About half of the cases will go undetected and passed on for human consumption, Robert LaBudde, president of Least Cost Formulation Ltd., a food industry consultancy in Virginia Beach, Va., told UPI.

[...]

LaBudde said he bases his prediction on the one positive case detected so far, compared to the number of downers, or at-risk animals, in U.S. herds -- which amounts to about 250,000 by his calculations. That would yield about 68 cases among the at-risk cows, he wrote in a recent article published in Food Safety magazine. In Europe, the number of cases among seemingly healthy animals has been about half that seen in the at-risk cows. So in the U.S. that would yield 34 additional cases, for a total of 102.

Only about half the cases will be detected, however, because many animals will not show any symptoms, LaBudde said. This is based on the experience in Europe, where half the animals that test positive have no outward symptoms of infection, he added.

The USDA's surveillance plan focuses predominantly on animals with obvious signs of the disease, such as staggering, the inability to stand or dying from it. Only a small percentage of healthy-appearing animals will be tested.

LaBudde said the department should test all cows over age 5 regardless of their health status, because these are the most likely to have passed through the lengthy incubation period of the disease and test positive. He called the USDA's failure to do that bordering on "negligent."

The USDA and the meat industry have insisted the U.S. beef supply is safe because the most infectious parts of the cows -- the brain, spinal cord and intestines -- are being removed."

• baked at 680 degrees F for one hour (hot enough to melt lead)

• bombarded with radiation

• soaked in formaldehyde, bleach, and boiling water/