Ban Urged on All Animal Protein for Cattle NYT 2/5/04

[Guest guest]

The wonderful deluding energy of the Lord. Still it will be legal to feed the

remains of mad cows to chicken and pigs.

 

ys

hkdd

 

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New York Times February 5, 2004

 

 

Ban Urged on All Animal Protein for Cattle

 

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. and DENISE GRADY

 

 

 

Saying mad cow disease is now "indigenous in North

America," an international panel advising the Agriculture

Department recommended a ban yesterday on feeding all

animal protein to cattle.

 

 

The panel, made up of experts from Britain, New Zealand,

Switzerland and the United States, also recommended testing

many more head of cattle, adopting rapid European tests and

removing brains, spinal columns and intestines of all

cattle older than 1 from food supplies.

 

 

Convened after the first cow infected with bovine

spongiform encephalopathy in this country was found in

December in Washington State, the panel released its report

at a conference in Maryland. Its chairman, Dr. Ulrich Kihm,

a Swiss veterinarian, said the United States "could have a

case a month" of mad cow disease if it was doing enough

testing, Reuters reported. Dr. Kihm made the estimate based

on the experiences of European countries. But he did not

predict an outbreak like the one in Britain, where hundreds

of thousands of infected cows were found and more than 100

people died of a degenerative brain disease.

 

 

The chief veterinary officer for the Agriculture

Department, Dr. Ron DeHaven, said that it was "no surprise

that there may be other cases in North America," but that

there was "no way to know whether there would be one a

month or one every five years."

 

 

Even if there are more, Dr. DeHaven said, the panel

acknowledged that the steps that the department took on

Dec. 30 - banning the slaughter of sick and injured cows

for human food, as well as the removal of brains, spinal

cords and intestines from older cows at slaughter - are the

most important to protect consumers. The department will

respond to the report quickly, he said "because there is a

sense of urgency about this."

 

 

Though the document, "Report on Measures Relating to Bovine

Spongiform Encephalopathy in the United States," was

couched in dry uncritical language, it made clear that the

panel believed that the department had not done enough to

protect consumers or find all the diseased cows in North

America. It also said blanket assurances that "beef is

safe" could undermine regulatory efforts.

 

 

"It's explosive stuff," Michael Hansen, an expert on mad

cow disease at Consumers Union, said. "It's an implicit

admission that the critics have been correct and B.S.E. has

been here all along."

 

 

Dr. Gary Weber, executive director for regulatory affairs

at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, said the

report was "not objective" and was "negative in tone." Dr.

Weber called Dr. Kihm's remarks "more soothsayer than

scientist."

 

 

European scientists "don't want to believe that the North

American risk situation is different from Europe's," he

said. One panel member whom Dr. Weber declined to name had

privately told him that an earlier draft had been even more

damning but that the member had been "able to moderate it."

 

 

 

It has been illegal since 1997 to feed meal made from

ruminants like cows, sheep, goats and deer to other

ruminants. It is legal to feed hogs and chickens. Partly

because it has been so hard to prevent cross-contamination

in rendering plants and the trucks that carry the dried

meal, the panel recommended that cattle be given no more

animal feed.

 

 

The department tests 40,000 head of the more than 30

million head of cattle slaughtered each year. Dr. DeHaven

said it was possible that the agency would consider more

aggressive tests and that the results would determine

whether cattle as young as 1 needed to be treated if they

could be infected.

 

 

Although testing all slaughtered cattle is "unjustified in

terms of protecting animal and human health," the panel

said, it recommended testing all cattle older than 30

months that die on farms, that collapse from illness or

injury or that show the twitching, nervousness or

aggressiveness symptomatic of mad cow disease. In addition,

the panel suggested randomly testing healthy cattle.

 

 

Switzerland randomly tests 3 percent of healthy cattle at

slaughter.

 

 

Decisions about what animals go into cattle feed are made

by the Food and Drug Administration, which last week banned

feeding cow blood, chicken waste and restaurant scraps to

cattle, but continued with rendered hogs and chickens.

Industry critics objected, saying hogs and chickens eat

rendered cattle, so the disease could pass through.

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/05/national/nationalspecial2/05COW.html?ex=10769

92295&ei=1&en=31b7393450436f45