12/24 USDA Misleading American Public about Beef Safety

[Guest guest]

12/24/03 USDA Misleading American Public about Beef Safety

by Michael Greger, M.D.

 

It is not surprising that the U.S. has mad cow disease given our

flaunting of World Health Organization recommendations.[1] What is

surprising, however, is that we actually found a case given the

inadequacy of our surveillance program, a level of testing that Nobel

laureate Stanley Prusiner, probably the world's leading expert on

these diseases, calls simply " appalling. " [2] Europe and Japan follow

World Health Organization guidelines[3] and test every downer cow for

mad cow disease[4]; the U.S. has tested less than 2% of downers over

the last decade.[5] Most of the U.S. downer cows, too sick or injured

to even walk, end up on our dinner plates.[6]

 

In Canada, authorities were able to reassure the public that at least

the downer cow they discovered infected with BSE--Bovine Spongiform

Encephalopathy, or mad cow disease--was excluded from the human food

chain and only rendered into animal feed.[7] U.S. officials don't

seem to be able to offer the same reassurance, as the mad cow we

discovered may very well have been ground into hamburger.[8] How

then, can the USDA and the beef industry insist that the American

beef supply is still safe? They argue that the infectious prions that

cause the disease are only found in the brain and nervous tissue, not

the muscles, not the meat.

 

For example, on NBC's Today, USDA Secretary Veneman insisted " the

fact of the matter is that all scientific evidence would show, based

upon what we know about this disease, that muscle cuts -- that is,

the meat of the animal itself -- should not cause any risk to human

health. " [9] The National Cattlemen's Beef Association echoed

" Consumers should continue to eat beef with confidence. All

scientific studies show that the BSE infectious agent has never been

found in beef muscle meat or milk and U.S. beef remains safe to eat.

" [10] This can be viewed as misleading and irresponsible on two

counts.

 

First, American do eat bovine central nervous system tissue. The

United States General Accounting Office (GAO) is the investigative

watchdog arm of Congress. In 2002, the GAO released their report on

the weaknesses present in the U.S. defense against mad cow disease.

Quoting from that congressional report, " In terms of the public

health risk, consumers do not always know when foods and other

products they use may contain central nervous system tissue... Many

edible products, such as beef stock, beef extract, and beef

flavoring, are frequently made by boiling the skeletal remains

(including the vertebral column) of the carcass... " [12] According to

the consumer advocacy organization Center for Science in the Public

Interest, spinal cord contamination may also be found in U.S. hot

dogs, hamburgers, pizza toppings, and taco fillings.[13] In fact, a

2002 USDA survey showed that approximately 35 percent of high risk

meat products tested positive for central nervous system tissues.[14]

 

The GAO report continues: " In light of the experiences in Japan and

other countries that were thought to be BSE free, we believe that it

would be prudent for USDA to consider taking some action to inform

consumers when products may contain central nervous system or other

tissue that could pose a risk if taken from a BSE-infected animal.

This effort would allow American consumers to make more informed

choices about the products they consume. " [15] The USDA, however, did

not follow those recommendations, deciding such foods need not be

labeled.[16]

 

Even if Americans just stick to steak, they may not be shielded from

risk. The " T " in a T-bone steak is a vertebra from the animal's

spinal column, and as such may contain a section of the actual spinal

cord. Other potentially contaminated cuts include porterhouse,

standing rib roast, prime rib with bone, bone-in rib steak, and (if

they contain bone) chuck blade roast and loin. These cuts may include

spinal cord tissue and/or so-called dorsal root ganglia, swellings of

nerve roots coming into the meat from the spinal cord which have been

proven to be infectious as well.[17] This concern has led the FDA to

consider banning the incorporation of " plate waste " from restaurants

into cattle feed.[18] The American Feed Industry Association defends

the current exemption of plate scrapings from the 1997 feed

regulations: " How can you tell the consumer 'Hey, you've just eaten a

T-bone steak and it's fine for you, but you can't feed it to

animals'? " [19]

 

Even boneless cuts may not be risk-free, though. In the

slaughterhouse, the bovine carcass is typically split in half down

the middle with a band saw, sawing right through the spinal column.

This has been shown to aerosolize the spinal cord and contaminate the

surrounding meat.[20] A study in Europe found contamination with

spinal cord material on 100% of the split carcasses examined.[21]

Similar contamination of meat derived from cattle cheeks can occur

from brain tissue, if the cheek meat is not removed before the skull

is fragmented or split.[22] The World Health Organization has pointed

out that American beef can be contaminated with brain and spinal cord

tissue in another way as well.[23]

 

Except for Islamic halal and Jewish kosher slaughter (which involve

slitting the cow's throat while the animal is still conscious),

cattle slaughtered in the United States are first stunned unconscious

with an impact to the head before being bled to death. Medical

science has known for over 60 years that people suffering head trauma

can end up with bits of brain embolized into their bloodstream; so

Texas A & M researchers wondered if fragments of brain could be found

within the bodies of cattle stunned for slaughter. They checked and

reportedly exclaimed, " Oh, boy did we find it. " [24] They even found a

14 cm piece of brain in one cow's lung. They concluded, " It is likely

that prion proteins are found throughout the bodies of animals

stunned for slaughter. " [25]

 

There are different types of stunning devices, however, which likely

have different levels of risk associated with them. The Texas A & M

study was published in 1996 using the prevailing method at the time,

pneumatic-powered air injection stunning.[26] The device is placed in

the middle of the animal's forehead and fired, shooting a 4 inch bolt

through the skull and injecting compressed air into the cranial vault

which scrambles the brain tissue. The high pressure air not only

" produces a smearing of the head of the animal with liquefied

brain, " [27] but has been shown over and over to blow brain back into

the circulatory system, scattering whole plugs of brain into a number

of organs[28] and smaller brain bits likely into the muscle meat as

well.[29]

 

Although this method of stunning has been used in the United States

for over 20 years,[30] the meat industry, to their credit, has been

phasing out these particularly risky air injection-type stunners. The

Deputy Director of Public Citizen argues that this industry

initiative should be given the force of federal regulation and

banned,[31] as they have been throughout Europe.[32]

 

The stunning devices that remain in widespread use drive similar

bolts through the skull of the animal, but without air injection.[33]

Operators then may or may not pith the animals by sticking a rod into

the stun hole to further agitate the deeper brain structures to

reduce or eliminate reflex kicking during shackling of the hind

limbs.[34] Even without pithing, which has been shown to be risky,

these stunners currently in use in the U.S. today may still force

brain into the bloodstream of some of these animals.[35-38]

 

In one experiment, for example, researchers applied a marker onto the

stunner bolt. The marker was later detected within the muscle meat of

the stunned animal. They conclude: " This study demonstrates that

material present in... the CNS of cattle during commercial captive

bolt stunning may become widely dispersed across the many animate and

inanimate elements of the slaughter-dressing environment and within

derived carcasses including meat entering the human food chain. " [39]

Even non-penetrative " mushroom-headed " stunners which just rely on

concussive force to the skull to render the animal unconscious may

not be risk free. People in automobile accidents with non-invasive

head trauma can still end up with brain embolization,[40] and these

bolts move at over 200 miles per hour.[41] The researchers at Texas

A & M conclude, " Reason dictates that any method of stunning to the

head will result in the likelihood of brain emboli in the lungs or,

indeed, other parts of the body. " [42]

 

And, finally, even if consumers of American beef just stick to

boneless cuts from ritually slaughtered animals who just happen to

have had their spinal columns safely removed, the muscle meat itself

may be infected with prions. It is unconscionable that the USDA and

the beef industry continue to insist that the deadly prions aren't

found in muscle meat.[43] In 2002, Stanley Prusiner, the scientist

who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery of prions,

proved in mice, at least, that muscle cells themselves were capable

of forming prions.[44] He describes the levels of prions in muscle as

" quite high, " and describes the studies relied upon by the

Cattlemen's Association as " extraordinarily inadequate. " [45]

Follow-up studies in Germany published May, 2003 confirm Prusiner's

findings, showing that an animal who are orally infected may indeed

end up with prions contaminating muscles throughout their body.[46]

 

The discovery of a case of mad cow disease in the U.S. highlights how

ineffective current safeguards are in North America. The explosive

spread of mad cow disease in Europe has been blamed on the

cannibalistic practice of feeding slaughterhouse waste to

livestock.[47] Both Canada[48] and the United States[49] banned the

feeding of the muscles and bones of most animals to cows and sheep

back in 1997, but unlike Europe left gaping loopholes in the law. For

example, blood is currently exempted from the Canadian[50] and the

U.S.[51] feed bans. You can still feed calves cow's blood collected

at the slaughterhouse. In modern factory farming practice calves may

be removed from their mothers immediately after birth, so the calves

are fed milk replacer, which is often supplemented with protein rich

cow serum. Weaned calves and young pigs also may have cattle blood

sprayed directly on their feed to save money on feed costs.[52] For

more information on this and other risky agriculture practices please

see http://organicconsumers.org/madcow/GregerBSE.cfm

 

And the Canadian[53] and U.S. feed bans[54] also allows the feeding

of pigs and horses to cows. Cattle remains can be rendered down and

fed to pigs, for example, and then the pig remains can be fed back to

cattle.[55] Or rendered cattle remains can be fed to chickens and

then the chicken litter, or manure, can be legally fed back to the

cows.[56] So the fact that according to the USDA the most infectious

tissues of the U.S. mad cow case, the brain spinal cord and

intestines, " were removed from this animal and sent to rendering " is

not necessarily reassuring.[57]

 

D. Carleton Gajdusek was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for

his work on mad cow-like diseases.[58] He was quoted on Dateline NBC

as saying, " it's got to be in the pigs as well as the cattle. It's

got to be passing through the chickens. " [59] Dr. Paul Brown, medical

director for the US Public Health Service, believes that pigs and

poultry could indeed be harboring mad cow disease and passing it on

to humans, adding that pigs are especially sensitive to the disease.

" It's speculation, " he says, " but I am perfectly serious. " [60]

 

The 2002 General Accounting Office report concluded: " BSE may be

silently incubating somewhere in the United States. If that is the

case, then FDA 's failure to enforce the feed ban may already have

placed U.S. herds and, in turn, the human food supply at risk. FDA

has no clear enforcement strategy for dealing with firms that do not

obey the feed ban... Moreover, FDA has been using inaccurate,

incomplete, and unreliable data to track and oversee feed ban

compliance. " [61] The report can be downloaded at

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02183.pdf

 

Despite these shortcomings, Secretary Veneman and Washington's

governor both assured the public that they were still having beef for

Christmas, reminiscent of the 1990 fiasco in which the British

agriculture minister appeared on TV urging his 4-year-old daughter to

eat a hamburger.[62] Four years later, young people in Britain were

dying from an invariably fatal neurogenerative disease called variant

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease--the human equivalent of mad cow

disease--which they contracted through the consumption of infected

beef.[63]

 

[1] http://organicconsumers.org/madcow/GregerBSE.cfm

[2] Mad Cow Disease in Canada. May 23, 2003 9:00am KQED Forum hosted

by Angie Coiro.

<http://www.kqed.org/programs/programarchive.jsp?progID=RD19 & ResultStart=1 & Resul\

tCount=10 & type=radio>.

[3] World Health Organization Consultation on Public Health Issues

Related to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy and the Emergence of a

New Variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. MMWR 45(14);295-6, 303. 12

April 1996.

[4] Mad Cow Disease in Canada. May 23, 2003 9:00am KQED Forum hosted

by Angie Coiro.

<http://www.kqed.org/programs/programarchive.jsp?progID=RD19 & ResultStart=1 & Resul\

tCount=10 & type=radio>.

[5] Even assuming 195,000 downers a year and that every single of the

tests in the surveillance program's history was performed on downer

cattle, (48,000 in 13 years)/(195,000 x 13 years) is less than 2%.

[6] A Review of USDA Slaughterhouse Records for Downed Animals (U.S.

District 65 from January, 1999 to June, 2001) Farm Sanctuary, October

2001. http://www.nodowners.org/downedanimals.pdf

[7] " Critics say U.S. needs to do more to protect against mad cow. "

The Journal News (New York) 29 May 2003.

[8] " Mad Cow Meat May Have Been Eaten, Official Says. " Reuters.

December 23, 2003.

[9] " First US Case Of Mad Cow Disease Found In WA. " The Bulletin's

Frontrunner. December 24, 2003.

[10] National Cattlemen's Beef Association Statement. December 23, 2003.

[11]

[12] United States General Accounting Office. GAO Report to

Congressional Requesters. January 2002 MAD COW DISEASE: Improvements

in the Animal Feed Ban and Other Regulatory Areas Would Strengthen

U.S. Prevention Efforts. GAO-02-183.

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02183.pdf

[13] " Health and Consumer Groups Urge USDA to Keep Cattle Spinal Cord

Tissue Out of Processed Meat " Center for Science in the Public

Interest News Release. 10 August 2001.

[14] USDA, Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA Begins Sampling

Program for Advanced Meat Recovery Systems, News Release.3 March 2002.

[15] United States General Accounting Office. GAO Report to

Congressional Requesters. January 2002 MAD COW DISEASE: Improvements

in the Animal Feed Ban and Other Regulatory Areas Would Strengthen

U.S. Prevention Efforts. GAO-02-183.

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02183.pdf

[16] USDA Response To GAO Recommendations on BSE Prevention. Release

No. F.S. 0071.02.

[17] Center for Science in the Public Interest. Nutrition Health

Letter. June, 2001.

[18] FDA Veterinarian Newsletter. Volume XVII, No. VI. November/December 2002.

[19] USA Today, June 10, 2003.

[20] Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. Risk Analysis of Transmissible

Spongiform Encephalopathies in Cattle and the Potential for Entry of

the Etiologic Agent(s) Into the U.S. Food Supply . 2001.

<http://www.hcra.harvard.edu/pdf>/madcow_report.pdf>.

[21] Joint WHO/FAO/OIE Technical Consultation on BSE. OIE

Headquarters, Paris, 11-14 June 2001.

[22] USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service. Current Thinking on

Measures that Could be Implemented to Minimize Human Exposure to

Materials that Could Potentially Contain the Bovine Spongiform

Encephalopathy Agent. 15 January 2002.

[23] Joint WHO/FAO/OIE Technical Consultation on BSE. OIE

Headquarters, Paris, 11-14 June 2001.

[24] Reuters 29 August 1996.

[25] Lancet Vol 348 August 31, 1996.

[26] Lancet Vol 348 August 31, 1996.

[27] European Commission Health & Consumer Protectionate-General Scientific Opinion on Stunning Methods and BSE

Risks. January 2002.

[28] Transfusion, Vol. 41, No. 11, 1325, November 2001.

[29] European Commission Health & Consumer Protectionate-General Scientific Opinion on Stunning Methods and BSE

Risks. January 2002.

[30] Transfusion, Vol. 41, No. 11, 1325, November 2001.

[31] Testimony of Peter Lurie, MD, MPH Deputy Director Public

Citizen's Health Research Group Before the Consumer Affairs, Foreign

Commerce and Tourism Subcommittee Senate Commerce, Science and

Transportation Committee. 4 April 2001.

[32] Regulation (EC)No 999/2001 of the European Parliament and of the

Council. Laying down rules for the prevention, control and

eradication of certain transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. 22

May 2001.

[33] European Commission Health & Consumer Protectionate-General Scientific Opinion on Stunning Methods and BSE

Risks. January 2002.

[34] European Commission Scientific Report on Stunning Methods And

BSE Risks (The Risk of Dissemination of Brain Particles Into the

Blood And Carcass When Applying Certain Stunning Methods. December

2001).

[35] Berliner und Münchener Tierärztliche Wochenschrift 2002 Jan-Feb;

115(1-2): 1-5.

[36] Joint WHO/FAO/OIE Technical Consultation on BSE. OIE

Headquarters, Paris, 11-14 June 2001.

[37] European Commission Health & Consumer Protectionate-General. Scientific Steering Committee Opinion on the

Safety of Ruminant Blood with Respect to Risks. 14 April 2000.

[38] European Commission Scientific Report On Stunning Methods and

BSE Risks (The Risk of Dissemination of Brain Particles into the

Blood and Carcass when Applying Certain Stunning Methods. December

2001).

[39] Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 2002 Feb; 68(2): 791-8.

[40] Letters to the Editor. The Lancet Vol 348 September 14, 1996.

[41] European Commission Health & Consumer Protectionate-General. Scientific Steering Committee Opinion on the

Safety of Ruminant Blood with Respect to Risks. 14 April 2000.

[42] Letters to the Editor. The Lancet Vol 348 September 14, 1996.

[43] National Cattlemen's Beef Association news release. 21 May 2003.

<http://www.beef.org/dsp/dsp_content.cfm?locationId=45 & contentTypeId=2 & contentId\

=2098>.

[44] Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2002 Mar 19;99(6):3812-7.

[45] Mad Cow Disease in Canada. May 23, 2003 9:00am KQED Forum hosted

by Angie Coiro.

<http://www.kqed.org/programs/programarchive.jsp?progID=RD19 & ResultStart=1 & Resul\

tCount=10 & type=radio>.

[46] European Molecular Biology Organization Reports 4, 5 (2003), 530.

[47] Kimberlin, R. H. " Human Spongiform Encephalopathies and BSE. "

Medical Laboratory Sciences 49 (1992): 216-217.

[48] Canadian Food Inspection Agency BSE Fact Sheet. May 2003

P0091E-00.

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/anima/heasan/disemala/bseesb/bseesbe.shtml

[49] Food and Drug Administration 2000 CFR Title 21, Volume 6,

Chapter 1, Part 589.

http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_00/21cfr589_00.html

[50] Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Regulations: Food for

Ruminants, Livestock and Poultry (Part XIV), " Prohibited Materials "

[51] Food and Drug Administration 2000 CFR Title 21, Volume 6,

Chapter 1, Part 589.

http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_00/21cfr589_00.html

[52] International Center for Technology Assessment. Citizen Petition

Before The United States

Food And Drug Administration. 1/9/03. http://www.icta.org/legal/madcow1.htm

[53] Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Regulations: Food for

Ruminants, Livestock and Poultry (Part XIV), " Prohibited Materials "

[54] Food and Drug Administration 2000 CFR Title 21, Volume 6,

Chapter 1, Part 589.

http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_00/21cfr589_00.html

[55] Public Citizen. Letter to the FDA and USDA RE: BSE. 21 April

2001. http://www.citizen.org/cmep/foodsafety/gsfc/articles.cfm?ID=1562

[56] Food and Drug Administration Sec. 685.100 Recycled Animal Waste

(CPG 7126.34)

[57] FDCH Political Transcripts December 23, 2003

[58] Unconventional viruses and the origin and disappearance of kuru.

13 December 1976.

http://www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1976/gajdusek-lecture.html

[59] NBC Dateline 14 March 1997.

[60] Pearce, Fred. " BSE May Lurk in Pigs and Chickens. " New Scientist

6 April 1996: 5.

[61] United States General Accounting Office. GAO Report to

Congressional Requesters. January 2002 MAD COW DISEASE: Improvements

in the Animal Feed Ban and Other Regulatory Areas Would Strengthen

U.S. Prevention Efforts. GAO-02-183.

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02183.pdf

[62] Chicago Tribune 21 May 21 2003.

[63] " Ministers Hostile to Advice on BSE. " New Scientist 30 March 1996: 4.

 

Michael Greger, MD, is a graduate of the Cornell University School of

Agriculture and the Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Greger

has been speaking publicly about mad cow disease since 1993. He

debated National Cattlemen's Beef Association Director Gary Weber

before the FDA and was invited as an expert witness at the Oprah

Winfrey infamous " meat defamation " trial. He has contributed to many

books and articles on the subject, continues to lecture extensively

and currently coordinates the mad cow disease website for the Organic

Consumers Association. Dr. Greger can be reached for media inquiries

at (617) 524-8064 or mhg1.

 

--

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mhg1

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