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USDA will cut back its testing for BSE as planned, despite
the discovery of another case in Alabama last week.
John Clifford, USDA's chief veterinary medical officer,
said that the department had been winding down the program,
which tested about 1,000 high-risk cattle per day for the
disease. The program was introduced in 2004, and was meant
to run for 18 months. When Mike Johanns was named secretary
of agriculture, he said he would review the program with
an eye to extending it, but speaking in Europe this week,
he conceded that testing was meant only "to get an idea
of the condition of the herd" and that it will be scaled
back.
However, Congress may have other ideas. Rep. Rosa DeLauro,
D-Mass., has asked that testing be continued at higher levels,
and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said that confidence of trading
partners and domestic beef eaters was at risk if the program
was not extended.
USDA's budget for the coming fiscal year includes money
for only about 40,000 tests per year, or only about 100
a day. That is still about twice as many as were being tested
before the expanded surveillance program was instituted
in the summer of 2004.
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