"The USDA Web site is the best place for information," said Kiran Kernellu, communications manager for the National Meat Association.

Kernellu said she follows the live briefings and reads transcripts of news conferences by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and USDA Chief Veterinarian Ron DeHaven on the Web site.

Officials from the USDA's Web site did not respond to requests for comment, but according to Web traffic tracker Hitwise, the number of visitors to that site more than doubled on Dec. 23, when the agency first reported the infected cow, and has remained the top agricultural Internet address since then.

BSE, the deadly, brain-wasting disease, was discovered in a slaughtered dairy cow in Washington State in December, causing more than two dozen countries to halt imports of U.S. beef and fanning fears that consumers could contract a human form of the disease known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

For those interested in more information about the rare human neurological disorder, the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Foundation's Web site (http://cjdfoundation.org/Internet.html) is a key resource as well.

Other sites rich in information on Mad Cow disease include the explanatory How Stuff Works Web site (http://www.howstuffworks.com/mad-cow-disease.htm) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's collection of Web resources (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/cjd/cjd.htm). While there is no shortage of Web sites offering information about Mad Cow disease, other sites by consumer rights advocates, animal rights activists and vegetarians have also sprung up to promote their own causes.

The Organic Consumers Association Web site (http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow.htm) provides articles and commentary on Mad Cow disease, along with a petition form for stricter standards for beef entering the food supply.

People for the Ethical Treat of animals (PETA) also has a Web site (http://www.peta.org/feat/madcowus/) called "It's Mad to Eat Meat" offering links to vegetarian resources as well.

In retaliation, the Web site of The Center For Consumer Freedom (http://www.madcowscare.com) argues that consumer fears are being fueled by "scaremongers" who are trying to capitalize on the outbreak.

A FALSE LEAD...AND HUMOR

For those searching for information on Mad Cow via the popular search engine Google (http:www.google.com), initial results could be disappointing.

The top hit on Google is a link to "The Official Mad Cow Disease Home Page (http://mad-cow.org/) which, according to the header on the home page, hasn't been updated since April of 2001. A link from that page to news and commentary, in fact, takes Web surfers back to the Organic Consumers Association Web site.

While some are searching for Mad Cow information on the Web, others are stumbling upon Mad Cow humor.

There some collections of Mad Cow jokes on the Web, but they are far outnumbered by more general ruminant-related jokes.

Among other humorous sites are "How to Spot a Mad Cow" at (http://viswiz.imk.fraunhofer.de/%7Esteffi/madcow/madcow.htm) and "The Meatrix" (http://www.themeatrix.com), a spoof of the popular science fiction Matrix films.

According to the site's creators, the animated "Meatrix" movie has been viewed by more than 3 million people that bills itself as an expose "about the lies we tell ourselves about where our food comes from."

That's because The Meatrix was created by the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment, an organization that "works to end the destructive and dangerous practices of factory farming and to promote sustainable agriculture."