MORE MAD COW MYSTERY

Steve Mitchell continues to shine a spotlight on the strange behavior of U.S. officials regarding the testing of American brains for Mad Cow, now reporting that they "have delayed sending brain samples from a deceased California man to France to be screened for human mad cow disease, leading the man's family and his neurologist to question the reasons for the holdup."

In a March 31 letter, Ronele Hicks, Patrick's wife, requested that NPDPSC send samples of Patrick's brain to Dr. Jean-Jacques Hauw at Laboratoire De Neuropathologie at the Groupe Hospitalier Pitie-Salpetriere in Paris. Hauw had agreed to conduct further tests that could help provide a more conclusive diagnosis. "It sounds like they didn't send the tissue and I don't know why," a distraught Ronele told United Press International.

The ordeal over sending Patrick's sample to France has rendered both Bailey and Ronele skeptical about whether they will obtain a conclusive diagnosis of his illness, and Ronele said she now wonders if NPDPSC will send the correct tissue sample to France. "That's been a concern all along," she said. "How do we know it's not some other person's tissue instead of Pat's?"