Calls for Federal Inquiry Over Untested Cow - NYT 5/6/04

[Guest guest]

It's sounding more and more likely that BSE Mad Cow disease is now in the US.

 

Supposedly the body of the cow in question has been ground up and used for pig

feed.

 

It's sounding pretty risky. How do you know when you buy feed whether it was

actually supposed to be "pig feed"?

 

Anyway, looks like the problem is getting bigger.

 

ys

 

khdd

 

 

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New York Times

 

 

Calls for Federal Inquiry Over Untested Cow

 

May 6, 2004

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

 

 

 

 

 

Consumer groups called for a Congressional investigation

yesterday into the death of a cow with symptoms of brain

damage at a Texas slaughterhouse last week.

 

The cow, which staggered and collapsed after passing an

initial visual inspection at Lone Star Beef in San Angelo,

Tex., was condemned as unfit for human consumption and

under federal regulations should have been tested for mad

cow disease.

 

Instead, it was sent to a rendering plant to be made into

animal food and byproducts.

 

The Consumers Union, the Center for Food Safety and the

Government Accountability Project said yesterday that they

wanted Congress to look into why the cow was not tested and

the possibility that federal officials ordered that no test

be done.

 

Consumer groups have regularly accused the Agriculture

Department of trying to avoid finding more mad cow disease

because of the damage it would do to the beef industry.

Former beef industry officials hold high positions in the

department.

 

The department said yesterday that failing to take a sample

was a mistake and that it would investigate. Its inspector

general's office said it would do its own inquiry.

 

The consumer groups were reacting to an article published

yesterday by meatingplace.com, a meat industry Web site.

Citing two anonymous sources, it said it had firsthand

knowledge of the events, one in government and one in

industry. The article said a federal inspector had started

to take a brain sample but was ordered not to by the

regional headquarters of the Agriculture Department in

Austin, Tex.

 

Ed Loyd, a department spokesman, said he could not comment

on the report.

 

A spokeswoman for the slaughterhouse said yesterday that

the federal inspectors had discussed taking a sample but

decided against it. The spokeswoman, Rosemary Mucklow,

executive director of the National Meat Association, which

represents meatpackers, said they did not explain why or

describe a discussion with the Austin office.

 

The federal inspectors instructed the plant to slash the

carcass and paint it with green dye before putting it on

the regular 3 p.m. rendering truck, Ms. Mucklow said.

 

Felicia Nestor, director of food safety at the Government

Accountability Project, which protects federal

whistle-blowers, said she had heard of several recent

instances in which inspectors had been told by regional

offices not to bother testing cows with signs of brain

damage. Ms. Nestor said the whistle-blowers did not want to

come forward.

 

Staggering and collapse by a cow can be caused by head

injuries, rabies, agricultural poisons or cancer, but mad

cow disease can be detected only by cutting off the

animal's head, taking a sample from the base of the brain

and doing laboratory tests that are not now performed in

slaughterhouses.

 

Ms. Nestor said she had been told that some tests were

skipped because they were inconvenient. In a state like

Texas, she said, the drive to the regional office with

samples could be several hundred miles. But, she noted,

other slaughterhouse inspectors have shipped frozen heads

or brains to the U.S.D.A. testing laboratory in Ames, Iowa.

 

 

Mr. Loyd said he did not know the shipping procedures.

 

The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates rendering

plants, said Tuesday that it had tracked the

slaughterhouse's shipment and would require that it all be

destroyed or made into pig feed. Swine are thought not to

be susceptible to mad cow disease.

 

Lone Star Beef is the country's 18th-largest slaughterhouse

and specializes in older dairy cattle, which are at highest

risk of the disease.

 

According to Steve Mitchell, a United Press International

medical reporter who has collected thousands of 2002 and

2003 slaughterhouse records under the Freedom of

Information Act, Lone Star Beef slaughtered about 350,000

animals in those years and tested only three.

 

Mr. Loyd confirmed that but explained that the animals

normally tested were those unable to walk, or "downers."

Lone Star does not accept downers because it is a supplier

to McDonald's, which forbids them.

 

"The other plant in town had 90 tests," he said. "They

accepted downers."

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/06/national/06COW.html?ex=1085079179&ei=1&en=4b6

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