MAD COW FALLOUT

As the shock waves from "one single cow" (remember when they said that in Japan?) spread across North America, the obvious issue of the United States' pathetic level of BSE testing is being raised in many forums such as USA Today. In a bit of clumsy PR typical of the USDA, the agency was maintaining that the herds that are now quarantined in Canada were never in the US up to this morning - then the story changed to USDA now unsure if affected Canada herds were in US. Meanwhile, Canada hasn't escaped scrutiny, admitting the cow's diseased head sat in a freezer for four months before it was found to be infected, and even checking for a possible CWD link. And in the UK, they're sounding a new alarm about a BSE risk in bones and blood used in other meats, because of the ongoing scandal over hydrolysed beef proteins injected into chicken meat - a cost-cutting practice that, surely, happens only over there across the pond. I know, stop calling you "surely." I got a feeling a lot of things are gonna stop getting called that soon.