Rockwood con didn’t mean to hit cow (CNews) The case of a Rockwood con who whacked a mad cow with a broomstick took an udderly strange turn today after a judge refused to sentence him for wilfully injuring cattle. [News Source]

Alzheimer’s ’seeded’ like mad cow disease (New Scientist) As with BSE, it now seems that malformed proteins "seed" the formation of plaques in the brain of people with Alzheimer's disease [News Source]

PlayStation’s serious side: Fighting disease (Financial Express) Kids aiming to persuade their parents to buy the PlayStation 3 have some new ammunition -- donating their PS3's down time to researchers could help cure Alzheimer's, Parkinson's or mad cow disease. [News Source]

Japan farm minister won’t ease beef rule for U.S. Japan's new Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka said on Wednesday he would follow the stance set by his predecessor of rejecting a U.S. proposal to start discussions on easing beef trade rules later this year. [News Source]

BSE likely came from feed (Iowa Farmer) OTTAWA (AP) -- An Alberta, Canada, dairy cow that was diagnosed last month with BSE (mad-cow disease) probably contracted the disease from contaminated feed, federal regulators said. [News Source]

Japan farm minister won’t ease beef rule for U.S (Reuters via Yahoo! News) Japan's new Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka said on Wednesday he would follow the stance set by his predecessor of rejecting a U.S. proposal to start discussions on easing beef trade rules later this year. [News Source]

U.S. Beef Group Spends on Ads, Barbecues to Woo Japan Consumers (Bloomberg.com) Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Meat Export Federation is running full page ads in Japanese newspapers that cost as much as 79 million yen ($681,000) each to convince consumers American beef is safe to eat. The biggest supermarket chains don't buy it. [News Source]