MAD COW DISEASE

29 in sick cow's herd test negative for mad cow Twenty-nine cattle screened for mad cow disease tested negative, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today. No further tests are required on those animals, USDA spokesman Jim Rogers said. The department also said today that 38 other animals were being screened for mad cow and that those results are still pending. The animals must be killed before they can be screened because officials run tests on brain samples from the animals. The tests on the 67 cattle are part of the department's ongoing investigation into a recently confirmed case of mad cow disease in a Texas beef cow....
USDA under fire over BSE case in Texas Consumers may not know what to make of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s handling of the Texas cow stricken with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, but some of the nation’s major newspapers in their editorial columns are blasting USDA bumbling. The editorial ink began flowing on this side of the Pacific last week, four weeks after the USDA announced that an internal investigation prompted retesting of brain tissue, resulting in the June 24 confirmation of the first native-born BSE case. “The more federal officials downplay mad cow disease, the scarier things get,” said a Los Angeles Times editorial beneath the headline “Mad beef policy.” Clifford said the BSE cow was born on the ranch and remained there until sent to auction. That narrows the search for possible feedstuff contaminated with the BSE-causing agent, but gives Food and Drug Administration investigators a trail more than 10 years old. At midweek, FDA had nothing to report on that part of the investigation. There are also said to be “spontaneous” cases of BSE at a rate of about one in every 1 million head of cattle....
U.S. Treasury Secretary expects border to re-open to Canadian cattle The U.S. government expects to be successful next week in overturning a lower court ruling that has delayed its plans to reopen the border to live Canadian cattle. U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said Saturday that the four month-old injunction preventing the border from reopening was "ill considered" and not based on scientific facts. "We're pressing hard, the Justice Department is appealing that injunction seeking to get that injunction removed, and I trust that we'll be successful in those efforts," Snow said in Calgary at the end of two days of bilateral trade talks between top finance officials in Canada and the U.S. The appeal is slated for July 13 in Seattle and will be followed "very, very closely" by the Canadian government, federal Finance Minister Ralph Goodale said Saturday....
New Zealand lifts ban on Canadian beef Agriculture Minister Andy Mitchell said New Zealand is immediately lifting all its mad-cow-related restrictions on Canadian beef. He said New Zealand food safety authorities have acknowledged the safety of Canadian beef with respect to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. It's the 15th country to resume beef trading since borders were closed in May of 2003, when a single case of mad-cow disease was discovered in the country...

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