On our Dreamlandscience report this week Linda Moulton Howe interviews Mad Cow expert Giuseppe Legname, who says that U.S. efforts to control this disease are so bad, he’s stopped eating meat. Dave Louthan, who actually killed the mad cow on December 26, 2003, said the same thing on Dreamland recently. Now Tom Ellestad, owner of Vern’s Moses Lake Meats, where the cow was slaughtered, confirms that the cow was not a “downer.” This means there is no way to identify which cows have the disease unless every one of them is tested, and we now only test about 20,000 cows a year out of 35 million. The U.S. says it will test 40,000 cows during the upcoming year. France tests about 50,000 cattle every week, and Japan tests all cattle that are slaughtered for food. Dr. Legname also says we need to find out whether dicalcium phosphate, which is made from cow bones, carries Mad Cow prions. Dicalcium phosphate is used in toothpaste.
Jon Bonn
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