August and September 2008 Mad Cow News

More cases of BSE will be detected in the UK in the next few decades.

Doctors and scientists have warned that a second wave of CJD cases could sweep Britain over the next two to three decades. The initial outbreak of the fatal brain illness peaked several years ago but could break out again, they argue.
The prediction comes as officials consider ending some of the research projects that were set up to improve understanding of CJD - Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease - and the closely related illness in cows, BSE. Guardian.uk Link

Another Texas company has recalled cattle heads containing specific risk materials (SRM)

Dallas City Packing, Inc., a Dallas, Texas, establishment, is recalling approximately 941,271 pounds of cattle heads with tonsils not completely removed, which is not compliant with regulations that require the removal of tonsils from cattle of all ages, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced today.
Tonsils are considered a specified risk material (SRM) and must be removed from cattle of all ages in accordance with FSIS regulations. SRMs are tissues that are known to contain the infective agent in cattle infected with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), as well as materials that are closely associated with these potentially infective tissues. Therefore, FSIS prohibits SRMs from use as human food to minimize potential human exposure to the BSE agent. USDA Link

Banned beef shipments to Japan cause meat plant inspections.

Japan is to begin inspection at US meatpacking plants this weekend after Washington concluded that human and computer error caused recent shipments of banned beef to Japan, news reports said on Saturday. AFP Link

A proposed rule change will affect downer cows in the US food chain...finally.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced a proposed rule to amend the Federal meat inspection regulations to initiate a complete ban on the slaughter of cattle that become non-ambulatory after initial inspection by Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) inspection program personnel.
This proposed rule follows the May 20 announcement by Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer to remove the provision that states that FSIS inspection program will determine the disposition of cattle that become non-ambulatory disabled after they have passed ante-mortem, before slaughter, inspection on a case-by-case basis. Under the proposed rule, all cattle that are non-ambulatory disabled at any time prior to slaughter, including those that become non-ambulatory disabled after passing ante-mortem inspection, will be condemned and properly disposed of. USDA Link

How has mad cow disease affected European sperm banks?

When Julie Peterson decided to have a baby on her own two years ago, she picked a tall, blond, blue-eyed Danish engineer as a sperm donor to match her own Scandinavian heritage. But when she went back to the sperm bank to use the same donor to have another child, she was stunned to discover that the federal government had made it impossible. Wa Po Link

And this is just bullshit. If a company wants to test all its cattle why shouldn't they...

The Bush administration can prohibit meat packers from testing their animals for mad cow disease, a federal appeals court said Friday. Yahoo News Link