Judge OKs Timetable To Accelerate Creekstone - USDA Case (CattleNetwork.com) KANSAS CITY (Dow Jones)--Lawyers for Creekstone Farms Premium Beef and the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday were preparing to move forward with Creekstone's lawsuit against the USDA seeking to be allowed to test all of the cattle it slaughters for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease. [News Source]

Bird Flu Fears, Mad Cow Cases Boost CME Live Cattle Options (CattleNetwork.com) CHICAGO (Dow Jones)--Bird flu fears, mad-cow surprises and beef export problems are a few of the factors boosting trade in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle options pit. [News Source]

Enigmatic prion disease continues to baffle. How do abnormal prions - if not in food - spread between unrelated individuals? [News Source]

Uruguay, Argentina, Australia, NZ, BSE-free. Uruguay, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina were officially recognized by the World Animal Heath Organization, OIE, as the only four countries in the World free of Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis, BSA, more commonly known as “mad cow”. [News Source]

Petri dish certified. The new good-for-you meat won't be pork or grass-fed beef, and it won't be made of soy. If scientists succeed, it will taste and look like old-fashioned meat — only it'll be raised in a lab, not on a farm. [News Source]

Some ranchers shy on first day since mad cow announcement (AG Weekly) TULIA, Texas -- West Texas rancher Kevin Crooks lost about $1 million in the year following the country's first case of mad cow 18 months ago. If he'd had cattle big enough to sell at the Tulia Livestock Auction on Monday, he wouldn't have brought a one. [News Source]