U.S. urged to adopt mandatory livestock traceback (Reuters via Yahoo! News) The U.S. government should require livestock producers to enroll in a traceback system, a primary U.S. defense against mad cow disease, because voluntary signups are not working, two key congressmen said on Wednesday. [News Source]

Local governments to carry on BSE testing despite subsidy cuts. Every local government across the country with meat inspection facilities will continue to test all beef cows for mad cow disease during the next fiscal year, a Mainichi survey has found. [News Source]

‘Mad cow’ protein may keep brain cells chatting. Prion disorders, such as "mad cow" disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease are so far incurable. The only two full-scale trials of potential drugs in CJD sufferers have had little effect. [News Source]