U.S. Falls Behind In Tracking Cattle To Control Disease.

This article reports on the concern that there is no U.S. national identification system for beef cattle, which is a market threatened by bovine spongiform encephalopathy, which is otherwise known as mad-cow disease. The United States Department of Agriculture expects to have a working identification system in effect in 2007. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association has begun its own development of an industry-run database for tracking animals.