AR-News: (US) Agencies steer away from mad cow disease

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Farm Report: Agencies steer away from mad cow disease 
By EMILY GERSEMA Associated Press 
10/12/2003
 Quarantined cattle graze in a field near Tulliby Lake, Alta, Canada, in this 
May file photo. 
ED KAISER / Associated Press 

Below: This cow was one of seven herds of cattle under quarantine in Canada 
in May. In the United States, the Agriculture Department wants to test for mad 
cow disease in cattle that get sick or die on a farm. 
ADRIAN WYLD / Associated Press 


WASHINGTON -- While no case of mad cow infection has ever been found in the 
United States, the Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration are 
looking at new ways to combat the disease. 

One proposal being discussed is to test all cows that get sick and die on the 
farm, even if mad cow is not suspected. Discovery of a sick cow in Canada has 
led the United States to re-examine ways to protect U.S. herds. 

Veterinarians and food safety regulators test for mad cow because it is 
linked to a similar incurable illness that affects humans, variant 
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. An estimated 100 people died of the illness in Europe after an 
outbreak of mad cow disease in the 1980s. 

The Agriculture Department wants to test for mad cow disease in cattle that 
get sick or die on the farm. The idea is to head off any problem early, prevent 
 the brain-wasting illness from in fecting animals and, ultimately, to 
protect consumers. 

The agency also is proposing that farmers end the practice of sending the 
carcasses to rendering plants to process them for pet food and animal feed, in an 
effort to lower the risk for the disease. 

The FDA is considering a proposal to expand a ban on using cattle brain and 
spinal tissue, which is easily infected with mad cow disease. The ban would 
cover all animal feed -- not just for cattle, sheep and goats -- and include pet 
food. 

Cattle industry officials say that effectively could end the use of cows in 
food for pets and livestock. Renderers are reluctant to spend a lot of money 
removing brain and spinal cords from dead animals. Farmers usually have to pay 
them a fee to haul away sick and dead cattle and turn them into animal feed. 

Farmers would have little choice but to bury their animals on their farms or 
illegally dump them elsewhere. Incineration is ineffective in killing mad cow 
disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Rendering, which 
basically cooks the meat, can kill harmful bacteria such as E. coli but does not 
kill mad cow. 

Mad cow disease is believed to be caused by a deformed protein that attacks 
the brain, turning it into a sponge. The disease, part of a family of illnesses 
known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, is spread through eating 
brain or nerve tissue of infected animals. It is incurable. 

Gary Weber, executive director of regulatory affairs for the National 
Cattlemen's Beef Association, said the federal proposals would do little to reduce 
the risk of mad cow disease spread ing into the food supply. 

Compliance with the existing animal use restrictions for feed already is very 
high "so the risk of (made cow) developing from (potentially sick) animals 
entering the feed supply and then the food supply is very, very low," he said. 

Dr. Lisa Ferguson, head of the Agriculture Department's team of mad cow 
disease experts, said a Harvard study two years ago concluded that sick cattle -- 
"downer" animals -- are likely carriers of the disease. 

Dr. William Hueston, a veterinarian at the University of Minnesota and expert 
on mad cow disease, said the government is in a Catch-22. 

"If we're successful in preventing a disease from occurring, we will be 
criticized for wasting taxpayer dollars on something that never occurred," he said. 
"On the other hand, if a disease occurred, we would be criticized for not 
acting quickly enough." 



USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service: <A HREF="http://www.aphis.usda.gov/">http://www.aphis.usda.gov</A> 






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