The infected cow identified yesterday was a Holstein which was tested because it was a "downer", unable to walk, when it arrived at a Washington state slaughterhouse. The meat from the cow was nevertheless sent to a processing plant.
Agriculture department investigators were yesterday urgently trying to track it down.
Ms Veneman said that only the "muscle cuts" had been sent for processing for human consumption and there was no record of the disease being transmitted through the meat. The brain and spinal column had been sent to a "rendering facility" elsewhere, but she did not specify how it had been used. Extracted from http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1112561,00.html
I was in England making Neverwhere in 1996 -97, and remember the supercilious tones of the government spokesmen, assuring radio listeners that BSE was no danger at all to people, and the calamitous loss in confidence (not to mention slaughter of animals) that followed the discovery that people were indeed getting it. There's a fascinating chronology here, at http://bse.airtime.co.uk/hist.htm.
Hmm.
Hi Neil!
Just wanted to let you know that at the Livejournal feed your rain and taxes entry was reposted... I wasn't sure if it was reposted intentionally because of the whole mascaraing the innocents thread or if it was a mistake. Cheers!
-fey
Actually, it's probably option C: sometimes Livejournal does strange things. Or possibly option D: sometimes Blogger does strange things to Livejournal. If you're wondering whether something has really happened, or is just a livejournal RSS feed oddness, check in at the actual journal at http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/journal.asp .