Another mad cow has been found in the US.
Oh, wait. That’s not the right link. Try this one .
The United States has what may be its first homegrown case of mad cow disease, confirmed a full seven months after officials first suspected the animal might be infected.
Despite the delay in reliable results, the government says the food safeguards are working well.
“The fact that this animal was blocked from entering the food supply tells us that our safeguards are working exactly as they should,” Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said during a news conference Friday.
Still, the emergence of a native-born case could cast a shadow over the nation’s 96 million cattle, the largest herd in the world.
The shadow has already been cast , and those who are paying attention have seen it for years.
“The mad cow testing and cattle feed regulations in the United States are simply a sham,” said Ronnie Cummins, National Director of the Organic Consumers Association. “The USDA has never disclosed how the relatively small number of U.S. cattle tested are actually chosen. The United States refuses to conduct the food safety testing for mad cow disease that protects consumers in the European Union and Japan, which would require testing millions of U.S. cattle each year. The USDA has also declared it is criminal for any private U.S. meat plants or beef producers to test their own animals for mad cow disease. In effect, the USDA is covering up mad cow in the United States through secretive, inadequate testing and a lack of transparency.”
Also see:
Mad Cow ‘Firewalls’ Just a Smokescreen
Mad Cow Disease Regulation Fails to Protect U.S. Food Supply