With two new cases of mad cow disease in Canada, questions of food safety in the U.S. are once again making headlines, and two new articles do nothing to squelch national fears. According to the New York Times, scientists have recently discovered that the proteins that cause mad cow disease may be present in more parts of the animal than previously thought. Until now, scientists believed that the mad cow prion only existed in the brain and spinal tissue and removing those parts was enough to protect the food supply. An In These Times article stresses the gaps that still remain in our current firewall against food safety. Though the current system prevents animal to animal feeding, it still allows calves to drink formula that contain blood protein. The article also questions whether the government testing system: Of the 36 million cattle slaughtered in 2004 and put into the human and animal food supply, only 176,468 were tested. In at least three instances U.S. cattle have tested as possibly having mad cow disease on sophisticated “quick tests,” but further testing has led the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to announce the results to be negative. However, the government testing is secretive and suspect. No independent scientists or laboratories have reviewed or confirmed any of the suspected mad cows. Each time the USDA has announced a suspect cow the cattle futures market has been thrown into temporary turmoil, and the industry is pressuring the government to stop announcing suspect animals altogether. It was private mad cow testing that eventually revealed the presence of the disease in Germany. So it is not surprising that when the Kansas-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef company reached an agreement with Japan to sell beef that the company had tested to the Japanese, the USDA, invoking a 1913 law, warned that mad cow testing by private U.S. firms is illegal. Creekstone hoped to save hundreds of company jobs by testing its cattle and reopening its market with Japan. Both articles point to a need for strong regulatory safeguards to protect our food supply from the threat of mad cow disease. Read OMB Watch analysis for more information.