a cow has had multiple owners. As of Thursday, the spokesman did not believe the tracking efforts had been completed.

The situation in Alabama does emphasize the need for a national tracking system that can quickly identify cattle exposed to the same BSE-tainted food as the infected cow, said Rick Stott, a director for the U.S. Animal Identification Organization (USAIO). The agribusiness industry-sponsored USAIO is working to get a comprehensive animal tracking database up and running.

"Right now, the Alabama state veterinarian and USDA [are] sifting through a paper trail to try to accomplish what would take a matter of seconds through the system." He expects it will take weeks or months to track the cow's origins.

Stott also said the USAIO expects to wrap up beta testing of its database system as of next week. That effort is one of number of ongoing attempts to implement a NAIS-compliant system.