WASHINGTON – Two California dairy farms are under quarantine and a calf ranch is under investigation following discovery of the latest U.S. case of mad cow disease, but the government on Wednesday said the actions were standard procedure and there was no threat to the food supply.
Also, a calf born to the infected cow was found and tested negative for the disease.
Cattle records at the two dairies are being matched to determine if any at-risk cattle are on the farms, said the Agriculture Department.
USDA said the infected cow was a rare “atypical” case of the disease, meaning it arose spontaneously rather than through the feed supply. However, it is USDA’s standard procedure to search for other cattle, offspring or herd mates, that might be exposed to the fatal disease, even though mad cow disease is not contagious.






The Harmful Influence of Politics on Everyday Life
2012 Leave a Comment
It may seem to many of you that I like writing about politics. When I think back on it, I find myself thinking that actually, I don’t. I can think of so many better things to write about and I’ve shown this by my work as a novelist. I’d much rather be writing adventures and working with fiction than expressing my opinions on the political happenings in this nation and the world. The problem is, as I discovered long ago, politics doesn’t want to leave me alone. It wants to seep into every aspect of my life. It wants to micromanage my personal decisions. It wants to tell me what I can eat, what I can and can’t put into my body, what medications and medical procedures I can and can’t use, what businesses I can and can’t open, how I must operate a business when I open it, what I must accept as money from any given costumer, who I can and can’t marry, how I can travel, etc. They keep their hands in my pockets and their eyes on all my activities. In short, politics wants to control my actions from cradle to grave and make sure they get a piece of everything I produce during my time here on earth. READ MORE »