USDA: 100-percent testing for mad cow disease unnecessary
A group of senior U.S. Department of Agriculture officials told the Japanese government that testing all cattle for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or “mad cow” disease, was neither efficient or effective.
At a Jan. 23 press conference in Japan, Charles Lambert, deputy undersecretary of agriculture for marketing and regulatory programs, said the United States will test “higher risk” animals, such as older cows and cows that have calved. This is the same testing system used in Europe.
Japan began testing 100-percent of its slaughter cows after a case of mad cow disease was discovered there in 2001. The country banned imports of U.S. beef Dec. 23 after the announcement of a mad cow disease case in Washington state.
Lambert tried to assure the Japanese government that the USDA was “moving forward aggressively” to develop a national identification and tracking system for cattle.
The United States is eager to restart shipping beef to Japan. In 2002, the United States exported $1 billion worth of beef to Japan, or about one-third of its total beef exports. U.S. beef accounts for 29 percent of beef consumption in Japan. The United States exports about 9 percent of the national beef production.