Second case of Canadian BSE

Ouch... There was the case in Washington last year where it was found the cow came from Canada. There was another case of BSE found in Canada and now, a third one has been found. Here's the story from Canadian Press: bq. New case of mad cow confirmed, U.S. to send team to investigate Federal officials have confirmed Canada's second case of mad cow disease in 10 days - a development that could threaten U.S. plans to reopen the border to Canadian beef. bq. They say it's no threat to human health, but unlike the case confirmed last week, this infected cow was born after feed precautions were put in place in 1997 to prevent further spread of the disease. bq. That has U.S. agriculture authorities concerned; they are sending a team to Canada to evaluate the case before deciding whether to change their plan to resume the cross-border cattle trade. The feed ban has been criticized by some as to small -- from the same article: bq. "This is a complete disaster," said Shiv Chopra, one of three Health Canada scientists fired last year after denouncing the 1997 feed restrictions as inadequate. bq. "What does it take to stop feeding animals to animals?" bq. The 1997 rules banned cattle meat-bone meal from cattle feed but allowed the continued use of cattle blood, milk, and gelatin and parts from other animals such as pigs and horses. bq. "They're still feeding cows to cows and lies to the public," said Mike McBane of the Canadian Health Coalition. A hard one to call. Jen and I prefer to eat organic meat whenever possible (or meat from good restaurants, not Mickey D's). Already lost enough little grey cells, don't want to catch Creutzfeldt-Jakob. Still, the odds of this happening are very small (probably less than winning big in the lottery) and there is enough public focus on this now so biotech companies will develop a good cheap quick field test for BSE.