While beef industry officials have long maintained few downer cows ever make their way into the food supply -- and Veneman said yesterday only about 150,000 to 200,000 downers are slaughtered each ...

"We cannot allow a single downer cow to enter our food supply under any circumstances," Kohl insisted in his opening statement. He also urged Schafer to install cameras in slaughterhouses.

A "downer" cow is one that is so sick or injured it can't walk. The cow found to have had mad cow disease in Washington state has been described that way.

The U.S. government Saturday permanently banned the slaughter of cows too sick or weak to stand on their own, seeking to further minimize the chance that mad cow disease could enter the food supply.

The government on Saturday permanently banned the slaughter of cows too sick or weak to stand on their own, seeking to further minimize the chance that mad cow disease could enter the food supply.

At Graham Land and Cattle Co. in Gonzales and many other feed lots, it's common practice to euthanize downer cows instead of sending the animals to a meat packer, said Jay Gray, the facility's ...

A 2003 study by USDA scientists found that downer cows are three times more likely to carry the deadly-to-humans E. coli O157:H7 pathogen than non-downers.

In 2004, the USDA tightened regulations to prohibit the slaughter of downer cows after a case of mad-cow disease in Washington state. Wayne Pacelle, Humane Society president and chief executive, ...

But Steven Cohen, a spokesman for the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, reiterated Thursday the cow was "absolutely" a downer, as determined Dec. 9 by its on-site veterinarian.

The cattle hand who killed the aging Holstein that tested positive for mad cow disease back in December disputes the Agriculture Secretary's assessment that it was a downer cow, saying it was “a ...

WASHINGTON – Some states and cattle groups are urging the Agriculture Department (search) to weaken a ban on consumption of injured "downer" cows imposed after last year's mad cow case. Public ...