March 21, 2004 High Plains Journal

"The Japanese solution is the right one," said Stanley Prusiner, the University of California scientist who discovered prions, the infectious agent that causes mad cow disease and its human form, variant Creutzfeldt- Jakob disease.

Prusiner said he would not eat beef "at the moment" in the United States and would eat beef in Japan only if the cow had been "tested by a very sensitive test."

"(Mad cow disease) is the greatest threat to the safety of the human food supply in modern times," he said. "(Variant CJD disease) threatens the safety of the blood supply worldwide."

As a father and an uncle, Prusiner said, he cannot understand why the U.S. doesn't adopt a test-all policy for every cow and bull destined for consumption by humans.