Re-Testing – Thoughts From The Middle of Nowhere

I have been drilling around trying to find more information on the newest <a href="http://www.billingsgazette.com//index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/06/11/build/nation/92-mad-cow.inc">announcement of <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym></a>. There is not a lot of information out there but the best I found was <a href="http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?contentidonly=true&contentid=2005/06/0206.xml">here</a>. This information comes from a more reliable source than Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns who's just a political appointee who doesn't know anything. n nI do have a question about this. Why are they retesting previously cleared samples? n n<blockquote>"Earlier this week, <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym>'s Office of the Inspector General (OIG), which has been partnering with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Food Safety and Inspection Service, and the Agricultural Research Service by impartially reviewing <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym>-related activities and making recommendations for improvement, recommended that all three of these samples be subjected to a second internationally recognized confirmatory test, the OIE-recognized SAF immunoblot test, often referred to as the Western blot test. We received final results a short time ago. Of the three samples, two were negative, but the third came back reactive.</blockquote> n nI am way more interested in knowing why we are retesting than over the possible positive test result. Is there a problem in testing procedures that is causing this or what? n nIf I was a real conspiracy theorist I would say the <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> is purposely doing this and making sure it comes back positive to show the Judiciary that there is <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym> in this country so that they will open the border with Canada for live cattle trade again. n nI, of course, will keep a close eye on this situation to see what happens. n nThe question you're not supposed to ask is the important one. Mason Cooley