US plans to scale back mad cow testing

US plans to scale back mad cow testing
Laws & Politics
US plans to scale back mad cow testing
By Sue Mueller
Mar 15, 2006, 10:28

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has considered scaling back the enhanced national BSE testing program, which resulted in the discovery of the third US case of mad cow disease. The US Chief Veterinary Officer John Clifford indicated such a move in his announcement.

The reason may be this: the enhanced BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) testing program has been not intended as a measure to prevent mad cow disease. Rather, it is designed to survey the prevalence of mad cow disease, according to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), an agency of the USDA.

'Testing is not a food safety measure. Rather, it's a way to find out the prevalence of the disease,' The associated Press said, citing Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns who was at a trade meeting Monday in Warsaw, Poland.

The BSE testing program, part of the BSE surveillance plan, was initiated in March, 2004 to respond to the possible high risk of mad cow disease in the US after the first case of mad cow was discovered in December 2003. The goal of the plan is to test as many cattle in the targeted high risk population as possible in a 12-18 month period, APHIS states.

Under this program, 1000 cows at high risk are tested daily compared with 55 per day in 2003. The Department of Agriculture intends to call for a budget that supports 110 tests a day, according to the AP.

Reduction in the testing would lower the odds of discovering new cases in the US as APHIS acknowledges that more cases of mad cow disease should be expected when the enhanced testing program remains in place.

The testing program does not test all cows, but only those at a higher risk of mad cow disease. Cows at high risk include dead cows; non-ambulatory cattle or downers who can't walk into the slaughterhouse; cattle showing signs of a central nervous system disorder, or other signs associated with BSE. So far, more than 650,000 cows, a small fraction of the total cows slaughtered, have been tested for mad cow disease."