USDA Chief Seeks Advice On BSE Testing Changes
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Agriculture has achieved all of the goals it set out to accomplish with its special "enhanced" mad-cow surveillance efforts, but testing will continue at an elevated rate while foreign beef trading partners and scientific experts are consulted on what the next steps should be, USDA Secretary Mike Johanns said Wednesday. Johanns, in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, said the special testing program has gone on long enough and reached all areas of the country, but he also stressed the complexity of scaling back the testing program to a routine level.Source: CattleNetwork