<story><title>Doctors investigate mystery brain disease in Canada</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56910393</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>admash</author><text>Compounding USDA&amp;#x27;s lax practices has been its refusal to allow beef processors to independently test cattle for mad cow disease. In 2004, Creekstone Farms, a Kansas processor of black Angus beef with a large Japanese clientele, asked for permission to test its 300,000 cattle for BSE using a $500,000 testing site it had built to USDA specifications.&lt;p&gt;But the agency ruled that the BSE test was licensed only for &amp;quot;surveillance&amp;quot; of animal health, and rejected Creekstone&amp;#x27;s request because it implied &amp;quot;a consumer safety aspect&amp;quot; that was &amp;quot;not scientifically warranted.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.eurekalert.org&amp;#x2F;pub_releases&amp;#x2F;2006-05&amp;#x2F;uoia-ftf051506.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.eurekalert.org&amp;#x2F;pub_releases&amp;#x2F;2006-05&amp;#x2F;uoia-ftf0515...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Doctors investigate mystery brain disease in Canada</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56910393</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>sirsinsalot</author><text>Prion diseases terrify me. Especially having been in the UK eating beef at the time of the BSE outbreaks in the 1990s.&lt;p&gt;I wonder if there have been studies on the scale of potential latent vCJD&amp;#x2F;Prion disease in the population?</text></comment>