Top vet rushes to soothe mad cow fears

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Hours after confirming to reporters that the United States had found its fourth-ever case of mad cow disease, John Clifford was ready to answer the world’s questions about the safety of U.S. beef. Clifford, the government’s chief veterinary officer at the agriculture department, had quickly called his counterparts in Mexico and Canada, the first and second-largest buyers of U.S. beef, to tell them about a California cow found to have an “atypical” type of the brain-wasting disease. Having taken up his post in May 2004, just six months after the first U.S. …