Japan still open to US beef imports. Japan's farm minister said Friday that the cutback in the U.S. government's testing program for mad cow disease will not affect Japan's decision on whether to resume U.S. beef imports. [News Source]

Alta. firm boasts cheap BSE test. An Edmonton company is confident it has a cheap, ground-breaking test for mad cow disease, but the test's British inventor -- who claims to have first made the link between BSE and the disease's human form -- insists he still holds the rights. [News Source]

Japanese wrapping up U.S. beef inspections. Teams of Japanese agricultural officials are expected today to complete audits of 35 U.S. meat-processing facilities to assure themselves that mad cow disease will not be shipped to Japan when its ban on U.S. beef imports is lifted. [News Source]

Japan to resume US beef imports next week. Japan will give the final green light next week to resume US beef imports banned over mad cow disease, ending a long rift with its closest ally, a report has said. [News Source]

Mad cow testing scaled back. The Department of Agriculture's not too worried about Mad Cow disease. So not worried, in fact, that it's sharply cutting the number of cattle it tests. [News Source]

U.S. reduces testing for mad cow disease, citing few infections. The Agriculture Department said yesterday that it would scale back testing for mad cow disease by about 90 percent, saying the number of infected animals was far too low to justify the current level of surveillance. [News Source]

Testing for mad cow disease to be cut. The Agriculture Department said yesterday that it is cutting its testing for mad cow disease by about 90 percent, drawing protests from consumer groups. [News Source]

U.S. narrows mad-cow testing, citing rare presence of disease. The Bush administration, declaring that mad-cow disease is rare in the U.S., is revamping a two-year-old surveillance program, cutting the number of animals tested by about 90%. [News Source]

U.S. to Reduce Mad-Cow Testing After Few Cases Found (Update4) (Bloomberg.com) July 20 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. will slash its mad-cow testing program by almost 90 percent after data collected over two years showed a ``very low level'' of the disease in the domestic herd, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said. [News Source]

USDA to reduce mad cow testing program by 90 pct (Reuters via Yahoo! News) The U.S. government will scale down its mad cow surveillance program by 90 percent to reflect a smaller presence of the disease in the United States, but reduced testing should not slow efforts to reopen foreign markets to U.S. beef, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said on Thursday. [News Source]