US mad cow test procedure violated in Texas

[Mechanic]

US mad cow test procedure violated in Texas

04.05.2004
12.45pm
WASHINGTON - Inspectors failed to perform a required mad cow disease test on a suspicious animal in Texas, the US Agriculture Department said on Monday, just as the Bush administration is pushing to reopen world markets to US beef.

The crippled animal slipped through the USDA's mad cow testing regime at a time when the government is trying to convince Japan and other nations that it has imposed enough safeguards to protect the food supply.

The cow at a Lone Star Beef plant in San Angelo, Texas, was condemned on April 27 after a federal veterinarian "observed the cow stagger and fall," according to a USDA statement. Instead of holding the cow for testing, the carcass was sent to rendering, preventing regulators from ever determining if it had the brain-wasting disease.

Meat from the animal did not enter the human food chain, according to USDA.

"Standard procedures call for animals condemned due to possible CNS (central nervous system) disorder to be kept" until federal officials collect brain tissue for testing, the USDA said. "However, this did not occur in this case."

USDA officials and veterinarians have stressed that a cow could stagger and fall because of a broken bone or other illnesses, not just because of mad cow disease.

The problem in Texas comes four months after the United States found its first case of mad cow disease in a Canadian-born cow slaughtered in Washington state.

That case abruptly halted nearly US$4 billion ($6.47 billion) worth of US beef shipments. While Mexico, a huge buyer of American beef, has lifted some of its import restrictions, Japan, the largest foreign importer, has refused to ease its total trade ban.

Japan has insisted that it wants all US cattle tested for the disease. However, USDA and US meat industry officials argue there is no scientific justification for testing all cattle.

Lone Star Beef said in a statement that it was "instructed by the USDA to dispose of the animal" and immediately sent the suspicious cow to rendering.

"At Lone Star Beef, food safety is our top priority at all times," the company said. "We are cooperating with federal officials as they review this situation."

Under stricter regulations adopted by the USDA since the first case of US mad cow disease was found, no crippled or "downer" cattle can be processed into human food. The animals can still be rendered or processed at high temperatures to make bone meal, soap, cosmetics and other industrial products.

A spokeswoman for the American Meat Institute said the group was "glad the animal was kept out of the food supply," but she did not know why the necessary testing was not done.

Mad cow disease has been linked to a variant human disease responsible for at least 140 deaths, mostly in Europe.

A spokesman for the Denver-based US Meat Export Federation, said the problem in Texas "adds a new wrinkle" to beef trade negotiations with Tokyo that are getting underway.

Last week, USDA officials said they hoped Japan, a US$1.4 billion market for American beef, would relax its trade ban by the end of summer.

Foreign importers and retailers have demanded more details on the Texas incident, the federation spokesman said.

The cow in Texas fell through the USDA's safety net as the government expands efforts to find out if the Washington state cow was an exception or marked a bigger mad cow problem.

Last year, USDA tested only 20,000 cattle for mad cow disease, a level criticized by consumer groups as inadequate, out of about 36 million slaughtered. For an 18 month period starting in June, USDA aims to test at least 200,000 cattle.

"This is deeply troubling, that USDA is not testing the cattle showing signs of central nervous system disease. These are exactly the cattle that are at highest risk of actually having BSE," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety expert with the Centre for Science in the Public Interest.

USDA investigators and a congressional committee are conducting separate probes into whether the Washington state cow was a downer, as USDA claimed on December 23.

- REUTERS

[Mechanic]

Missouri plant asks to test for mad cow


A Missouri-based beef packing cooperative has sent a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman requesting permission to perform voluntary testing for mad cow disease on 100 percent of the animals slaughtered at its facility near Overland, Mo.

Gateway Beef Cooperative president Robbie Meyer said the cooperative's members feel the testing is imperative in order to resume exports to foreign customers, particularly Japan.

Meyer said the request was based solely on the company's need to please international customers.

Arkansas City processor Creekstone Farms has made the same request of the USDA, but has been denied the right to test.

[Mechanic]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20040520-1759-madcow.html

WASHINGTON – President Bush should demand the resignation of Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman because the department quietly allowed imports of some Canadian beef despite the ban it imposed due to Canada's case of mad cow disease, Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said Thursday.

"It now appears that the USDA has secretly and selectively violated its own publicly announced ban on the importation of processed beef from Canada," Conrad said in a letter to President Bush. "In fact, the report is so damaging to the credibility and integrity of the USDA that I believe you should ask the Secretary of Agriculture to resign."

Alisa Harrison, a spokeswoman for the department, defended the agency's actions, saying the department had announced in August of 2003 that it would permit certain products that did not pose a risk to public health.

The secretary's office was called late Thursday for reaction to Conrad's call for Veneman's resignation, but no one was available to respond.

At issue are permits for beef from cattle under 30 months of age, which are considered at minimal risk of mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. Eating beef containing the misshapen protein which causes BSE has been linked to a rare but fatal brain-wasting disease in humans, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

The department's August announcement said it would allow the imports of boneless beef – cuts from muscle – as exceptions to its general ban on imports of Canadian beef and live cattle. Muscle cuts were considered safe because the mad cow protein, when it exists, develops in other tissue, notably the brain and spinal cord.

The department imposed the general ban on imports in May 2003 immediately after Canada announced that BSE had been found in one animal. It allowed some exceptions in August.

However, critics of the department's handling of mad cow disease say the department, without telling the public, granted permits for Canadian processed beef products it had not listed in August.

Another Democratic senator, Tim Johnson of South Dakota, said the department's inspector general should investigate the permit controversy, but said he was not calling for Veneman's resignation "at this point."

[Mechanic]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040521/wl_uk_afp/health_britain_madcow_040521095600

Thousands may have human form of mad cow disease

Fri May 21, 5:56 AM ET


LONDON (AFP) - Some 3,800 people in Britain could be harbouring the human form of mad cow disease without knowing it, government-funded research suggests.

Scientists who examined 12,674 stored appendix and tonsil samples said they had identified three bearing signs of the agent that causes variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites) (vCJD).


Applying their findings to the entire population of the United Kingdom, which is 60 million, they estimated that about 3,800 people would test positive for the illness.


Some 141 people are known to have died in Britain from vCJD, a spongy deterioration of the brain causing personality change, loss of body function, and eventually death.


Scientists think the findings -- which at first sight appeared to be at odds with declining rates of vCJD -- might indicate that people can carry the disease without developing symptoms.


They would still be able to spread the disease to others, however, via contaminated surgical instruments, blood transfusions or organ donation.


"Our findings need to be interpreted with caution, but cannot be discounted," said David Hilton, of Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, southern England, who led the study published in the Journal of Pathology.


Fears for the safety of British beef emerged in 1986 when mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE (news - web sites)), was first discovered in a cow on a farm in West Sus---.


It was only 10 years later, however, that the government announced that a probable link had been established between BSE and vCJD.


The latest research involved examining thousands of appendix and tonsil samples removed during routine operations and stored at hospitals. Most were from people aged 20 to 29, the peak age for developing vCJD.


The scientists looked for accumulations of the abnormal prion protein molecules believed to trigger both BSE and vCJD.


One positive appendix sample was the subject of much publicity when preliminary results from the study were released in 2002.


The two others, also from appendix operations, show an unusual pattern of prion accumulation unlike that seen in known vCJD cases.


But the scientists have carried out tests which appear to discount the possibility that they are "false positives".


Despite a slight jump last year, the numbers of vCJD cases have appeared to be on the decline. But experts cannot be sure more will not emerge in the future as the disease reaches the end of its incubation period in people with different genetic make-ups.


Professor James Ironside, senior pathologist at the National CJD Surveillance Unit in Edinburgh, who took part in the research, said: "There would seem to be more positives than you would expect given the known number of vCJD cases and the fact that they seem to be declining."


"That may be because of genetic differences and susceptibility, but it may also be that you can have a sub-clinical infection which never progresses to produce symptoms -- a 'carrier state'."


"I think the findings do have to be taken seriously," added Ironside. "Generally, one has to be cautious about interpreting these data -- but they may indicate that there are people who are not infected in the normal way but could represent a source of infection."

A Department of Health spokesman said: "There is still much to learn about vCJD and this study is important for future research."

"The results reinforce the need for a continued precautionary approach to minimise people's exposure to BSE and vCJD. The Department of Health has already put in place measures to reduce any risk of possible transmission of the disease via blood products and surgical instruments."