USDA bars mad cow testing.

USA Today: The USDA has refused to let a Kansas beef producer test their cattle for mad cow disease. Lest there be any question that the meatpacking industry is both powerful and stupid. Little known fact: the feds have the power to compel manufacturers to recall consumer goods for being unsafe…other than meat.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

2 replies on “USDA bars mad cow testing.”

  1. That’s just dumb. Especially with the news out in June about a New Strain of Mad Cow disease that isn’t tied to eating beef.

    From the USA today article:

    The only two cases of mad cow in U.S.-born cattle, found in Texas and Alabama, were a different form of the disease than the strain commonly found in Europe, French prion researcher Thierry Baron told scientists at a meeting in London in May.

    Baron believes it is likely that the two U.S. cases — and at least five others found in France, Italy and Germany — occurred in a way that is strongly reminiscent of the most common human form of the disease, which is also not blamed on a contaminant. More research is necessary to know for certain, Baron said in an e-mail sent last week to USA TODAY.

    If it can appear out of thin air to infect cattle as it does humans, “we may never be able to get rid of the disease,” says Jean-Philippe Deslys, central coordinator of NeuroPrion, the network that coordinates European prion researchers.

    What the beef industry is doing should be criminal.

  2. woops!

    That isn’t tied to eating beef…

    Should read:

    “that isn’t tied to feed.”

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