Song in my head: Scattered pictures of the smiles we left behind........Barbra Streisand

In season: clematis


USDA to greatly increase mad cow testing

March 15/04
Reuters/AP
WASHINGTON - USDA Chief Veterinarian Ron DeHaven was cited as telling reporters today that the United States plans to significantly boost its testing for mad cow disease to see whether the brain-wasting disease has taken hold in the U.S. cattle population, and that the department wanted to test as many "high risk" cattle as possible in one year as recommended by an international panel of scientists.

The stories say that USDA's announcement goes far beyond the government's original plan to test 40,000 of the 35 million cattle slaughtered this year.

I wonder why they are testing so many more animals.