Posted: Monday, July 11, 2005 12:00 am
If you/ve seen grim videos from the British countryside showing a cow in the final stages of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, it/s a safe bet you want nothing to do with mad cow disease.
The animals can/t stay upright, but they continue to try. They stumble and fall, their eyes unfocused and foam bubbling from their mouths. Their bodies shake uncontrollably. It/s an ugly way to die.
Perhaps if more officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture had seen such images, they would not have been so quick to dismiss evidence of a second domestic case of mad cow disease last November.
Instead, USDA officials bungled a test on the infected animal, which at the time was too ill to walk. Even though the animal tested positive, USDA officials interpreted the evidence as inconclusive. Only later, after the USDA/s inspector general demanded more definitive testing, was the original diagnosis of mad cow disease confirmed.
But that came seven months after the diseased animal was first reported to federal officials.
During that period, USDA Secretary Mike Johanns played into the hands of the beef industry not only by saying that more testing wasn/t necessary, but also by failing to insist that the origin of the sick cow be traced.
The USDA eventually made up for its own deficiencies with complete testing, which discovered the cow was from a Texas herd, making it this country/s first case of home-grown mad cow disease.
Two cases of mad cow disease should not foment panic. More disturbing is the USDA/s cavalier attitude about this issue.
July 11, 2005