Editor: U.S. must change mad cow testing (UPI) CHAMPAIGN, Ill., May 15 (UPI) -- The U.S. Agriculture Department's mad cow-disease testing program is inadequate and needs change, the editor of the University of Illinois Law Review says. [News Source]

Federal testing for mad cow disease a failure, law review editor says (EurekAlert!) The U.S. Agriculture Department's mad cow disease-testing program is wholly inadequate and the agency's refusal to let processors do their own testing further undercuts the safety of American beef, a University of Illinois scholar writes. [News Source]

Japan confirms 26th case of mad cow disease. Japan has confirmed its 26th case of mad cow disease, this time in a 68-month-old Holstein dairy cow on the northern island of Hokkaido. [News Source]

Flu fears net bonus for food banks. Fears about avian flu have dramatically cut chicken exports, creating a bonanza for the food depositories that serve the nation's poor and hungry. [News Source]

Biotech firm raises furor with rice plan. A tiny company is developing a promising drug to fight diarrhea, a scourge among babies in the developing world, but it has made an astonishing number of enemies because it grows the drug in rice genetically engineered with a human gene. [News Source]

Too Late to Shut the Gate on Killer ‘Mad Cow’ (Common Dreams News Center) Too Late to Shut the Gate on Killer 'Mad Cow' [News Source]