Singing: Happy Birthday...Happy Birthday baby...Oh!!....I love you so....Sixteen candles.......Luther Dixon and Allyson Khent

In season: forsythia, Tatoo'd clothing


Food Safety

Japan confirms 11th mad cow case

The Japanese Agriculture Ministry was cited as saying Tuesday that experts had concluded that a 94-month-old Holstein cow in the northern main island of Hokkaido had bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the 11th case in Japan since Sept. 2001. (link from Food Safety Network listserv)


Oregon Governor accuses USDA of poor cooperation during mad cow case

In a letter sent to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman late last week, Oregon governor Ted Kulongoski was cited as accusing the U.S. Department of Agriculture of repeatedly failing to provide state officials with information about BSE, crucial to maintaining consumer confidence.
Kulongoski was cited as writing that 80 per cent of the recalled meat linked to an infected Holstein in Washington state was distributed through two Oregon-based processors,
Wrote, yet, the USDA "made no effort to coordinate with state agriculture officials responsible for the safety of food processed and distributed in Oregon." (link via Food safety network listserv)


Agency increases mad cow testing

The USDA will test more cattle and use a faster method.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is expected to announce as early as this week that it probably will triple the number of cattle that it plans to test this year for mad cow disease.

The agency also plans to license rapid turnaround tests for the deadly disease.

Since the first U.S. case of mad cow was discovered in December in Washington, the USDA has been criticized sharply by consumer advocates and lawmakers for not testing more extensively.


[...]

Screening tests used in Europe and Japan take four to six hours, compared with the two-week turnaround of U.S. testing. The USDA has been accepting applications from testing companies for the past six weeks.

People can contract a version of the brain-wasting disease by eating central nervous system tissue from infected cattle.|link|

A fourteen day turnaround time for a lab sample is a long time compared to a 4 to 6 hour ELISA assay. It doesn't appear that the USDA is up to par with Europe and Japan regarding monitoring our beef supply. Stll eating your McBSE's?