"Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer told Congress yesterday that he would not endorse an outright ban on "downer" cows entering the food supply or back stiffer penalties for regulatory violations by meat-processing plants in the wake of the largest beef recall in the nation's history...
Cows that cannot stand up are supposed to be kept out of the food supply in part because they may be infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease. The disease is extremely rare in the United States, but of the 15 cases documented in North America, most in Canada, the majority have been traced to downer cattle..."
More details at the Washington Post. There are of course more causes for downer cattle than BSE, but when regulations aggressively ban passive cigarette smoke and insignificant quantities of asbestos, one would think that more caution would be exercised regarding prions.
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