U.S., Voicing Confidence, Ends Search for More Mad Cow - NYT 2/10/04

[Guest guest]

I guess that we should not be surprised that the people who run the cow

slaughter industry are hypocrites and liars, but I can't help being surprised

at how brazen they are with their lies. This paragraph especially stands out:

 

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The meat supply is safe, Dr. DeHaven said. The

Agriculture Department had said the parts of the Holstein

that could have had infectious material like the brain and

spinal cord were removed before processing.

***************

 

Yet, we just read the article by the cow slaughterer explaining how when he

uses a chain saw on a carcas, he divides it right down the spinal column.

Clearly, all the meat is then contaminated with BSE if the cow has mad cow

disease. Anyway, they are "voicing confidence" that beef is safe.

Interesting.

 

ys

 

hkdd

 

 

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New York Times February 10, 2004

 

 

U.S., Voicing Confidence, Ends Search for More Mad Cow Cases

 

 

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

 

 

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 (AP) - The Agriculture Department is

ending its search for additional cases of mad cow disease,

even though officials have not found several animals

suspected of having eaten the potentially infectious feed

believed to have caused the lone known case in the United

States.

 

 

"Our investigation is now complete," Dr. Ron DeHaven, chief

veterinarian of the department, said Monday. "We feel very

confident the remaining animals, the ones we have not been

able to positively identify, represent little risk."

 

 

The end of the search leaves officials not knowing what

happened to 11 of the 25 cattle that the authorities said

were the most likely to have eaten the same feed as that

given to a Holstein found in Washington State with mad cow

disease after it was slaughtered on Dec. 9. The 25 cattle

were among 81 born on a farm in Alberta and shipped in 2001

to the United States. Officials have found 29 of the 81.

 

 

The authorities checked 189 farms and ranches and tested of

255 animals, none of which had bovine spongiform

encephalopathy, or B.S.E., the technical name for mad cow

disease, Dr. DeHaven said. The likelihood of finding more

cases "is pretty slim at this point," he told reporters in

a conference call.

 

 

An international review panel created by Agriculture

Secretary Ann M. Veneman said last week that American

officials had conducted a thorough search for cases but

added that preventing future cases should be emphasized

more.

 

 

The government has found 2,000 tons of rendered protein

into which tissue from the Holstein could have been mixed,

said Dr. Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the Center for

Veterinary Medicine at the Food and Drug Administration,

the agency that regulates animal feed.

 

 

The material is being destroyed, Dr. Sundlof said, so none

can make its way into animal feed. Experts say meat and

bone meal from infected animals can transmit a mad cow's

infectious protein to other animals.

 

 

A large quantity of tissue was quarantined because

processors commonly mix byproducts from many cattle.

 

 

"It was impossible to distinguish that which just came from

the cow from all of the material that was out there," Dr.

Sundlof said.

 

 

Nonetheless, the extent of the quarantine "indicates we

would have captured any infectious material," he said.

 

 

The end of the search does not close the books on the mad

cow case. Officials do not know the source of the feed

thought to have sickened the Holstein, and they cannot be

certain that all 95 million head of cattle in the United

States are free of mad cow disease. The international

review panel warned of the probability of other cases.

 

 

Also unknown is what happened to all 10,410 pounds of meat

that was recalled from the slaughterhouse that processed

the Holstein and mixed its meat with that of 19 other

animals. Officials theorize people may have eaten some of

that meat. The meat supply is safe, Dr. DeHaven said. The

Agriculture Department had said the parts of the Holstein

that could have had infectious material like the brain and

spinal cord were removed before processing.

 

 

The government issued the recall because of "an abundance

of caution," Dr. DeHaven said.

 

 

Eating meat from animals with mad cow has been linked to a

rare but fatal condition in people, variant

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, although no cases have been

traced from American beef.

 

 

American beef producers lost international markets, which

had taken about 10 percent of their production. About 50

countries have banned American beef, its byproducts or live

cattle; among them are Japan and Mexico, the United States'

best customers. Despite trade officials' visits, almost all

the bans remain.

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/10/politics/10COW.html?ex=1077540399&ei=1&en=0a5

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