Wichita ? A suspected new case of mad cow disease does not involve a Kansas animal, the state’s top animal health regulator said Monday.

Kansas Animal Health Commissioner George Teagarden said the animal could not have been from Kansas since he has received no official word from the Agricultural Department about the case.

Under the federal Agricultural Department’s protocol, Teagarden would have been notified had the animal detected in a preliminary screening for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, came from Kansas.

“I’m in the dark,” Teagarden said. “In fact, I got my first information through the news media.”

The Agriculture Department said Friday it would not identify the animal, the state it came from or the facility in which it was killed until more exacting tests were complete. Follow-up testing could take four to seven days.

Kansas — the nation’s second-largest beef producer — tested 150 animals for BSE last year. It is supposed to test 7,000 animals during the next 12-18 months as part of an expanded program, but the final figure is likely to be closer to 5,000 because livestock in the state’s northern counties will go to Nebraska for testing.

As of Monday, 96 animals from Kansas had been tested since the expanded program began June 1, said Kevin Varner, the veterinarian in charge of the Kansas BSE-testing program.

Teagarden did not have any more updated numbers, but said the Agriculture Department was still negotiating with rendering plants in the state to obtain brain samples needed for testing some of the high-risk animals the agency has targeted.

While Kansas is doing some testing for mad cow, the program is still not at full speed in part because the Agriculture Department has not yet approved a testing program for Kansas, Teagarden said.