U.S. Blocks Canadian Beef

[Guest guest]

Did anyone see this on Tom Brokaw last night? They were showing these

beautiful cows who had mad cow's disease, and they were in so much suffering,

and then they went straight from showing cows eating other slaughtered cows

in their food (which we all know they get fed) and then straight to a

slaughterhouse where their skinned bodies were hanging, and then back to the

cows, and then to a video of a man eating meat on his plate.... it was

REVOLTING ~ and to top it off, the first commercial it went to was that

bullsh*t commercial " Happy Cows Come From California " ~ oooh I hate that

commercial as you all know already, as I have proof of what a cow's life is

like on a California Dairy Farm, and it is NOTHING like that damned

commercial. Anyway sorry for the rant, here's the article if you missed it

on Brokaw yesterday......... ~ Jo

 

 

U.S. Blocks Canadian Beef Imports

 

By LAURAN NEERGAARD

..c The Associated Press

 

WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal health officials are moving quickly to ensure the

safety of the U.S. food supply after the discovery of a Canadian cow with mad

cow disease.

 

The Bush administration banned all beef imports from Canada on Tuesday,

shortly after officials there announced that an 8-year-old cow had been

confirmed to have had mad cow disease when it was slaughtered. The disease's

incubation period can be as long as eight years; so it was unclear when the

animal was infected.

 

The administration said it would send veterinarians and others to help the

Canadians investigate, and should the case prove to be an isolated incident,

the import ban could be abandoned fairly soon.

 

``We're being very vigilant,'' said FDA Deputy Commissioner Les Crawford.

But, ``I don't think it poses, at this point, a public health threat for the

U.S.''

 

Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman was more pointed: ``At this time we see no

reason for any consumer to be concerned about the safety of the food supply,

and in fact I intend to eat a steak tonight,'' she said on CNN.

 

South Korea on Wednesday banned all beef and cow part imports from Canada,

the agriculture ministry said. The same day, Japan imposed a temporary ban on

imports of Canadian beef products.

 

The infected cow from a farm in northern Alberta was slaughtered Jan. 31

because it was believed to have had pneumonia, Canadian Agriculture Minister

Lyle Vanclief said. Tests in England confirmed it was infected with bovine

spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, known more commonly as mad cow disease.

 

Canadian officials said the cow's herd would be slaughtered and the farm

quarantined. ``A trace on the animal is being done,'' Vanclief said. ``The

animal did not go into the food chain.''

 

``We will make all resources available,'' Veneman said of U.S. assistance.

``We will do everything we can to help them track back this particular animal

and to try to make a determination as to what happened here.''

 

Mad cow disease has never been found in U.S. cattle, despite intensive

testing for it. The U.S. government routinely seals the border against

imports of meat and cattle from countries where mad cow disease is found,

because the cattle disease is linked to a brain-destroying human illness

called new variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease. The human illness is believed

to spread by eating brain or nerve tissue from infected animals.

 

Mad cow disease sprang up in Britain in 1986 and later spread to countries in

Europe and Asia. It is thought to have spread through cow feed that included

protein and bone meal from sheep or other mammals.

 

The FDA outlawed feeding mammalian meat and bone meal to cattle, sheep and

goats in 1997, a rule considered the nation's main defense against mad cow

disease. Canada has a similar ban.

 

There has been one previous known North American case of mad cow disease - in

1993, an animal in Canada that was imported from Britain. The animal's herd

was destroyed and the disease did not spread.

 

Key to how serious the Canadian discovery is to trace the infection. Two

possibilities are whether the cow was imported from a BSE-infected country or

ate feed that illegally contained BSE-bearing protein, said FDA's Crawford.

 

The case prompted consumer advocates to renew demands that all nerve tissue

be banned from ground beef. Some manufacturers process hamburger in machines

that chip off bits of nerve tissue, said Caroline Smith DeWaal of the Center

for Science in the Public Interest. A ban ``is the step that will protect the

human food supply in case an infected cow slips through the safety system,''

she said.

 

Canada is the top foreign supplier of live cattle to the United States,

exporting 1.7 million head last year, or 75 percent of U.S. imports. About 7

percent of beef consumed by Americans is from Canada, said Michelle Peterson,

spokeswoman for the National Cattleman's Beef Association, which represents

U.S. beef producers.

 

U.S. companies sought to reassure Americans about the safety of their beef

after Canada's announcement, which triggered a sharp drop in shares of big

U.S. hamburger chains.

 

``McDonald's worldwide has the highest beef safety standards and will

continue to strictly enforce them,'' the Oak Brook, Ill., company said.

``McDonald's Canada only purchases beef from facilities federally inspected

and approved by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.''

 

The company said it does not import beef from Canada. Outback Steakhouse said

its restaurants serve only USDA top choice or prime U.S. Midwestern grain-fed

beef.

 

On the Net: Centers for Disease Control and Prevent mad cow disease page: <A

HREF= " http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/cjd/cjd.htm " >

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/cjd/cjd.htm</A>

 

 

 

05/21/03 05:34 EDT

 

 

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