Region’s only lab for mad cow tests to close

PULLMAN – 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.

The Washington State University lab opened after the nation’s first mad cow case in December 2003 prompted some new safeguards.

The closure of mad cow testing at WSU and several other locations across the country comes after the U.S. Department of Agriculture determined the prevalence of the disease in the nation’s cattle herd is “extraordinarily low.”

Costly testing and tracking programs aren’t necessary, the federal agency said in reducing mad cow testing by more than 90 percent.

Of 759,000 animals tested – including 45,000 in the Northwest – only two other infected cows were found after the initial mad cow scare.

The mad cow lab is basically one room inside the WSU’s Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, one of seven state laboratories conducting testing for USDA, WSU spokesman Charlie Powell said.

When the USDA contract ends next week, the high-technology robotic equipment will remain in place and be used for other types of testing, Powell said.