The following excerpt is from Janeal Yancey’s blog, “Mom at the Meat Counter.” Yancey is a program technician and meat scientist at the University of Arkansas. She’s also a mom. Click here to visit her blog. As you may already know, a dairy cow in California was diagnosed with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as Mad Cow Disease. The 10-year-old cow died at an undisclosed dairy farm, and the disease was found when her body was sent to a rendering facility. Why am I not worried about this? First, the cow was not destined for our food supply. She was at a rendering facility. These are companies that dispose of dead animals and produce inedible products. There is a testing system set in place by the USDA to test the bodies of a certain number of the cows for BSE before they go through their process.