WASHINGTON NEWS

USDA announces safeguards against BSE
On December 30, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announced several changes in the effort to guard against bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). All downer cattle—those animals unable to walk on their own at the slaughterhouse—will be banned from the human food chain. Suspected animals will be tested and held until test results are known. In addition, the skull, brain, trigeminal ganglia, eyes, vertebral column, spinal cord, and dorsal root ganglia of cattl…