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U.S. government fights to keep meatpackers from testing all slaughtered cattle for BSEWASHINGTON (AP)—The Bush administration said May 29 it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for bovine spongiform encephalopathy.The U.S. Department of Agriculture tests fewer than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. A beef producer in Kansas, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, wants to test all of its cows. Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone should test its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive tests on their larger herds as well. The USDA regulates the test and argued that widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the meat industry. A federal judge ruled in March that such tests must be allowed. U.S. District Judge James Robertson noted that Creekstone sought to use the same test the government relies on and said the government didn’t have the authority to restrict it. The ruling was scheduled to take effect June 1, but the USDA said May 29 it would appeal, effectively delaying the testing until the court challenge has played out. BSE is linked to more than 150 human deaths worldwide, mostly in Britain. Three cases of BSE have been found in the United States. The first, in December 2003 in Washington state, was in a cow that had been imported from Canada. The second, in 2005, was in a cow born in Texas. The third was confirmed last year in an Alabama cow. 5/28/07
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