Given the Secretary’s announcement to prohibit downer cattle from slaughter establishments, what does that mean in terms of USDA’s BSE surveillance program?

USDA has tested 20,000 animals annually for each of the last 2 years, and approximately 75 percent of these were downers at slaughter. USDA is working with industry to reposition its efforts to collect samples on-farm, at rendering facilities, and at facilities where meat products are harvested for non-edible purposes. USDA is committed-and the industry shares this commitment-to ensuring that a robust surveillance program for BSE continues in this country. USDA will be working very closely with the rendering and animal disposal industry and other government agencies in the days and weeks to come to ensure that USDA continues to have access to the population of animals considered to be at highest risk for BSE.  more