The Agriculture Department and the beef industry are awaiting additional tests to determine whether two animals singled out in preliminary screening have mad cow disease.
Officials said the initial test is so sensitive it does not mean new cases have been found. The original tests on the two animals were "inconclusive," indicating they might be infected.
The only confirmed U.S. case of mad cow — also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE — was discovered in Washington state in December, prompting more sophisticated screening for the disease.
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Diabetes drug: Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly have asked U.S. regulators for permission to market a new treatment for Type 2 diabetes, derived from the saliva of a desert lizard.
The treatment is the first in a new class of medicines known as incretin mimetics to treat Type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes, in which the body does not produce enough insulin and cells in the body do not respond normally to insulin.
Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes, affecting an estimated 15 million Americans. It can lead to serious complications such as blindness and amputations. About 80 to 90 percent of people with the condition, which is becoming increasingly common among children, are obese.
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Warming worries: Global warming could mean bad news for one of the world's most important crops: rice. Increased nighttime temperatures were associated with significant declines in crop yield at the International Rice Research Institute Farm in the Philippines, according to a report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
An average daily temperature increase of 1 degree Celsius resulted in a 10 percent reduction in the rice crop, according to researchers. One degree Celsius equals about 1.8 degree Fahrenheit.
Increasing temperatures, thought to be a result of heat trapped by industrial and other chemicals in the atmosphere, have caused mounting concern in recent years. Scientists have argued over the potential effects of climate change on crops, largely basing their contentions on laboratory tests and computer models. This new study was a direct measurement under field conditions, said the lead researcher.
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Shared air: Almost 100 million people in 21 U.S. states breathe unhealthy levels of tiny particles spewed by coal-burning power plants, cars and factories, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA administrator notified governors from mostly Eastern states plus California that 243 counties do not comply with an agency proposal to limit emissions of the extremely tiny particles.
The particles, 28 times smaller than the width of a human hair, are linked to premature death from heart and lung disease, as well as chronic bronchitis and asthma. Action on particulates is the next regulatory step after the EPA designated them pollutants in 1997.
AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
