Mad cow disease may be taking down our beef industry one cow at a time

A recent ?report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) in accordance with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Consumer Federation of America, claims that special interest lobbying groups persuaded federal agencies to prevent safety regulation reforms from being finalized, regulations which would have secured cattle populations from bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), known as mad cow disease. “These reforms would regulate cattle feed and introduce a nationwide animal identification system similar to the one used in Canada to track cattle.”

There have been three cases of mad cow in the United States, causing fear that the foreign markets for American meat may soon be closed, as the Japanese market has been for a while. “”We don’t need another mad cow to tell us how weak the United States’ cattle tracking system is,? said CSPI food safety director Caroline Smith DeWaal. Critics charge that Canada has enacted much more effective measures to identify and contain diseased animals, and argue that the main reason for this is the closeness of high agriculture officials in the Bush administration to the beef industry.

-read more in CSPI’s report; and find more information about the animal ID system at this page ?