NOVEMBER MAD COW TEST SKIPPED

Turns out that mad cow back in November, that was supposedly cleared of BSE, was not tested with the same battery of tests that confirmed the 2003 mad cow. Consumers Union has publicized this and demanded a retest: "The USDA limited its confirmatory testing in November 2004 to the immunohistochemistry (IHC) test, which it describes as the 'gold standard.' The result of the IHC test was negative. USDA did not perform the Western blot test, even though it had previously used both IHC and the Western blot test in confirming the first U.S. case of mad cow disease, from Washington State in December, 2003. The USDA also sent material from the 2003 Washington State cow to the United Kingdom for further review of its results. Scientists in Japan and Belgium have reported that suspect cows may be negative on the IHC and still register as positive on the Western blot. Such cows are universally regarded as infected." Hmmm. And we should believe the USDA's analysis on this because... ?