Testing Like Mad

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture, "under fire for the way it has handled the discovery of mad cow disease [4]" in the U.S., announced plans to test hundreds of thousands of cattle over a 12 to 18 month period. USDA Chief Veterinary Officer Ron DeHaven [5] indicated the goal was 201,000 to 268,000 cattle, but later admitted: "For me to predict how many samples we will be able to collect in a new program that we don't have any experience from would simply be a wild guess." Japanese officials said the new testing was not sufficient to lift their ban on U.S. beef. In Britain, "a sensible precautionary measure" was passed blocking anyone who received a transfusion since 1980 from donating blood [6]. In December, a death from vCJD, the human form of mad cow disease, was traced to an infected blood donor.