NEWS: (UPI) No Mad Cow Testing in Washington!

link: www.UPI.com UPI Exclusive: No mad cow tests in Wash. WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- Federal agriculture officials did not test any commercial cattle for mad cow disease through the first seven months of 2003 in Washington state -- where the first U.S. case of the disease was detected last month -- according to records obtained by United Press International. By Steve Mitchell United Press International Published 1/15/2004 2:46 PM The U.S. Department of Agriculture's records of mad cow screenings, conducted on 35,000 animals between 2001 to 2003, also reveal no animals were tested for the past two years at Vern's Moses Lake Meats, the Washington slaughterhouse where the mad cow case was first detected. So now the question will be... is there a cover-up, or just stupidity?

Sounds like they're covering up their own stupidity.

Well, I think this is a case of the media making a bigger issue of this for the ratings. Lets look at some other facts not brought to light...

After a single case of BSE was found in an Alberta cow in May 2003, the province, which produces 70% of Canada's beef, said it would spend $15 million to test up to 25,000 animals. Alberta had tested 849 cows in 2002.

According to the USDA's chief veterinarian, more than 20,000 animals have been tested for BSE in the U.S. in each of the last two years.

What the media is not saying is that the testing is targeted to cows that exhibit symptoms of a disorder of the central nervous system. The USDA testing used a large enough sample that even if mad cow were in one in a million cows, they would find it.

USDA veterinarians always inspect "downers", cows that can't walk, for signs of nervous system disorders. Inspectors found 130 "downers" with such disorders last year and all were tested for mad cow...all negative.

Testing 20,000 animals in a country with nearly 100 million head of cattle, 35 million of which are killed every year, pales in comparison to Japan. That country tests every one of the 1.3 million cows it slaughters each year. After an investigation, Japan mandated BSE screening for every cow destined for human consumption.

But testing 100% of the cows has come at a high price for Japan. In the first two years, the country has spent $65 million US on equipping 120 inspection centers with testing equipment and increasing the number of inspectors. Recalling any suspected meat and/or destroying cattle has cost millions more.

Testing all the cows slaughtered in the U.S. would be prohibitively expensive and possibly unnecessary.