Government asks court to block wider testing for mad cow

Government asks court to block wider testing for mad cow

news.yahoo.com

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration on Friday urged a federal appeals court to stop meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease, but a skeptical judge questioned whether the government has that authority.

The government seeks to reverse a lower court ruling that allowed Arkansas City, Kan.-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef to conduct more comprehensive testing to satisfy demand from overseas customers in Japan and elsewhere.

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This is outrageous. Why block independant testers from coming in and testing for mad cow disease. This would not interfere with production at all, they are simply afraid of what the results will be.

The agency argues that more widespread testing does not guarantee food safety and could result in a false positive that scares consumers.

My arse! That sounds like an industry spin if I ever heard it.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

From a common sense angle, this doesn't make sense to me. We seem to be finding more cases of Mad Cow every year, so why would the response from the Bush administration be to try and stop testing for it? It makes as much sense as them moving their hoof and mouth test center to the mainland. Sometimes I think they really do want to kill us all.

Larger meatpackers have opposed Creekstone's push to allow wider testing out of fear that consumer pressure would force them to begin testing all animals too. Increased testing would raise the price of meat by a few cents per pound.

Operative word: large meatpackers
I'm glad the government is watching out for my best interests once again. Why, a few cents a pound, good grief!!...if something I use frequently, say gas or medicine, would go up a few cents, it might cause prices in other areas to go up, cause inflation...Thank goodness, nothing I use frequently has gone up a few cents (maybe a few dollars!!) in recent years

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. Three cases of mad cow disease have been discovered in the U.S. since 2003.

How many haven't been discovered?

Oh, yeah, if a cow can be pushed by a forklift, it can't be a Mad Cow.

Originally posted by desert
How many haven't been discovered?

Exactly. The human form of mad cow can stay dormant for up to 40 years (link), so this really isn't a problem for the Bush administration anyway. We may already have a huge rate of infection.