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TORONTO (CP) - A leading medical journal has published a disturbing theory on the origins of mad cow disease, suggesting it may have developed because human remains from the Indian subcontinent were mixed into cattle feed in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s. The authors say the practice may still be taking place elsewhere, adding it is important to discover whether other countries are importing animal byproducts contaminated with human remains that are destined for feed mills. Canada's leading expert on transmissible spongiform encephalopathies - as mad cow and its sister diseases are called - says the unsettling hypothesis may...

A leading medical journal has published a disturbing theory on the origins of mad cow disease, suggesting it may have developed because human remains from the Indian subcontinent were mixed into cattle feed in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s. The authors say the practice may still be taking place elsewhere, adding it is important to discover whether other countries are importing animal byproducts contaminated with human remains that are destined for feed mills. Canada's leading expert on transmissible spongiform encephalopathies - as mad cow and its sister diseases are called - says the unsettling hypothesis may be accurate....

 (Billings, Mont.) – R-CALF USA expressed disappointment with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS) proposed rule titled “Importation of Whole Cuts of Boneless Beef from Japan,” published in Thursday’s Federal Register (70 Fed. Reg. 48,494) to amend the agency’s regulation for the importation of meat and other edible animal products that would allow Japan to export boneless cuts of beef to the United States.    “This is another example of the USDA tilting the playing field away from independent U.S. cattle producers by continuing to give market access before we gain market access,” said R-CALF...

WASHINGTON (CP) - U.S. Agriculture Secretary Michael Johanns took immediate steps to reopen the border to Canadian cattle late Thursday after a federal appeals court dismissed arguments that imports could spread mad cow disease. American officials have already been in contact with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to prepare certifying cattle for shipment, said Johanns. Canadian officials expected trucks to roll next week to take cows south for the first time since May 2003 when Canada discovered its first case of mad cow. The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was released...

U.S. border reopened to Canadian cattle Last Updated Thu, 14 Jul 2005 21:36:28 EDT CBC News The American border is "immediately" open to Canadian cattle following a court decision that overturned a temporary injunction banning their importation because of fears of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease. "The ruling is effective immediately, we are immediately taking steps to resume the importation of cattle under 30 months of age from Canada," said Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns in a late night statement. The decision by the three-judge panel of the federal appeals court was released a day after...

McKenna blasts American ranchers group after homegrown mad cow caseBeth Gorham July 1, 2005 WASHINGTON (CP) - It's "hypocritical in the extreme" for a "very selfish" U.S. ranching group to keep blocking Canadian cattle when Americans now have a homegrown case of mad cow disease, Ambassador Frank McKenna said Friday. "The logic is so overwhelming that I find it difficult to imagine that this border won't be reopened," he said during a Canada Day interview in his office with a stunning view of Capitol Hill. McKenna, now four months into the job as Canada's top envoy to the United States,...

FOR the first time, an animal born in the United States has been determined to have mad cow disease. Although authorities insist the public is not at risk, it's a concern because the U.S. Department of Agriculture has admitted mistakes and oversights in testing the animal, believed to have originated in Texas. This is a wake-up call for the agency to mend its shortcomings to ensure that no infected beef reaches public food supplies. It's refreshing that USDA Secretary Mike Johanns is owning up to mistakes and is taking criticism instead of trying to dodge it. That would be difficult...

Although the Agriculture Department confirmed Friday that a cow that died last year was infected with mad cow disease, a test the agency conducted seven months ago indicated that the animal had the disease. The result was never publicly disclosed. The delay in confirming the United States' second case of mad cow disease seems to underscore what critics of the agency have said for a long time: that there are serious and systemic problems in the way the Agriculture Department tests animals for mad cow. Indeed, the lengthy delay occurred despite the intense national interest in the disease and the...

Substantial changes in the nation's mad cow testing system were ordered yesterday after British tests on a cow slaughtered in November confirmed that it had the disease even though the American "gold standard" test said it did not. "The protocol we developed just a few years ago to conduct the tests might not be the best option today," Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said in making the announcement. "Science is ever evolving." At an afternoon news conference in Washington, Mr. Johanns described serious errors in the testing in the United States on the animal, the second one found with mad cow...

A new case of Mad Cow disease has been reported by the Dept.of Agriculture in the U.S....BREAKING.......

A former American government packing plant veterinarian says the United States government is hiding cases of mad cow disease. American Records Are Not Credible, Former Plant Veterinarian Says Dr. Lester Friedlander said Wednesday that colleagues with the United States Department of Agriculture have told him of cases that the USDA has chosen not to announce. Friedlander, who has been invited to speak to Parliament's agriculture committee next week on proposed changes to Canadian inspection legislation, refused to give details. He said the USDA employees are close to retirement and risk losing their pensions. He has previously spoken out, however, about...

WASHINGTON, March 17, 2005-The U.S. Department of Justice, on behalf of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, today filed a request with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit asking that the court overturn the decision issued by the U.S. District Court in Montana that granted a preliminary injunction to delay the implementation of USDA's minimal-risk regions rule, which would re-establish trade with Canada for beef products and live cattle under 30 months of age. USDA's rule is the product of a multi-year, deliberative, transparent and science-based process to ensure that human and animal health are fully protected. We...

"Blue Tongue", a bullfighting equivalent to Mad Cow in Canada, has descended, out of the blue on Pamplona, home of the annual Bull Run. In what breeders lament is their worst crisis in a century, some 65 percent of Spain’s bull-breeding farms are affected by the blue tongue virus, which is transmitted by mosquitoes. Looks like Pamplona bulls won’t be standing let alone running by this July’s bull run. The new millennium seems to have ushered in the Century of the Rare Virus. Bypassing acres of swampland, the mosquito-borne West Nile disease showed up in, of all places, New York...

R-CALF Goes Closer to Edge So how did your paper report the preliminary injunction R-CALF won against USDA's Final Rule on Canada? Rancher's Group Opposed to All Imports Wins Injunction in Court USDA-Hating Rancher's Group Wins Injunction R-CALF Wins Round in Turf War With USDA Using Consumers As Pawns in Import War, R-CALF Wins A Round R- CALF Throws Everything Up Against the Wall To See What Judge Will Believe R-CALF Demonstrates Allegations, Exaggerations and Half-Truths All Is Necessary to File Lawsuit I didn't think so. Here's what the papers did say: "A federal judge in Montana granted a livestock...

R-CALF placed a half-page lobby-type ad in today's Washington Post, thanking the U.S. Senate for passing a resolution (52-46) that would, if it passed the House and was signed into law by President Bush (both unlikely events) do what a district court judge in Billings, Montana (Judge Richard Cebull) has already helped R-CALF accomplish: maintain the closure of the U.S.-Canadian border to live cattle under 30 months of age. The ad urges the House of Representatives to support the resolution of disapproval "against USDA's weakening of U.S. import standards." The ad was paid for by the Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal...

One single cow. That’s all it took for the ultimate loss of an estimated $7 billion to the beleaguered, over-regimented by government Canadian cattle industry. There were no Sherlock Holmes-type detectives out on the hunt trying to find out how the sick cow showed up one day in land-vast Canada. A long-term, proud Canadian tradition, the once thriving cattle industry, was plunged into crisis by the discovery of a single infected cow. The clues of the Canadian Mad Cow Mystery are worth at least a serious look: In May of 2003, an Alberta Black Angus with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE),...

Canada's cattle industry suffered another blow Thursday after American senators voted to quash the U.S. department of agriculture's policy to reopen the border to Canadian beef next week. Despite the Senate's 52-46 vote, the White House said U.S. President George W. Bush would veto the measure if it ever reaches his desk. Bush favours the reopening of the border. The U.S. banned Canadian cattle imports in May 2003 when mad cow disease was discovered in a Canadian cow. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said he was disappointed with the Senate vote. "Today's action undermines the U.S. efforts to promote science-based...

The country's beef producers were stunned Wednesday by yet another setback as an American judge agreed to postpone the opening of the Canada-U.S. border to Canadian cattle due to continuing fears about mad cow disease. "It's a disaster for our industry again," feedlot operator Rick Paskal said from Picture Butte, Alta. "This is a black, black day for the livestock industry in North America." The U.S. Department of Agriculture had planned to reopen the border Monday. No live cattle have crossed for almost 22 months. The first thing I thought of when I heard Paul Martin say that we...

A French goat has tested positive for mad cow disease - the first animal in the world other than a cow to have bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The European Commission says further testing will be done to see if the incidence is an isolated one. The animal, which was slaughtered in 2002, was initially thought to have scrapie, a similar brain-wasting condition sometimes seen in goats. But British scientists have now confirmed the disease was in fact BSE. More than 100 people in the UK have died from vCJD (variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease), the human form of BSE, after eating tainted...

A goat slaughtered in France in 2002 has tested positive for "mad cow" disease, French and EU officials said, announcing the first case in the world of an animal other than a bovine coming down with the fatal illness that can be transmitted to humans. The discovery of the disease -- known scientifically as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cows -- is a disturbing sign that it can cross over to other species used for human consumption. The presence of BSE in other animals had been viewed as theoretically possible but has never previously been detected. BSE has been linked...