Meatpacker has to Sue to actually Test his own Beef?

Unknown News:

WASHINGTON -- A Kansas meatpacker has sparked an industry fight by proposing testing all the company's cattle for mad cow disease.

Now, that's odd. Why would a meatpacker have to sue just to test its own beef?

Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wants to look for the disease in every animal it processes. The Agriculture Department has said no. Creekstone says it intends to sue the department.

That's odd too: why would Agriculture say no?

The department and larger meat companies oppose comprehensive testing, saying it cannot assure food safety. Testing rarely detects the disease in younger animals, the source of most meat.

Okay, but I guess the question is still, why not let this company perform whatever tests it wants? Sure, it may be useless and it may cause other people to decide whether to also employ a test which we currently think is partly useless, but, still, why not let them spend their own money testing their own product how they want, as long as they don't miss out on some required testing? It seems that the Dept of Agriculture should be there to ensure against inadequate testing, not testing which it believes today to be worthless.