Mad Cow Lawyer & Attorney : Marler Clark : Mad Cow Blog

Spain reports first likely human death from mad cow

July 29, 2005
Reuters

MADRID - Spain reported the first probable death from the human variant of mad cow disease on Friday, a 26-year-old woman who was likely infected before the mad cow scare of 2000 led to strict controls.

Spain's Health Ministry said it believed the death was caused by Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) based on tests carried out at a Madrid hospital, and that it had sent samples to experts in Edinburgh for confirmation.

The victim most likely had eaten animal products rich in nerve tissue, while the animal itself had consumed contaminated feed. The incubation period in this case was between 5 and 10 years, the ministry added.

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Statement by Chief Veterinary Medical Officer John Clifford Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service regarding non-definitive BSE test results

July 27, 2005
APHIS News

Late yesterday, we received non-definitive test results on an animal sampled as part of a voluntary extension of our enhanced BSE surveillance program. USDA is conducting further testing at the National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames , Iowa , in consultation with experts from the international reference laboratory in Weybridge , England . We are also sending samples from this animal to the Weybridge laboratory for further testing. It is important to note that this animal poses no threat to our food supply because it did not enter the human food or animal feed chains.

The sample was submitted to us by a private veterinarian. As an extension of our enhanced surveillance program, accredited private veterinarians, who often visit farms in remote areas, collect samples when warranted. The sample in question today was taken from a cow that was at least 12 years of age and experienced complications during calving. The veterinarian treated the sample with a preservative, which readies it for testing using the immunohistochemistry (IHC) test óan internationally recognized confirmatory test for BSE. Neither the rapid screening test nor the Western blot confirmatory test can be conducted on a sample that has been preserved.

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July 28, 2005
Reuters

WASHINGTON - A series of mishaps and confusion over U.S. testing for mad cow disease raise questions about the government's credibility and could undermine efforts to convince major trading partners of the safety of American beef, industry and consumer groups said on Wednesday.

The USDA is now investigating a possible third U.S. case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), in an animal at least 12 years old.

A brain sample from the suspect cow was taken by a local veterinarian in April but was not tested by the USDA until last week. That delay was because the veterinarian "simply forgot" to submit it, the USDA said.

The sample was frozen, a violation of USDA guidelines, and the veterinarian also mistakenly used a preservative that limits the type of mad cow tests that can now be conducted.

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July 28, 2005
The New York Times
Sandra Blakeslee

The Department of Agriculture is investigating another possible case of mad cow disease in a domestic cow, its chief veterinarian said yesterday.

The department would not say where the farm was, other than to say it was remote.

The veterinarian, Dr. John Clifford, said that the 12-year-old cow died in April but that its brain tissue was not tested until last week. Because the initial results were ambiguous, scientists at the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, are conducting more tests to determine whether the cow was infected.

Although the brain tissue was collected in April, the veterinarian forgot to send it in, Dr. Clifford said. "While that time lag is not optimal, it has no implications in terms of the risk to human health," he said.

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Wednesday, July 27, 2005 Updated at 2:11 PM EDT

Canadian Press

Toronto ó Cattle producers in Ontario say Canada's beef industry has come out of the mad cow crisis better positioned to compete internationally with the United States.

Ontario Cattlemen's Association president Ian McKillop says the closing of the U.S. border to Canadian beef has strengthened Canada's ability to process and ship beef abroad, despite costing the industry billions of dollars.

Mr. McKillop said Wednesday that that is the silver lining to Canada's mad-cow crisis, which began in 2003 when the U.S. closed its borders to Canadian beef.

Representatives from the association were meeting in Toronto with U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins to discuss the cattle trade.

Mr. Wilkins acknowledged that the closing has hurt beef producers, and said it is possible Canadian exports of beef to the United States will never recover to pre-2003 levels.

But he also noted that both the Canadian and U.S. beef industries have suffered.

Mr. McKillop left the meeting pleased with a commitment from the U.S. ambassador to eventually open the border to all classes of cattle, including breeding stock.

Currently, the border is open only to cattle younger than 30 months of age.

The Canadian industry estimates it lost some $7-billion since the ban began after the first case of mad cow ñ the common name for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) ñ emerged in Alberta two years ago.

People who eat meat tainted with BSE can contract a fatal brain disorder called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

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POSTED: 12:57 pm MDT July 27, 2005
UPDATED: 2:09 pm MDT July 27, 2005

WASHINGTON -- The Agriculture Department says the government is investigating another possible case of mad cow disease.

USDA Chief Veterinarian Dr. John Clifford said initial tests have indicated the presence of the disease in a 12-year-old cow that died from complications during calving on the farm where it had lived.

There's no word on where the farm was.

Clifford said the cow "poses no threat to the human food supply, because it did not enter the human or animal food chains."

The department is conducting further tests at its lab in Ames, Iowa, and is sending a brain tissue sample to the internationally recognized laboratory in Weybridge, England, the official said.

The animal died in April, but a private veterinarian forgot to send the sample to the USDA until this month, Clifford said. He said that, from all indications, the cow was not imported from Canada.

The first case of mad cow disease in the United States was confirmed in in 2003 and involved a dairy cow imported from Canada. The second U.S. case, in a cow from Texas, was confirmed in June.

Mad cow disease has killed about 150 people worldwide, mostly in Britain.

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Group raises serious concerns about credibility of government surveillance program

By: Consumers Union calls
Published: July 26, 2005 at 09:09

Consumers Union is raising serious questions about the credibility of the U.S. Department of Agricultureís (USDA) expanded voluntary mad-cow surveillance program and is asking the agency to release details on the more than 400,000 cattle tested. In a letter sent to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns today, the group cited serious deficiencies in the earlier years of the program uncovered by the Office of Inspector General.

Consumers Union specifically requested data on:

? The geographic location of sampled cattle (including the state where the cow was born, raised, and slaughtered)

? The age of the cattle tested (CU currently supports testing of all cattle above 20 months)

? The disease/high-risk status of the cattle (for example, did they show symptoms of central nervous system disease, which are common symptoms of mad cow).

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PARIS, July 22 (Xinhuanet) -- One new case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy(BSE), was announced Friday in central France.

The infected cow is a Charolais, born in 1995 in a herd of the French Vienne department. It is the eighth BSE cases detected in the department since 2001, said a statement released by the Vienneprefecture.

The Lyon bovine pathology and sanitation study and research laboratory, reference laboratory of France's food safety agency AFSSA, confirmed on July 18 the suspicion, the statement said.

A dozen of potential infected cattle will be euthanatized and destroyed in conformity with the current rules under government control, the statement added.

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SEOUL, July 22 (UPI) -- The next project of South Korea's stem-cell research pioneer Hwang Woo-suk is to produce a calf resistant to mad cow disease.

Hwang recently demonstrated the transplantation of fertile eggs possessing resistance to the disease, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported Friday.

If all goes well, the cow is expected to give birth to a mad cow-resistant calf in 278 days, the report said. Hwang, however, warned the calf must go through a number of experiments until it can be verified to be resistant to the disease, a procedure that may take up to five years to complete.

Copyright 2005 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved.

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July 21, 2005

U.S. cows have been invited back to graze in southern Canada. But they must be tagged with radio-frequency identification chips that identify place of birth.
By Laurie Sullivan

U.S. cows have been invited back to graze in the lush meadows of Alberta and other parts of southern Canada. But they won't be let loose until they're wearing ear tags embedded with radio-frequency identification chips.
The Canadian Cattlemen's Identification Association, created by the Canadian government several years ago to implement a national ID program, recently revealed that all U.S. cattle who graze on Canadian feedlots must be tagged with an RFID chip that identifies place of birth. The association will oversee tag distribution and manage a database of information on livestock.

Behind the change is the recently lifted bilateral ban on cattle importation between Canada and the United States. It was put in place after the discovery in December 2003 of a cow in Washington that tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy. The disease, also known as mad cow, affects the central nervous system of cattle and can be harmful or fatal to people who eat infected beef.

By being able to quickly identify an animal's origin, Canada hopes it can react rapidly in the event of a mad-cow scare. Feedlots will tag the animals on arrival from the United States. Distributors will ship the tags to feedlots across the country, says Robert Taylor, president at distributor Compass Animal Health. "The borders between Canada and the U.S. recently opened after being closed for two years," he says. "Now we're expecting between 175,000 and 475,000 [cattle] to come across each year to feed."

Compass Animal Health has placed an order for 5,000 tags from RFID supplier Digital Angel Corp. to prepare for the uptick in business. The policy to tag cattle to identify place of birth is already enforced among Canadian cattle. The distributor says it sells about 1 million tags annually to Canadian beef-cattle ranchers and government agencies.

Since 2001, under Canada's Health of Animals Regulations, all cattle arriving or leaving a farm must be identified by a unique number that appears on an ear tag either as a bar code or encrypted in an electronic device. As of Sept. 1, that ID will have to be in the form of an RFID tag.

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By BOB ANEZ
Associated Press

HELENA - With Canadian cattle beginning to be trucked across the U.S. border again, Gov. Brian Schweitzer on Thursday ordered that all animals destined for Montana must be checked to ensure they comply with new federal restrictions.

Veterinarians, acting on behalf of the state Livestock Department, will inspect cattle to determine if they are younger than 30 months, not pregnant and have the mandated "CAN" brand, Schweitzer said. Owners of the cattle will be required to pay the cost of the inspections, which the governor estimated would be $3-$5 a head.

Schweitzer, a rancher himself, cited lingering concerns about the potential for spread of mad cow disease from Canadian cattle.

"I am committed to the ranchers and consumers in this state," he said. "We will take every precaution available to us to protect Montanans and the Montana cattle industry."

He said he will urge governors in Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming to take similar action.

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WASHINGTON -- An attack on America's food supply using biological agents or disease is easy to do, would spread fast and have a devastating economic effect, a Senate committee heard on Wednesday, as it reviewed protection for U.S. agriculture.

"In the case of foot-and-mouth disease it takes little scientific training," Sen. Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican and chairman of the Intelligence Committee, told the Agriculture Committee hearing.

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LOUISE GRAY

MORE than 100 blood donors are being warned they could have the human form of mad cow disease, the government said yesterday.

Concern that some blood donors may be carrying the disease arose after three recipients went on to develop variant CJD.

The donors do not necessarily have the disease, but will be told in letters from health officials they have a greater chance than the rest of the population.

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July 18, 2005
Canadian Cattlemen's Association News Release

The Canadian Cattlemenís Association (CCA) is very pleased that today the first live Canadian cattle crossed into the U.S. since BSE was diagnosed in Canada in May 2003.

ìThis is an historic day for the Canadian beef cattle industry,î says Stan Eby, President of the CCA. ìI want to thank Minister of Agriculture Andy Mitchell and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns and their senior staff for all their efforts on this issue and for directing their agencies to quickly get the processes in place to get the cattle moving. I also commend staff of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the United States Department of Agriculture for the extraordinary effort they put in over the weekend working to ensure that all was in order to enable exports to quickly resume. It was only on Thursday that the preliminary injunction preventing the export of live Canadian cattle was overturned on appeal, and here we are on Monday with cattle actually moving. This is exemplary service on the part of regulators on both sides of the border.î
Beef from the cattle exported today will join the 632,000 tonnes of Canadian beef that has been exported to the U.S. since the border re-opened to boneless Canadian beef from cattle under 30 months in August, 2003. Canadian processors are now also permitted to export bone-in beef from these younger animals. A fully competitive market with rational trade in both beef and live cattle will benefit both the Canadian and U.S. beef industries.
A hearing into R-CALFís request for a permanent injunction against Canadian live cattle and beef must still be heard in U.S. District Court, Montana Division on July 27.

ìWe look forward to the correct decisions being made in any future court actions,î adds Eby. ìWe will continue working to ensure that adequate slaughter capacity is maintained in Canada to make us less vulnerable to border disruptions. However we all benefit from a North American marketplace that is permitted to operate according to marketplace signals.î

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Fri Jul 15 2005

AP - Japanese food safety regulators are questioning the safety of US beef after a Ministry of Agriculture study showed nearly half of the 20 mad cow cases found in Japan would have passed unnoticed if tested under US methods.

Scientists on a Food Safety Commission panel have called for more details on a second case of confirmed mad cow disease in the United States, a move that could delay a decision to resume American beef imports, expected in late August, officials said.

The ministry report, submitted to the panel Thursday, showed that nine of the 20 cows found to have mad cow disease in Japan would have been sent to market because they looked healthy according to US testing methods.

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July 15, 2005
Broadcast News
Chronology of key events in Canada's mad cow crisis:

May 20, 2003 -- The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announces a black Angus northern Alberta cow was found to have bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease. The United States immediately closes its border to Canadian beef and cattle and 33 more countries follow suit.

June 17 -- Federal Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief announces a beef industry compensation package, cost-shared with provinces, of up to $460 million. A day later, he announces changes to slaughter rules: cattle tissues at high risk to carry BSE -- notably brain and spinal cord -- must be removed at the slaughterhouse for cattle older than 2{ years.

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July 15, 2005
National Post
A4
Simon Doyle
Source: CanWest News Service

The U.S. government announced last night it would immediately open the border to Canadian cattle after a court ruling cleared the way for beef exports to resume.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday removed an injunction that blocked a U.S. plan to resume cattle imports from Canada, after the United States said the animals do not pose a threat of spreading mad cow disease to people. The court ruled the ban that began in May, 2003, should be removed.

"Because the ruling is effective immediately, we are immediately taking steps to resume the importation of cattle under 30 months of age from Canada," said Mike Johanns, the United States Department of Agriculture Secretary.

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Thursday, July 14, 2005

As the chief veterinary officer for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Brian Evans doesnít see a great need to develop a live-animal BSE test. He also doesnít believe that every single animal should be tested at slaughter.

Instead, with the number of BSE cases on the downward slide and effective control measures in place, Evans believes the best place to catch any other potential cases is on the farm.

He addressed the hot issue during Illinois Farm Bureauís Canada Market Study Tour stop at Ag Canada in Ottawa.

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July 14, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO (CP) - A federal appeals court Thursday overturned the ban on imports of Canadian cattle despite a lower court's ruling that renewing the imports could spread mad cow disease in the United States.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture was not immediately available to comment on when it would allow renewed imports of Canadian cattle, which were banned in May 2003 after a cow in Alberta was found to have mad cow disease.

The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a Montana judge who blocked the USDA from reopening the border in March, saying it "subjects the entire U.S. beef industry to potentially catastrophic damages" and "presents a genuine risk of death for U.S. consumers."

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Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), referred to as "mad cow disease," is a chronic degenerative nervous system disease affecting cattle. The disease was first diagnosed in 1986 in Great Britain. BSE is so named because of the spongy appearance of the brain tissue of infected cattle when sections are examined under a microscope.

Affected animals may display changes in temperament, such as nervousness or aggression, abnormal posture and difficulty in rising, decreased milk production, or loss of body weight despite continued appetite. Affected cattle die or are killed.

The incubation period (the time from when an animal becomes infected until it first shows signs of disease) is from 2 to 8 years. Following the onset of clinical signs, the animal's condition deteriorates until it dies. This process usually takes from 2 weeks to 6 months.

Currently, there is no test to detect the disease in a live animal; veterinary pathologists confirm BSE by postmortem microscopic examination of brain tissue or by the detection of the abnormal form of the prion protein.

Since November 1986, over 178,000 head of cattle have been diagnosed with BSE in Great Britain. The epidemic peaked in January 1993 at approximately 1,000 new cases reported per week. Agricultural officials in Great Britain have taken a series of actions to eradicate BSE, including making BSE a notifiable disease, prohibiting the inclusion of mammalian meat-and-bone meal in feed for all food-producing animals, prohibiting the inclusion of animals more than 30 months of age in the animal and human food chains, and destroying all animals showing signs of BSE and other animals at high risk of developing the disease.

The identification in 2003 of a BSE case in Canada, and the subsequent identification later that year of a BSE case in the United States that had been imported from Canada led to the concern that indigenous transmission of BSE may be occurring in North America. In response, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) implemented additional safeguards to minimize the risk for human exposure to BSE and on July 1, 2004, initiated a 12- to 18-month-long intensive testing program for BSE among cattle at relatively high risk for the disease (e.g., non-ambulatory cattle). A US-bred cow was found to be BSE-positive in June 2005 in Texas.

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New variant CJD (vCJD) is a rare, degenerative, fatal brain disorder in humans. As of December 1, 2003, a total of 153 cases of vCJD had been reported in the world: 143 from the United Kingdom, six from France, and one each from Canada, Ireland, Italy, and the United States. Almost all the 153 vCJD patients had multiple-year exposures in the United Kingdom between 1980 and 1996 during the occurrence of a large UK outbreak of BSE among cattle. There has never been a case of vCJD that did not have a history of exposure within a country where this cattle disease, BSE, was occurring.

It is believed that the persons who have developed vCJD became infected through their consumption of cattle products contaminated with the agent of BSE. There is no known treatment of vCJD and it is invariably fatal.

Since 1996, strong evidence has accumulated for a causal relationship between ongoing outbreaks in Europe of BSE and vCJD. Both disorders, which are caused by an unconventional transmissible agent, are invariably fatal brain diseases with unusually long incubation periods, which are measured in years. Transmission of the BSE agent to humans, leading to vCJD, is believed to occur via ingestion of cattle products contaminated with the BSE agent; however, the specific foods associated with this transmission are unknown. Bioassays have identified the BSE agent in the brain, spinal cord, retina, dorsal root ganglia, distal ileum, and bone marrow of cattle experimentally infected by the oral route, suggesting that these tissues represent the highest risk of transmission.

The vCJD can be confirmed only through examination of brain tissue obtained by biopsy or at autopsy, but a "probable case" of vCJD can be diagnosed on the basis of clinical criteria developed in the United Kingdom. The incubation period for vCJD is unknown because it is a new disease. However, it is likely that ultimately this incubation period will be measured in terms of many years or decades. In other words, whenever a person develops vCJD from consuming a BSE-contaminated product, he or she likely would have consumed that product many years or a decade or more earlier.

In contrast to classic CJD, vCJD in the United Kingdom predominantly affects younger people, has atypical clinical features, with prominent psychiatric or sensory symptoms at the time of clinical presentation and delayed onset of neurologic abnormalities. Neurologic abmnormalities include ataxia within weeks or months and dementia late in the illness, a duration of illness of at least 6 months, and a diffusely abnormal non-diagnostic electroencephalogram.

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Public health control measures, such as surveillance, culling sick animals, or banning specified risk materials, have been instituted in many countries, particularly in those with indigenous cases of confirmed BSE, in order to prevent potentially BSE-infected tissues from entering the human food supply. The most stringent of these control measures, including a program that excludes all animals more than 30 months of age from the human food and animal feed supplies, have been applied in the UK and appear to be highly effective. In June 2003, the USDA and FDA strengthened the BSE control measures by requiring all the removal of specified risk materials from animal feed and human food chains. However, there are loopholes in the feed ban: Cattle are still fed poultry litter, cattle blood and restaurant leftovers, all potential pathways for the BSE protein to be fed back to cattle. The FDA promised to close the loopholes last year but still has not done so. "Downer" cows that can't walk are banned from the food supply. In addition, USDA requires removal of the brain, spinal column and other nerve tissues from cattle older than 30 months when they are slaughtered to keep them from entering the food supply.

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Thursday, July 14, 2005

University Park, Pa. -- As the U.S. Department of Agriculture investigates the origins of a recently confirmed case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy or "mad cow disease" in Texas -- the second case discovered on American soil -- some observers have raised questions about how the USDA tests cattle for the disease.

A pair of specialists in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences say the protocol may not be perfect, but it is the best currently available. And, they say, the testing and safeguards put in place after the first BSE case in late 2003 have been effective in screening for the disease and reducing the risk for American consumers.

"It's important to note that neither animal that tested positive for BSE entered the food or feed chain," says William Henning, professor of animal science. "The firewalls are in place to identify at-risk animals and keep them out of our beef supply."

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POSTED: 5:41 pm EDT July 13, 2005
UPDATED: 5:41 pm EDT July 13, 2005

SEATTLE -- The Bush administration urged a federal appeals court Wednesday to reopen the border to Canadian cattle imports, which were banned from the United States in 2003 after a cow in Alberta was found to have mad cow disease.

Justice Department attorney Mark Stern told a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that lifting the ban would not result in the "infestation in American livestock," and added that reopening the border was based on "good science."

The government made the arguments in the high-stakes border dispute as a gallery full of reporters and attorneys looked on. A large room where the case was televised was filled with cattle ranchers wearing cowboy hats and jeans. A member of the Canadian Parliament also watched the 40-minute hearing.

The government is asking the judges to overturn a March ruling by a federal judge in Montana who sided with U.S. ranchers, who fear dire economic and health consequences from a mad cow outbreak in the United States.

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Jul 13 2005
CBC News
Canadian cattle producers hope an appeal court hearing in Seattle Wednesday will help pry open the U.S. border to live Canadian cattle.

Only packaged beef from young cattle has been allowed into the United States since mad cow disease ñ the brain-wasting ailment known officially as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE ñ was first found in Canadian-born cattle more than two years ago.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture wants a federal appeals court in Seattle to strike down a temporary injunction that has blocked the planned reopening of the border.

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By DAVID KRAVETS
Associated Press Writer Tuesday, July 12, 2005

SEATTLE (AP) -- Whether it's protecting profits or consumer health, the U.S. meat industry has a lot riding on the Agriculture Department's effort to reopen the border to Canadian cattle, which have been banned since Canada's first case of mad cow disease was discovered in May 2003.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture insists it is safe to resume the imports, despite the ruling of a Montana federal judge who sided with U.S. ranchers who fear dire economic and health consequences from a mad cow outbreak in the United States.

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Published Tuesday, Jul 12, 2005

SACRAMENTO -- Supermarket shoppers can buy grass-fed beef, organic beef, Black Angus and so on -- but if a bill sponsored by a local lawmaker passes, consumers will also get to look for the "no mad cow" label.

Introduced by state Sen. Michael Machado, a Linden Democrat, the bill would allow beef producers to test their own animals for bovine spongiform encephalopathy -- better known as mad cow disease -- and then market the meat as having been tested for BSE, a nervous system disease in cattle that is fatal if passed on to humans.

Some industry officials say American carnivores already have confidence that domestic beef is safe and don't need any extra assurance to keep buying it.

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By Associated Press

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) - After negative tests on 67 of its animals, the ranch that produced the first native case of mad cow disease had a quarantine lifted Monday by Texas animal health officials.

The negative results for the brain-wasting disease came back on animals tested from the herd because of their age proximity to the 12-year-old diseased cow. Those destroyed for testing were born the year before, the year of and the year after the infected animal's birth.

No recent offspring of the Brahma cross beef cow were destroyed for testing, said Larry Cooper, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

The lifting of the hold order, which went into effect June 10 when U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced he was sending samples to England for further testing, will allow animals to come and go from the ranch. The location of the ranch has not been disclosed.

USDA officials will now focus on checking market documents to trace animals of the same age who may have left the ranch. The USDA has reviewed some transaction documents, but there are no regulations for how long markets are required to keep them, Cooper said

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A Maryland biotechnology company says it has developed a new early-detection test for Mad Cow disease.

According to Rockville-based Adlyfe Inc., the test can detect the presence of Mad Cow disease before the disorder has had a chance to take its hold on the animal's brain. The test uses synthetic peptides to detect the build up of damaging proteins in blood before they accumulate in the brain, according to Adlyfe. The amount of brain damage is directly related to the progression of the disease.

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July 12, 2005 ED0712A

If you enjoy the occasional summer hamburger or grilled rib-eye, it's hard not to be a little rattled by last month's announcement that federal authorities have discovered the nation's second case of mad cow disease.

A natural reaction is to wonder: What's the government been doing since the first case was discovered in 2003? What, if anything, did this cow have in common with the first one? Is the nation's food supply any safer today than it was two years ago?

These are exactly the questions that occurred recently to Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and they're questions that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) needs to answer.

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Deaths

Deaths from definite vCJD ( confirmed ): 107

Deaths from probable vCJD ( without neuropathological confirmation ): 42

Deaths from probable vCJD ( neuropathological confirmation pending ): 1

Number of deaths from definite or probable vCJD ( as above ): 150

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LUBBOCK, Texas An undisclosed ranch that produced the first native case of mad cow disease had a quarantine lifted today by Texas animal health officials.

Tests came back negative on 67 of its animals.

Those specific cattle were tested because of their age proximity to the 12-year-old diseased cow.

Animals destroyed for testing were born the year before, the year of and the year after the infected animal's birth.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sixty-seven cows culled from the herd of an animal infected with mad cow disease have tested negative for the disease, the Agriculture Department said Sunday.

Testing was conducted on two groups removed from the herd at an undisclosed ranch in Texas; 29 cows were tested on Wednesday, 38 on Friday.

Results released Sunday on the second group were negative, the same finding the department had announced Saturday for the initial test group.

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2005-07-11 / Associated Press /

U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said Saturday he expects the U.S. border to reopen to Canadian cattle soon.

Snow said the four-month-old court injunction preventing the border from reopening was "ill considered" and not based on scientific facts.

"We're pressing hard, the Justice Department is appealing that injunction seeking to get that injunction removed, and I trust that we'll be successful in those efforts," Snow said in Calgary at the end of two days of bilateral trade talks between top Canadian and U.S. finance officials.

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Sunday, July 10, 2005 Updated at 2:20 PM EDT

Canadian Press

Vancouver ó The latest skirmish in the border war over mad cow disease is set for a Seattle courtroom on Wednesday as the U.S. government tries overturn an injunction barring imports of Canadian cattle.

But the Canadian beef industry, which estimates it has lost $7-billion since the border closed two years ago, is largely stuck on the sidelines while the U.S. Department of Agriculture fights a splinter group of American cattle producers.

In neat piece of legal judo, the Ranchers-Cattlemen Legal Action Fund, United Stockgrowers of America, succeeded last March in blocking the department's plan to reopen the border.

The group, known as R-CALF, persuaded a federal judge in its home base of Billings, Mont., to grant a temporary injunction against renewing imports of Canadian live cattle under 30 months of age.

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USA: July 11, 2005

WASHINGTON - Support for banning "downer" cattle from the food supply is widespread among cattle producers and consumer groups, but activists still fear the Bush administration will retreat from a total ban when it issues a long-delayed rule on the mad-cow safeguard.

Downers -- cattle too ill or injured to walk on their own -- are banned now under temporary rules issued after the first US case of the mad cow disease in December 2003.

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Summary of vCJD cases

Deaths

Deaths from definite vCJD ( confirmed ): 107

Deaths from probable vCJD ( without neuropathological confirmation ): 42

Deaths from probable vCJD ( neuropathological confirmation pending ): 1

Number of deaths from definite or probable vCJD ( as above ): 150

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July 9, 2005, 4:34PM

By PURVA PATEL
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

AP file

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns tours a Utah beef processing plant in May.

Twenty-nine cattle screened for mad cow disease tested negative, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today.

No further tests are required on those animals, USDA spokesman Jim Rogers said.

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Today 7/9/2005 4:41:00 PM

Cattle Update: US, Canada Agree No Justification For Beef Trade Injunction

CALGARY (Dow Jones)--The U.S. and Canadian governments agree that beef trade between the two countries should return to normalcy immediately, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow and Canadian Minister of Finance Ralph Goodale said Saturday.

"The official position of the U.S. and of Agriculture Secretary (Mike) Johanns is that the border should be open and that trade should get back to normal as rapidly as possible," Goodale said at a joint press conference in Calgary.

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The National Cattlemen's Beef Association says it can have a system for tracking livestock operating by January.

That's ten months earlier than originally planned. It is also at least three years earlier than the U-S Department of Agriculture's goal of having the ability to track the movements of the country's nine (b) billion cows, pigs and chickens by 2009.

The government had to use D-N-A analysis to identify the herd of a Texas cow infected with mad cow disease because there's no national tracking system. Investigators are searching for offspring and other animals in the herd that were born about the same time as the infected cow.

Producer groups and private companies already collect data about the birth and movements of livestock, and are working quickly to offer databases. The cattlemen's association hopes to persuade the government to use its system.

Many producers worry about giving the government or the public access to closely held business information, and would prefer a privately run system that would give the USDA limited access.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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Last Updated Fri, 08 Jul 2005 17:34:55 EDT

CBC News

New Zealand will resume the import of Canadian beef immediately, federal Agricultural Minister Andy Mitchell said Friday.

Mitchell said the country has acknowledged that Canadian beef is safe.

New Zealand was one of 34 counties that closed its border to Canadian beef and cattle after the first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy was discovered in a Canadian-born cow in May 2003.

New Zealand is the 15th country to lift its ban in the last two years.

The United States, Canada's biggest market, accepts some cuts of beef, but no live cattle.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture had planned to reopen the border to cattle under 30 months March 7, but an American cattle lobby group was successful in getting an injunction.

R-CALF argued that Canada doesn't adequately test for mad cow, saying reopening the border would have economic consequences for U.S. producers.

On March 2, federal Judge Richard Cebull agreed to the injunction, and he has set a July 27 date for trial on R-CALF's concerns with the USDA.

The USDA is appealing Cebull's injunction decision, which will be heard July 13.

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Friday July 8, 2005 9:16 PM

By LIBBY QUAID

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government has killed and is testing 29 cows from the herd of the Texas cow infected with mad cow disease, the Agriculture Department said Friday.

Investigators have been working to identify offspring and herd mates born within a year of the infected cow's birth. The infected cow was a 12-year-old Brahma cross beef cow.

Twenty-nine adult cows were removed from the herd on Wednesday, the department said. They were taken to a collection site and euthanized, and tissue samples were removed for testing, the department said.

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Published - Friday, July 08, 2005

By WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL

Federal Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns should accept his agency's mishandling of the second U.S. case of mad cow disease as a warning.

Up until now the Agriculture Department has failed to act with the sense of urgency required to control mad cow disease, guard consumers' interests in food safety and protect the American beef industry's place in the global market. That's why the department took seven months to confirm the latest case of the brain-wasting ailment and why the department is now seven months behind in tracing the cow and its herd mates.

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How to limit your risk

Now that a second case of mad cow disease has occurred in the United States, it has again raised questions about the vulnerability of American herds to this deadly disease and the safety of the food supply. Here's what you need to know to protect yourself.

What is mad cow disease?

Mad cow disease is one of several similar fatal brain diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, or TSEs. The name is based on their main effect: The infected brain eventually becomes riddled with spongelike holes. In people, the disease is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD; in cows, it's called mad cow disease; in sheep, it's scrapie; and in deer and elk, chronic wasting disease. All are believed to be caused by a mutant protein, or prion, that can apparently induce normal proteins to mimic its shape. Evidence suggests that the disease can jump from species to species when a diseased animal is eaten. Cooking meat until it's well done will protect against bacteria but not infectious prions, which are so highly resistant to heat they can't be destroyed by cooking.

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ìI enjoyed beef this noon for lunch,î said Mike Johanns, the new agriculture secretary, a few days ago. ìIt is the safest beef in the world.î

This is what agriculture secretaries are paid to say, especially now that a second American cow has mad cow disease. The cow was tested several times here, with contradictory results. The conclusive test was done seven months later in England.

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Posted Jul 08, 2005 - 09:16 AM

By JIM GRANSBERY
The Billings Gazette

Growth in demand since 1999 has produced the largest net beef supplies in United States history and the highest prices for cattle and beef at the same time.

"Who would have predicted that?" asked Randy Blach just short of a yell Thursday morning to an overflow crowd for beef producers at the Holiday Inn Grand Montana Trade Center. Breakfast was over, and the opening session of the Beef Improvement Federation's 37th annual symposium was getting revved up by an industry cheerleader who spent 45 minutes reviewing the past decade and why he was a bit incredulous at the financial position in which producers find themselves.

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By Farm and Food File

Once, while researching the amount of grain the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corp. had in storage, I hit the brick-solid bureaucratic wall of silence. No one at CCC would acknowledge the amount of potentially market-flattening grain stocks it held or where the billions of bushels were parked.

Frustration red-lined into anger. Then I telephoned USDA's Office of Inspector General, the rule enforcer of federal agencies and departments, to complain.

By pure luck, the OIG person I stumbled onto that day decades ago knew the CCC inside and out. "Well," said the staffer after I explained the stonewalling, "that's public information available upon request. Call the CCC back in five minutes."

I waited the five minutes, telephoned, and the tight-lipped CCC folks quickly spilled their grain-inventory guts.

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By CATHY ROEMER, For Lee Agri-Media
Thursday, July 7, 2005 8:24 AM CDT

WASHINGTON - No longer a mystery, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the location of the second BSE case found in the United States.

"DNA test results have confirmed the source herd of the animal," said USDA Chief Veterinarian John Clifford. "Based on information we have received from the owner, the cow was born and raised in a herd in Texas and was approximately 12 years old."

BSE is the acronym for bovine spongiform encephalopathy - or mad cow disease. It is a brain-wasting disease caused by prions or brain proteins "gone wild" eating holes in the brain causing it to take on a sponge-like appearance. Some studies have concluded but not yet proved the disease can be transmitted to humans if they eat BSE-infected meat. The human form of the disease is known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease or vCJD.

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