Trickle of samples fails to meet goal at WSU mad-cow testing lab

[Sliverofhope]

As of yesterday, the WSU lab had processed 288 brain samples — all negative — in the seven weeks the program has been under way. To meet its target of 25,000 animals from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana over the next year, the lab should be getting about 2,000 specimens a month.

Though officials say they expect to get up to speed soon, the slow start in the region that was ground zero for the nation's first mad-cow case illustrates some of the problems the U.S. Agriculture Department's inspector general warned about last week in a sharp critique of the agency's new mad-cow surveillance program.

The goal of that program is to test as many as 268,000 cattle nationwide — a tenfold increase over last year — in a one-time push to learn whether the brain-wasting disease is present in America's herds. Scientists believe people can contract a deadly form of mad-cow from eating infected beef. The WSU lab is one of seven testing facilities across the country.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001983692_madlab20m.html

[aquart]

1. In other words, they're not doing the work.

They're dawdling, because what difference does it make if poisonous cattle are eaten by Americans?