Chairman Bob Goodlatte issued the following statement today regarding the announcement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) of a second confirmed case of mad cow disease in the United States.
"Last Friday's announcement of a second confirmed case of mad cow disease in two years demonstrates that the safeguards and firewalls that were put in place years ago are operating well. The animal in question was born before the 1997 ban on ruminant-to-ruminant feeding, and never entered the human or animal food chain. I support the Secretary's decision to modify the confirmatory procedure in our surveillance testing program. In the meantime, I would discourage the grandstanding that has led some people to make inaccurate and groundless assertions about the threat of mad cow disease and the ability of USDA to guarantee the safety of the nation's food supply. The bottom line is this: the United States has the safest and best food supply in the world and that is not going to change."
Source: House Committee on Agriculture
