Moo

We need a new Sinclair Lewis.

As the American beef industry struggles with its first case of mad cow disease, the Department of Agriculture is debating whether to do far more screening of meat and change the way meat from suspect animals is used, department officials say.

The officials declined to say exactly what they would recommend, but acknowledged that European and Japanese regulators screened millions of animals using tests that take only three hours, fast enough to stop diseased carcasses from being cut up for food.

United States inspectors have tested fewer than 30,000 of the roughly 300 million animals slaughtered in the last nine years, and they get results days or weeks later.

But the American system was never intended to keep sick animals from reaching the public's refrigerators, said Dr. Ron DeHaven, the Agriculture Department's chief veterinarian.

It is "a surveillance system, not a food safety test," Dr. DeHaven said in an interview on Wednesday.

But that's exactly the problem, isn't it? Inadequate testing that's not even designed to prevent sick animals from reaching market?

According to the article, the newest test for BSE enables one worker to screen 200 samples in three hours, fast enough to prevent slaughtered meat from moving to market. The cost, test makers say, would add pennies a pound to the cost of beef. DeHaven called that "hugely expensive."

A good question is, though, expensive for who? Certainly consumers remain at risk, and even the industry itself might well find it "hugely expensive" to refuse more testing. The BBC reported on Friday that

Vietnam and Macau have become the latest countries to ban imports of US beef after America's first case of mad cow disease was confirmed.

They join more than 20 other nations and territories who have already slapped bans on beef from the US. ...

Experts have predicted the news will cost the previously-booming US cattle industry billions of dollars, as countries around the world rush to ban American beef imports.

The list already includes Japan, Mexico and South Korea - the three top importers of US beef.

Not To Worry Dept.: Scott McClellan was quoted as saying President Bush will continue to eat beef, adding that the president's focus "is on the public health aspect of this."

How that's focusing on the public's health instead of the cattle industry's health is unclear.