December 6, 2005

USDA completes mad-cow tests on cattle

The USDA has completed mad-cow disease testing program on cattle that appeared completely healthy and found no positive cases, a USDA official said Monday.

USDA's goal was to test 20,000 healthy-looking cattle, but the department stopped after 21,216 were tested.

Ron DeHaven, head of USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said Monday the tests were not meant to have "any statistical significance," but were solely intended to "keep the testing system honest."

Most of the cattle USDA has tested for mad-cow disease are considered to be in a higher risk category for the disease. Those higher-risk cattle are, for example, "downer" animals that are too sick or injured to walk or animals that are dead on arrival at processing plants. Both of the two infected cows found so far in the US have been in that higher-risk category.

Since the USDA began its enhanced surveillance programme on June 1, 2004, 534,879 sick, injured or dead cattle have been tested, according to USDA data.

Senator Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, had pressed the USDA earlier this year to complete the testing on healthy cattle because in Europe "a small but significant number of clinically normal cattle over 30 months of age have been tested positive for mad-cow disease".