Friday night, USDA officials announced a second confirmed case of BSE in a 9-year-old downer steer from Texas. Not good news for US consumers — who have so far remained dolefully ignorant of the risks — or for cattle producers, suffering from a ban on beef exports to the rest of the world, which actually pays attention to science.

From the Washington Post: "Japan, where more than 15 cows have tested positive for mad cow disease, now tests every cow slaughtered. Its government has asked U.S. producers to do the same, but the U.S. government has said the universal testing was not necessary."

One [dismissable as imported] cow is circumstance. Two are coincidence. Three... uh...well, that's why we're not looking very hard...

[Posted with ecto]