The USDA and the meat industry are playing Russian roulette with the health of the American people

[Guest guest]

COPING WITH MAD COW DISEASE

 

Muscle meat contaminated with brain or spinal tissue from contaminated cows can

be deadly. Jeff Costello / Staff Photographer By Erik Sorensen and Rob Varley /

Staff Writers

SENNETT - Mad cow disease is being felt all the way to the livestock sales in

Sennett.

 

But local dairy farmers are hopeful the fears which have impacted cow sales will

only last a few weeks.

 

Prices last week at Sennett Sales were down about 25 percent from the previous

week. Dairy cows sold for about 33 cents a pound, compared to around 44 cents

before the first U.S. case of mad cow disease was diagnosed on Dec. 22.

 

Last spring, prices were soaring at around 60 cents a pound, thanks to the mad

cow scare in Canada.

 

This week's dip in prices cost sellers approximately $120 a cow. The cows sold

at auctions like the one in Sennett are generally " culled " cows, those which no

longer produce enough milk, are injured, or unable to become pregnant.

 

Dairy farmers cull between 25-35 percent of their herd each year, which means a

$120 per cow can mean thousands of dollars lost to local farmers.

 

This week's auction drew about 25 percent more cows than the usual 40-45, but

Sennett Sales owner Mark Kent is cautious about predicting January sales. He

said the number of cows sold Tuesday was unexpectedly 25 percent higher than the

normal 40-45 head he sells at most auctions.

 

" It remains to be seen how many we'll have this week. For the simple reason

that, probably, everybody's going to be concerned and up in the air with what

stuff's going to bring, " he said.

 

Many farmers may decide to hold onto their herd, to wait for fears to subside

and the prices to climb again.

 

Farmers like Lester Rhinehart, who raises close to 20 beef cattle at his farm in

New Haven, will wait it out.

 

" I'll just keep them and wait till the price goes up again, " said Rhinehart. " I

think everything will all be straightened out by the spring. "

 

Kent said the news of mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopahty) in the

U.S. was not surprising.

 

" Most everybody that's in agriculture realistically knew that someday we'd have

one of these cows in this country. It was inevitable, " he said. " But our meat

supply is pretty safe as far as I'm concerned. The inspections at these

slaughterhouses is pretty rigorous. I have no qualms about eating beef. "

 

Local farmers agree.

 

" There's no safer food that what's in the United States, " said Rich Brown, who

raises 70 head of Black Angus cattle at his Equity Angus Farm in Port Byron.

" You travel anywhere else in the world, you have to watch the water you drink,

you're going to watch the food you eat. Not here. "

 

Since Dec. 23, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the first case

of mad cow disease in this country, the price for live cattle at the Chicago

Mercantile Exchange has dropped about 20 percent. At $27 billion in annual

sales, the cattle industry is the largest single sector in U.S. agriculture.

 

The drop is prices is in stark contrast to a surge in beef prices in 2003,

especially over the past four months. Before the mad cow case, cattle were being

sold for around 92 cents a pound. In October, that price was close to $1.20 in

some markets.

 

Brown, 53, was a dairy farmer before he started raising cattle in 1995. His

animals are inspected by the USDA, and processed at a plant in the Fulton area.

 

" It's a shame it took place, " said Brown. " But the USDA, and the state

universities, have done a super job ramping up in the expectation that something

like this could happen. "

 

The infected animal, a Holstein dairy cow, tested positive after being

slaughtered Dec. 9 at a plant in southern Washington state. And it was termed a

" downer, " an animal so sick, or injured, it couldn't enter the slaughterhouse on

its own.

 

Most U.S. counties ban downer cattle from being slaughtered and sold, such as

the Washington Holstein. Downer cattle are animals so sick they can't walk into

the slaughterhouse on their own power. Congress failed to pass a bill this

summer that would have banned the slaughter of downer cows, but the measure is

expected to be introduced again sometime this year.

 

The impact of bovine spongiform encephalopahty (BSE) on the meat is hotly

debated.

 

" The agent that causes BSE only accumulates in the brain, the spinal cord, and

intestinal tissue of infected animals, " said Dr. Alfonso Torres, executive

director of the New York State Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory in Ithaca.

" The meat itself, and milk, are completely safe products. "

 

However, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) said central

nervous system tissue has been found in ground beef products. They say bone-out

beef cuts are safe, bone-in products might pose a threat, and that ground beef

products - including sausage and hot dogs -- could be dangerous.

 

Statistics would seem to bolster the CSPI argument.

 

Nearly 140 people died from BSE in Great Britain from 1986 to the mid-1990s

after mad cow disease was discovered.

 

It was that year the USDA banned the use of ground-up " ruminants " - cattle,

sheep, goats, and deer - in feed that could be used to raise dairy cows or

cattle. This process was believed to spread BSE.

 

Brown, 53, gets his feed from a feed lot in Seneca Falls that grows much of what

they sell. And since the infected cow in Washington was much older than

previously thought - older than 6 1/2 years, rather than 4 -that means the

animal could have eaten feed with ground-up animal products.

 

Expect the debate, and the concerns, to be discussed for several years to come.

 

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals say its free vegetarian starter

kits has had such strong demand that employees on vacation had to be called back

in to handle all the requests.

 

" The USDA and the meat industry are playing Russian roulette with the health of

the American people, and the national consciousness is being awakened, " a PETA

spokesman said.

 

 

 

 

karl theis jr

 

 

http://groups.msn.com/exposureofthetruth

 

madcowcoverup-

 

theoneswithoutnames-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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