Mad Cow Rules Hit Sperm Banks’ Patrons (Washington Post) When Julie Peterson decided to have a baby on her own two years ago, she picked a tall, blond, blue-eyed Danish engineer as a sperm donor to match her own Scandinavian heritage. But when she went back to the sperm bank to use the same donor to have another child, she was stunned to discover that the... [News Source]

Texas Distributor Recalls Large Amount of Cattle Head (FOX 4 News Dallas - Fort Worth) The U.S. Agriculture Department has recalled more than 940,000 pounds of cattle heads shipped from a Dallas company after it was discovered the tonsils had not been completely removed, the agency said in a release. [News Source]

The media’s addiction to controversy can seriously damage your health (Guardian Unlimited) Comment is free: Peter Wilby: Unfounded newspaper campaigns on MMR may have left fewer children vaccinated [News Source]

Live Active Cultures (Orlando Weekly) Mad Cow Theatre made a strong case for the theater as the last refuge for rational political discourse with last Sunday's politics-themed entry in their ongoing Salon Series ... [News Source]

Prions can survive in the ground for several years. Prions, the pathogens that cause scrapie in sheep, can survive in the ground for several years, as researchers have discovered. [News Source]

New Test Scans Beef for Mad Cow Disease (Health Scout) Method enables real-time identification of contaminated tissue, study says. [News Source]

New Test Scans Beef for Mad Cow Disease (HealthCentral.com) Copyright © 2008 ScoutNews LLC. All rights reserved. TUESDAY, Aug. 12 (HealthDay News) -- The first test for instantly detecting beef that's been contaminated with tissue from a cow's brain or spinal cord during slaughter has been developed by U.S. researchers. [News Source]

New Test Scans Beef for Mad Cow Disease (HealthDay via Yahoo! News) TUESDAY, Aug. 12 (HealthDay News) -- The first test for instantly detecting beef that's been contaminated with tissue from a cow's brain or spinal cord during slaughter has been developed by U.S. researchers. They said the test is an advance in efforts to protect the human food chain from bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or "mad cow disease." [News Source]

Resistant Prions (Medical News Today) Prions, the pathogens that cause scrapie in sheep, can survive in the ground for several years, as researchers have discovered. Animals can become infected via contaminated pastures. It is not yet known whether the pathogens that cause BSE and CWD are equally resistant. A flock of sheep at pasture - a seemingly idyllic scene. [News Source]

Slaughterhouse recalling cattle heads over tonsils. (Denver Post) A Dallas slaughterhouse is recalling nearly 1 million pounds of cattle heads whose tonsils were not completely removed, the Department of Agriculture announced Monday. [News Source]