Ignorance is bliss

Or apparently that is what the Bush Administration feels about the general public.
According to the following article, a small meatpacking company wants to tests each beef critter that comes through their slaughterhouse for Mad Cow Disease. Or rather, each carcass.

The USDA is blocking that. ONly 1% of slaughtered cattle are currently tested for the disease. The Bush Adminstration claims that is because it is so rare-the disease, not the steak.

The rationale is that if one company test all their beef, the larger slaughterhouses will feel compelled to do the same..aw shucks.

Records show that no humans have died of the disease in the US, but I have spoken with several people who claim to have known people that have died with all the symptoms of mad cow...hmmm...no mad cow disease in the US-no Golden Eagles in Maine-no Climate change-sound familiar?

Here's the article:


Court: US can block meat packer from testing its cattle for mad cow disease
By MATT APUZZOAssociated Press Writer
(AP) 01:42:47 PM (ET), Friday, August 29, 2008 (WASHINGTON)
The Bush administration can prohibit meat packers from testing their animals for mad cow disease, a federal appeals court said Friday.
The dispute pits the Agriculture Department, which tests about 1 percent of cows for the potentially deadly disease, against a Kansas meat packer that wants to test all its animals.
Larger meat packers opposed such testing. If Creekstone Farms Premium Beef began advertising that its cows have all been tested, other companies fear they too will have to conduct the expensive tests.
The Bush administration says the low level of testing reflects the rareness of the disease. Mad cow disease has been linked to more than 150 human deaths worldwide, mostly in Great Britain. Only three cases have been reported in the U.S., all involving cows, not humans.
A federal judge ruled last year that Creekstone must be allowed to conduct the test because the Agriculture Department can only regulate disease "treatment." Since there is no cure for mad cow disease and the test is performed on dead animals, the judge ruled, the test is not a treatment.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned that ruling, saying diagnosis can be considered part of treatment.
"And we owe USDA a considerable degree of deference in its interpretation of the term," Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson wrote.
The case was sent back to the district court, where Creekstone can make other arguments.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.