Creekstone Shouldn’t Use Test for Mad Cow, U.S. Says (Update1)
Cary O’Reilly
Bloomberg
Creekstone Farms Premium Beef LLC, the Kansas-based meat producer, shouldn’t be allowed to test beef for mad-cow disease on its own because it could hurt the U.S. cattle industry, a government lawyer told an appeals court.
“They are creating a false assurance” because the test Creekstone wants to use can’t show that meat is completely free of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease, Justice Department attorney Eric Fleisig-Greene told the court at a hearing today in Washington.
“The test is not only unnecessary, but it has no value whatsoever,” Fleisig-Greene told the three-judge panel, adding that a “false positive” from the company’s testing would hurt the entire U.S. cattle industry.
