In December 2003 a Holstein dairy cow in Washington State tested positive for BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease), the first case discovered in the United States and the second native case in North America. (Canada confirmed a third and then a fourth case in early January 2005.) The U.S. BSE cow and the first two Canadian cows were born in Canada, before both countries banned, in 1997, the practice of feeding most ruminant material back to ruminants, including cattle. The latest Canadian case was in a cow born in March 1998.