The department this week performed additional tests, and one of those three — a Texas beef cow — turned up positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad-cow disease.
Johanns said the department's inspector general had recommended the additional testing, but the secretary did not say why.
Could this be the REASON Bill Hawks Resigned???????? He would have Known that the USDA Inspector General was digging Deep! The The GAO, a watchdog agency for Congress, is checking FDA's claims of near-total compliance with a ban aimed at keeping the protein that causes mad cow from being transmitted through animal feed, said Larry Dyckman, who is heading the congressional investigation.
A draft report by the inspector general of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) says the department's expanded surveillance program for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has several flaws that could lead to unreliable estimates of the prevalence of BSE in American cattle.
The report says the plan is based on some questionable assumptions, does not accurately reflect the geographic distribution of cattle, and does not ensure the testing of all high-risk cattle. In addition, the report says that in the past 2 to 3 years, more than 500 cattle that had possible symptoms of neurologic disease were not tested for BSE.
"The problems disclosed during our review, if not corrected, may negatively impact the effectiveness of USDA's overall BSE surveillance program . . . and reduce the credibility of any assertions regarding the prevalence of BSE in the United States," the 54-page report states.
The USDA's mad cow disease testing program is a sham: it doesn't test many cows showing neurological symptoms, it falsified records of one cow to make sure it received "downer" status, and it doesn't test healthy-looking cattle at all! These are the accusations from the USDA's own inspector general and various Senators who are hammering the USDA for its lackluster practices.
Clearly, there's a rift inside the USDA. The inspector general of the agency is trying to warn the public about what goes on behind closed doors, but the rest of the agency seems to have only one mission: protect the beef industry, not the public.
Here is a link to one such case http://www.usda.gov/oig/webdocs/24601-04-HY.pdf