[US] EFFORTS TO CONTAIN MAD COW DISEASE FALL SHORT

[Andrew Gach]

>From the Weekly Spin, June 3, 2003

EFFORTS TO CONTAIN MAD COW DISEASE FALL SHORT
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2003-06-02-edit_x.htm
  In 1997 Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber wrote Mad Cow USA, warning
  that that mad cow type diseases were possible in the U.S. Even now,
  in the face of North America's first case of mad cow disease in
  Canada, the powerful livestock industry and their friends in
  government are refusing to adopt the strict British standards
  regarding animal feeding and testing. USA Today editorializes that
  "Lax federal regulation and enforcement have left the U.S. beef
  supply and consumers' health unnecessarily vulnerable to an
  outbreak of mad cow... . ... The 1997 partial ban does not include
  cattle blood, which is fed to calves as a replacement for milk. ...
  A total ban on animal additives in animal feed would greatly reduce
  remaining risks. ... But the cattle industry and the FDA argue that
  a ban on animal products in feed is unnecessary because adequate
  safeguards against mad cow already are in place. ... That argument
  hides the industry's economic incentive to keep low-cost sources of
  animal protein in the diets of cattle."

SOURCE: USA Today, June 2, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
   http://www.prwatch.org/spin/June_2003.html#1054526403