07/14/05 BSE soap opera

BSE Soap Opera BSE or mad cow disease has been on the minds of cattle producers again for the last few weeks. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll have some comments right after this. About the second week of June, the Inspector General's office ordered a retest of a BSE suspect cow that was confirmed negative last November. To make a long story short, the sample has now been confirmed positive for BSE by a lab in England. After this last test, there has been more twists, turns, speculation, questions and accusations than the hottest soap opera could ever offer. Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Johanns, wonders why Inspector General, Phyllis Fong, ordered the retest without consulting him, cattle industry spokesmen question why specimen samples had to be concentrated 20 times before a slight positive test resulted, consumer group leaders accused the USDA of resisting the new tests for fear of the results (which doesn't make sense since the USDA kept the samples available for the past seven months instead of destroying them) and one country banned U.S. beef again after resuming trade only two months ago. If you can sort out all these politics, accusations and questions, you're a better thinker than I am. But two facts are certain  the cattle market did fluctuate lower instead of remaining steady and consumers of U.S. beef can be sure they are still able to buy healthy, wholesome beef. The USDA may have some problems and political agendas many of us don't fully understand, but the USDA is consistent making sure consumers can buy US beef with the confidence it will be safe. I'm Jeff Keane Western Livestock Reporter 6/29/05, Capital Press, The Wenatchee World 6/26/05