AR-News: Cantwell Urges More Stringent Mad Cow Rules

[jim robertson]

Cantwell Urges More Stringent Mad Cow Rules

April 20, 2004

SEATTLE - U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell has accused the Bush administration of 
dragging its heels in implementing strict rules that could help prevent the 
spread of mad cow disease.

The Washington Democrat also pushed her Animal Feed Protection Act, which 
would impose a comprehensive ban on all animal feed containing potentially 
risky materials that could cause the fatal brain-wasting bovine illness.

In January, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced new 
U.S. Food and Drug Administration rules that would close loopholes in 
current regulations that allow cattle to be fed cow blood, restaurant scraps 
and chicken litter.

The rules would also ban feed production facilities from using the same 
equipment to process both ruminant and non-ruminant feed, which can leave 
the door open to cross-contamination, Cantwell said at a news conference.

Cantwell said Monday that administration officials in January promised the 
rules would take effect within a few days, but 12 weeks have passed and they 
still have not been imposed.

"Consumers deserve to be protected and the Bush administration continues to 
drag its heels on new rules to prevent the spread of mad cow disease," 
Cantwell said. "They made a promise and I expect them to keep it."

Cantwell said she didn't know the reason behind the delay.

About 50 countries banned U.S. beef after the discovery of a single case of 
mad cow disease in a Holstein at a Mabton dairy farm in December.

Mad cow, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, is believed 
to be transmitted when animals eat feed containing BSE's infectious protein. 
Since 1997, the FDA has banned the use of cattle tissue in feed for other 
cattle.

Scientists believe people who eat beef from infected cows can contract 
variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob, a fatal brain-wasting disease that has been 
detected in about 150 people worldwide. No cases have been traced to U.S. 
beef.

The state cattle market has lost more than $100 million in export 
opportunities since the mad cow scare, Cantwell said.

Cantwell was joined at the news conference by officials with the state 
Agriculture Department and the newly formed Washington Cattle Producers, a 
group of about 70 cattlemen.

Without the FDA's proposed new rules in place, concerned nations will 
continue to ban U.S. beef, Washington state Agriculture Director Valoria 
Loveland said.

Cantwell's bill, introduced in February, would ban "specified risk 
materials," including bovine spinal and brain tissue, from all animal feed, 
including pet food.

The reason for such a sweeping measure is to avoid any threat of accidental 
contamination in the production facilities, Cantwell said.

"This bill is the least cost, least burdensome approach to reopening our 
export markets to some of our bigger paying partners," Lee Englehardt, 
president of Cattle Producers of Washington, said at the news conference.

Bill Pierce, a spokesman for the federal Health and Human Services 
Department, said the FDA is the agency implementing the rules, and thus it 
sets the timeline.

"There's already a series of firewalls in place to protect against the 
spread of BSE (mad cow disease) in the U.S.," said Lawrence Bachorik, an FDA 
spokesman. "We'll be adding additional safeguards to the rules that are 
already in place, but it's a complicated process and it does take time."

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