An expert panel convened by USDA agrees that US measures to prevent the spread of mad cow disease are dangerously insufficient.  Read that report here.

S.T.O.P. supports:
Stronger Animal Feed Safeguards
Though what we know about the transmission of mad cow disease justifies a total ban on feeding animal by-products to livestock, millions of tons of
animal byproducts, cattle blood and fat are still legally fed to cattle and other food animals every year.  Further, a recent Canadian study where
nearly half of the tested feed marked "vegetable" was illegally contaminated with animal byproducts suggests that since existing feed bans are frequently subverted and more stringent government oversight and testing of feed is required.

Increased and Improved Testing Programs
While USDA's testing program has expanded since last year, still, so few cattle are tested that identifiable mad cow cases are virtually guaranteed
to slip through this supposed safety net. Although in other countries, testing of every head of cattle is mandatory, USDA has vehemently opposed even minimal increases in testing frequencies - and has threatened to sue private companies that chooses to test their own cattle to bolster the safety of their products.

Effective Recalls of Contaminated Products
The US government lacks the authority to mandate recalls of any food products, even if the products have already sickened and killed people! The government also lacks the power to demand access to records disclosing where contaminated food has been distributed. USDA then worsens that dangerous information logjam by refusing to provide distribution information to consumers or, or even to health officials in any state that hasn't signed a gag agreement promising to keep that information from consumers. The result? Food the government ascertains to be capable of transmitting mad cow or any other human disease remains on grocery store shelves and dinner tables long after its danger is known, and consumers remain unaware of their exposure.

Better Animal Tracking
Although over the last year introductory animal tracking systems have been introduced, the rate of progress is too slow to form an effective BSE
barrier (and worse yet, wholly ineffective against the US foodborne illness endemic).  Click here to read S.T.O.P.'s public comments on improving the
U.S. Animal Identification program.

Civil Penalties
The U.S. government lacks the tools to financially penalize any company known to have produced and distributed dangerous or even deadly food, except in the rare cases where a criminal conviction is obtained.   In the absence of regulatory incentives (and given the time lapse between consumption of contaminated food and the onset of illness), food companies, especially
those producing unbranded or blended products like meat, have scarce financial incentive to improve the safety of their products.  Read S.T.O.P.'s groundbreaking 2004 summary on the lack of economic incentives for safer food here.

Improved Surveillance for Foodborne Diseases
U.S. efforts to detect and respond to foodborne disease in general are hamstrung by lack of funding, training, and equipment for public health
departments, which contribute to the CDC's estimation that only a tiny minority of cases of foodborne illness are brought to CDC attention.
Illnesses that go undetected are in turn likely to lead to gross underestimation of the problem and the actions and resources needed to address it.

S.T.O.P. has been fighting the potential danger of BSE/mad cow and other foodborne diseases for nearly a decade.  To read some of S.T.O.P.'s previous leadership on the subject, click either here or here.  To help S.T.O.P. fight foodborne disease by making a donation, click here.