Baucus D-MT calls for independent mad cow probe before reopening border

[Ediacara]

Baucus calls for independent mad cow probe before reopening border

Associated Press

HELENA - The United States should not reopen its border to live Canadian cattle imports until the investigative arm of Congress conducts its own investigation into Canada's handling of mad cow cases there, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said Tuesday.

Baucus' call for an independent investigation by the General Accounting Office comes one day before the U.S. Department of Agriculture closes its comment period on a proposal to reopen the border to cattle younger than 30 months of age.

Baucus said he has asked the GAO to examine the actions the Canadian government and cattle industry have undertaken to guard against another case of mad cow there.

"The decision to reopen the border with Canada needs to be based on sound science," Baucus said in a written statement. "At this point I don't think the public has the information to be able to determine if the sound science is there."

More at the Billings Gazette

[lapfog_1]

1. Mad cow

Lost in the madness that is todays news...

Wasn't there a story about someone identifying a cluster of
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease which has been linked to a race track
somewhere in the US? Anyone have details? I'm guessing that
it's the resturant at the race track and likely one shipment of
beef to that resturant, but since we don't test for mad cow...
For those somewhat confused, CJ is often the misdiagnosis
for Mad Cow.

Also, it can take like 5 years before any symptoms of Mad Cow
show up.

Proper cooking does nothing for Mad Cow, and proper slaughter can
help but it isn't that big of help, and of course, automated
slaughter can be the worst.


Speaking of those things lost in the news of the day... I wanted
to start a thread on Ken Starr and his long awaited award from
Vast Right Wing Consipirator in Chief (VRWCIC) Richard Mellon
Scaife... Starr finally got to be dean of Pepperdine Law School,
which is what was promised to him if he would do the hatchet job
on Clinton... but they had to delay it a few years because of the
political stink it caused the first time they tried to reward him.

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/04/27/scaife.profil... /

[undergroundpanther]

3. a good source for mad cow info

http://www.unknownnews.net/madcow.html

[DeepModem Mom]

2. American beef is not being adequately tested --

I think we should be aware of the risk if we eat it.

[mobuto]

4. Baucus is just pandering

to Montana cattlemen, which is a perfectly normal thing for a Senator to do. But the fact is, neither the US nor Canada is doing even remotely enough to identify the scope of the BSE problem, let alone find a solution.