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FRIDAY, Dec. 26 (HealthDayNews) -- With British confirmation that the United States does indeed have its first case of mad cow disease, American health officials are now scrutinizing the existing inspection process for meat.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is trying to determine whether to do far more screening and also change the way meat from suspect animals is used, department officials told The New York Times.
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And a task force of industry and government experts has already drafted a preliminary plan for a national tracking system to quickly quell outbreaks of disease or threats of terrorism, the Associated Press reports.
The task force has explored tracking cattle and other farm animals with radio frequency devices in ear tags or implants as part of the U.S. Animal Identification Plan, which is expected to be implemented over the next three years, the AP reports. Other technologies may be required to determine the origin of several different animals that usually make up a batch of ground beef.
Meanwhile, USDA officials acknowledged that European and Japanese regulators screen millions of animals using tests that take only three hours, which is fast enough to stop diseased carcasses from being cut up for food.
U.S. inspectors have tested fewer than 30,000 of the 300 million animals slaughtered in the last nine years, and they get results days or weeks later, the Times reports. And according to Dr. Ron DeHaven, the USDA chief veterinarian, the U.S. system was never intended to keep sick animals from reaching the public's refrigerators. It is "a surveillance system, not a food safety test," he said.
The preliminary British finding that one Washington state Holstein had the deadly brain-wasting disease before it was slaughtered Dec. 9 came Thursday from researchers at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, England, The Times of London reported.
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