Imagine you’re in charge of the department of agriculture in an country whose farming industry as well as dietary habits depend heavily on cattle farming and you have just discovered the third case of mad cow disease – what do you do?

It’s easy. You just look away and hope you’ll find something to help the consumers do the same. I’m just not sure it will work as well as it used to. It seems, Americans are slowly coming back to their senses.

Reuters AlertNet – US plans to scale down mad-cow testing

WASHINGTON, March 15 (Reuters) – The Agriculture Department is drawing plans to scale down its mad cow surveillance program that found two of the three U.S. cases of the disease, including one this week, two USDA officials said on Wednesday.

In addition, they said USDA would rely on private-sector incentives to inspire producers to join a separate cattle tracking system to track down suspect animals in future outbreaks of livestock diseases.