cows news stories on Newser

Mad Cow Was Lame, 'Recumbent'

Matt Cantor — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:44:05 CDT

Officials previously said that the California Holstein with mad cow disease had shown no signs of the illness . Now they say it was lame and had taken to lying down, the AP reports. It was "humanely euthanized after it developed lameness and became recumbent," according to the USDA. Meanwhile, a...

Mad Cow Discovery? Chalk It Up to Pure Luck

Kate Schwartz — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 09:31:59 CDT

This may not help you sleep better tonight. The discovery of mad cow disease in California was the result of ... luck, reports the AP . It explains that the state's dead cows are transported to a central California facility, where a very small number of the carcasses are tested. Officials say...

Mad Cow Disease Shows Up in California

Matt Cantor — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:56:15 CDT

For the first time since 2006, US officials have confirmed a new case of mad cow disease, this time in California. The dairy cow's illness was detected during routine testing at a rendering plant by the USDA. None of the affected cow's meat got into human food, the agency says,...

Forest Service May Blow Up Frozen Cows

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:34:20 CDT

It's not your typical Forest Service problem: The agency is considering explosives to move a bunch of frozen cows that died after getting stuck inside a cabin at 11,000 feet in Colorado's Rocky Mountains. The carcasses were discovered by two Air Force Academy cadets when they snow-shoed to the...

Cow Superbug Jumping to Humans

Rob Quinn — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 05:31:00 CDT

A new strain of the drug-resistant "superbug" MRSA has been found in British cows, and it appears to be spreading to people. The strain, identified in cows' milk by researchers studying udder infections, is genetically very different from the dozens of other strains of superbug identified, reports the BBC . Pasteurization...

Manolo Blahnik Execs Take Up Dairy Farming

Evann Gastaldo — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 10:36:05 CDT

After you've helped convince women to spend $575 on a single pair of shoes, why not move on to very expensive milk? That's what George Malkemus and Tony Yurgaitis, Manolo Blahnik's top two executives, are doing. Milk from their Connecticut farm, Arethusa, sells for $4.49 per half-gallon—more than...

New Source of Human Breast Milk: Cows?

Matt Cantor — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 10:23:05 CDT

Scientists in China have genetically altered some 300 cows to produce "human" milk, the Telegraph reports. Using cloning techniques, scientists inserted human genes into cow embryos and implanted the embryos in mother cows. Scientists say the resulting dairy cows produced milk with "much higher nutritional content" than regular cow’s milk,...

UK Farmers Put Cows on Special Diet to Help Climate

Kevin Spak — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:25:06 CDT

Farmers across the pond have hit on an interesting way of fighting climate change: They’re feeding their cows a “health food” diet of linseed to make them belch and fart less. And yes, this is the same linseed you see in the natural supplements aisle at health food stores—it’s...

Here's What Killed Those Dead Cows

Evann Gastaldo — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 13:38:05 CST

The latest mass animal death mystery has been solved: The 200 cows that dropped dead in a Wisconsin pasture two weeks ago were killed by, of all things, moldy sweet potatoes. The farmer who owned them originally suspected disease, but investigators ruled that out and determined the cows were likely...