Laws & Politics U.S. appeals court says testing of mad cow disease is a diagnosis
By Ben Wasserman
Aug 29, 2008 - 10:11:21 PM
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Friday August 29, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- Associated
Press today reported an interesting piece of news - a federal appeals court
said Friday that the Bush Administration can prohibit meat packers from testing
their cows for mad cow disease.
The reason? The court said testing of mad cow disease in dead
cows is a diagnosis and diagnosis is part of treatment, The Associated Press
reported.
Disease treatment is under the
control of the United States Department of Agriculture. So USDA has the right
to disallow the testing.
The dispute was brought to U.S. appeals court by USDA
after it lost the case in a low court to Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, which
wants to test mad cow disease in all animals that intend to be used for beef.
Creekstone Farms exports its beef to Japan, which
repeatedly asks its trade partner to test mad cow disease because Japan tests each
and every cow before its meat is placed on the market.
Creekstone agrees to test animals whose meat is intended
for the overseas market.
But the USDA
early said that private organizations have no right to conducting any test on
their slaughtered cows.
One argument of the company brought to court is that
testing is not treatment.
Because there
is no disease treatment involved, the USDA does not have the jurisdiction to
intervene.
And a low court sided with
Creekstone saying the company can conduct its testing.
Big meat packers oppose any testing of beef.
They have said if Creekstone Farms does the
testing, then they would have to follow suit to conduct their own testing which
would result in an increase in the retail price for beef.
However, an early survey showed that consumers welcome
mad cow disease testing and are willing to pay an extra for the safety.