US backs away (moreso!) from mad cow testing and control

Dave Noisy reports that incidents of mad cow disease in the USA testing are likely to decline… if only because several testing centres are shutting down. The state of Washington, for instance, won’t have a local lab as of March 1. While other facilities further away could theoretically take up the slack, this is a part of the USDA’s plan to scale down testing by abuot 90%. Oh, and the plan to introduce a mandatory tracking program so cows can be traced back through multiple moves and sales in the event of an outbreak? That’s going to become a voluntary program. It’s funny how the government never makes, say, income taxes voluntary or self-regulating, but issues of consumer safety tend to be delegated freely. Link.