In the News: USDA cuts number of cows tested for mad cow disease
Friday July 21, 2006
The US has just announced it will greatly reduce the number of cows it tests annually for mad cow disesase from 700,000 per year to 40,000. With about 37 million head of cattle slaughtered annually, that means that about one-tenth of one percent of animals will now be tested. By comparison, Europe tests every cow that makes it to the age of 2 1/2 years of age, and Japan tests every single cow slaughtered. A USDA representative claims, "There is no significant BSE problem in the United States, and after all of this surveillance, I am able to say there never was." Consumer groups disagree, and suggest that the reason the US has not found mad cow disease is that we have not been looking. Canada has just confirmed it's seventh case of mad cow disease, (and the US continues to import live Canadian cattle) and Japan has found nearly 30 cases over the past several years.
What do you think: Should the US be testing fewer animals for mad cow disease? Is the real reason we aren't finding mad cow in the US when it is showing up elsewhere because we aren't looking? Photo courtesy of goveg.com
Comments
Considering some of the other policies of this administration, this comes as no great surprise. Yet such redundant thinking has run rampant in the past 50 years. For them it’s not a health issue, but governed more by economics. If you disregard logical thought, and base the entire issue on our position in a global trading economy, then placing human life in the background makes perfect sense. It is kind of like the Tobacco industry, they make the product that kills millions, yet won’t use it; hum, I wonder why! Anything goes for a few dollars more, right! If some find it necessary to kill something else to live, their choice I guess, but we should if anything increase the amount of testing. Vote for people with a conscience, who value life more than a buck! There is a novel concept!
Well stated. Clearly, the bottom line is what’s at stake.
My question is: Why is the government absorbing these costs? Shouldn’t the industry be charged with ensuring their food is safe?
I stopped eating cow becasue i felt that the government was not testing enough. Now this. I am now sure that I made the right decision.