9th case of mad cow disease confirmed in Canada (AG Weekly) OTTAWA (AP) — The United States said Thursday it would dispatch a specialist to help investigate Canada’s latest case of mad cow, but that Washington did not expect the new finding to hurt trade between the two countries. [News Source]

Washington State University BSE Testing Lab To Close March 1 (CattleNetwork.com) cow tested positive for the chronic brain-wasting disease. The Washington State University lab opened after the nation's first mad-cow case in December 2003 prompted some new safeguards. [News Source]

Global warming: Where’s the beef? Do the folks at Big Oil care about the fate of the planet? Really care? [News Source]

New tracking device may help protect health of nation’s livestock. Michigan will become the first state in the nation to require every beef and dairy cow to wear a permanent radio-frequency-identification ear tag that tracks each animal from its farm of origin to slaughter. [News Source]

Alberta culls deer to attack wasting disease. During the 2006 hunting season, the Alberta government found four new cases of the disease. Three were found east of Wainwright near Chauvin and Edgerton and another was found near Empress, in the southeast corner of the province. [News Source]

USDA addresses `minor’ bureaucratic issues on imported cattle. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Thursday that hundreds of cases of incomplete documentation of imported cattle from Canada, where mad cow concerns continue, involve "minor record-keeping" issues that do not endanger the safety of the U.S. food supply. [News Source]

Beef farmerJohn Richard Thackray’s mad cow fine. A farmer broke laws designed to prevent animals infected with mad cow disease from entering the food chain. [News Source]

Mad Cow Testing Lab at WSU to Close (AP via Yahoo! Finance) The only mad cow testing laboratory in the Pacific Northwest will close March 1, just over three years after a Yakima Valley dairy cow tested positive for the chronic brain-wasting disease. [News Source]

Ninth case of mad cow disease confirmed in Canada (Iowa Farmer) OTTAWA n The United States says it will dispatch a specialist to help investigate Canada's latest case of mad cow, but that Washington did not expect the new finding to hurt trade between the two countries. [News Source]

‘Record keeping’ issues do not endanger beef supply, USDA says (The Olympian) WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Thursday that hundreds of cases of incomplete documentation of imported cattle from Canada, where mad cow concerns continue, involve "minor record-keeping" issues that do not endanger the safety of the U.S. food supply. [News Source]