Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Months-Long Delay in Mad Cow Announcement Stirs Debate

Officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are facing harsh criticism over a seven-month delay in announcing test results indicating that a suspect animal was infected with mad cow disease, the second such case yet documented in the country.

The test in question, described by USDA officials as “experimental,” was ordered after two previous faster “Elisa” tests had come up negative for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the formal name for mad cow disease. The animal also tested negative on a slower immunohistochemistry test, considered the agency’s “gold standard” at the time.

Those tests were all conducted by USDA last November. Then, just two weeks ago, and for reasons that remain unclear, agency inspector general Phyllis K. Fong ordered that tissue samples from the cow be sent to a well-respected lab in England for further testing using the Western blot method.

Several tests were run, all of which came up positive for BSE.

When asked why news of the first positive result from the “experimental” test last November had not been publicized, Agriculture Department spokesman Ed Loyd blamed the delay on a breakdown in internal agency communications. “The laboratory folks just never mentioned it to anyone higher up,” he said. “They didn’t know if it was valid or not, so they didn’t report it.”

The companies debacle has both the beef lobby and consumer groups on edge. Jim McAdams, president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, told the Times that irregularities in agency testing create “great anxiety within our industry.” And Dr. Michael K. Hansen, senior research associate at Consumers Union, said “How can we be confident of anything [the USDA] are saying?”

In the meantime, USDA Secretary Mike Johanns announced major changes to the nation’s “mad cow” testing protocols at a news conference Friday.

The seo services cow in question was slaughtered in November. Johanns said it born before the 1997 U.S. ban on feeding ruminant protein to ruminant animals. The animal was considered a “downer” that was unable to walk and had not entered the human food supply, he added.

“This animal was blocked from entering the food supply because of the firewalls we have in place. Americans have every reason to continue to be confident in the safety of our beef,” he told reporters.

But Johanns also listed other errors in the agency’s testing process. The animal’s brain samples were frozen, making testing more difficult; parts from five carcasses were mixed together; and no written records were kept, he said.

The agency chief said there was no evidence the animal was born outside the country, and added that DNA tests are currently underway to determine its herd of origin.

Meanwhile, Taiwan on Saturday reimposed an immediate ban on imports of American beef after the second case was confirmed.

Two months ago the island lifted a ban it had imposed in February 2004 following the discovery in 2003 of the disease in a Washington state cow that had been imported from Canada. The origin of the new case wasn’t immediately made available.

BSE occurs when proteins called prions bend into misfolded shapes. They deposit plaque that kills brain cells and leaves behind spongy holes. People who eat contaminated meat may acquire a human form called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which has killed about 150 people worldwide, the AP said.

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