‘Mad cow disease” is back in the news after it was discovered recently in a California dairy cow.

But experts say the public doesn’t need to worry. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in its official statement,. says the cow “at no time presented a risk to the food supply or human health. Additionally, milk does not transmit BSE,” the official name for the disease.

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy is a degenerative neurological disease of cattle that builds up in the central nervous system and eventually kills nerve cells. It spreads through some kinds of cattle feed ingredients, which have banned since 1997.

Both the World Organisation for World Health and modeling experts at Harvard’s Center for Risk Analysis say BSE isn’t an animal or public health risk in the United States, according to information on www.bseinfo.org., which is associated with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

USDA also provides online information on the disease, available at www.usda.gov/bse.