March 9, 2004

USDA To Triple Mad Cow Testing

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is expected to announce as early as this week that it probably will triple the number of cattle it plans to test this year for mad cow disease.

Since the first U.S. case of mad cow was discovered in December in Washington state, the USDA has been sharply criticized by consumer advocates and lawmakers for not testing more extensively.

The agency tested about 20,000 cattle in 2002 and 2003. After a single case of mad cow case was discovered in Canada in May, testing was scheduled to be stepped up to 40,000 cows.

Now as many as 120,000 and perhaps more of the 35 million cattle slaughtered each year will be tested. The agency is working to expand laboratories and diagnostic networks to handle the tests.

Critics have pointed to Europe and Japan, which have long struggled with mad cow outbreaks, as countries that test aggressively. Europe tests every cow over the age of 30 months, and Japan tests every cow that is slaughtered.

In their defense, U.S. officials have noted that the testing system was based for more than 14 years on the presumption that bovine spongiform encephalopathy - the scientific name for mad cow disease - does not exist in the USA.

USDA officials also report that a major shift in policy will be the introduction of much faster tests for mad cow. Such tests already are used in Europe and Japan.

The only test now approved for U.S. use is a complex chemical one that takes up to two weeks to produce results. Screening tests used in Europe and Japan take only four to six hours. The USDA is accepting licensing applications from testing companies for rapid turn-around tests for the deadly disease.

People can contract a version of the brain-wasting disease by eating central nervous system tissue from infected cattle. The human form has no cure. An outbreak that began in England in the 1980s has killed at least 150 people.