US Fails to Adequately Test Cattle for Mad Cow Disease

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A USDA-funded study by the industry-supported Harvard Center for Risk Analysis concludes that British mad cow disease is "very unlikely" to be a problem in the US. Unfortunately the study is seriously flawed because it is based on computer modeling, not real world testing. The US refuses to conduct an adequate number of tests on cattle to determine if British BSE exists in the US. Dr. John Collinge, a British BSE researcher, says that "after mandatory testing ... countries that denied it vehemently discovered they did have the disease." Dr. Thomas Pringle, the US biochemist who started a consumer website on mad cow-type diseases, notes that adequate testing is "the only true way to find out if your herds have the disease. But let's face it, no country wants to find the disease." Especially the US, the world's largest meat producer, whose 'BSE-free' claims give it a big edge in the global meat market. Download a free PDF copy of our 1997 book Mad Cow USA for a full dissection of industry and government spin surrounding this issue.