US does NOT test all cattle for Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) - mad cow disease.

[Guest guest]

The USDA is therefore somewhat ambivalent about bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), which beef producers prefer to call "mad cow disease." Sounds harmless, doesn't it -- the notion of Bessie stamping her foot and mooing loudly? It's not funny. BSE is an invariably fatal degenerative brain disease. Two infected animals have now been found in the U.S. -- the latest one http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/mad_cow_usda.html discovered only because the USDA's Inspector General stepped in and insisted that additional tests be performed on a specimen that had already slipped through. This lets the politicans at USDA boast about how the system is working -- but in fact, the system didn't work and the contaminated specimen was identified only becauase the Inspector General intervened. USDA is busy assuring consumers and foreign markets that all is well and cattlemen are writing angry letters to the media but the fact remains -- BSE is in the United States and most consumer groups contend that the only way to eradicate is to scrap USDA's honor system, which relies on spot-checks, and begin testing every steer and dairy cow http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/mad_cow_cu2.html. Canada tests all its cattle. We could too ... if we wanted to.