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

August 31, 2005
The Associated Press
Libby Quaid

WASHINGTON -- The government closed its investigation into the nation's first domestic case of mad cow disease Tuesday, saying it could not pin down how a Texas cow was infected with the brain-wasting ailment.

Officials continue to believe the 12-year-old Brahma cross cow ate contaminated feed before the United States banned ground-up cattle remains in cattle feed.

The only way the disease is known to spread is through eating brain and other nerve tissue from infected cows.

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August 29, 2005

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration will release final results Tuesday of investigations conducted on the mad-cow case confirmed in June, USDA spokesman Ed Loyd said.

The infected cow was first pronounced negative for mad-cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, by USDA in November 2004, but then confirmed positive several months later after new tests were ordered by the department's inspector general.

It was the second case of BSE found in the U.S. and the first to be in a native-born cow, which was born and raised in Texas, according to USDA officials.

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Friday, August 26, 2005

WASHINGTON (AP) ñ Beef banned under mad cow disease rules was shipped to wholesalers in a half-dozen states and is now being recalled by a Wisconsin beef plant.

The 1,856 pounds of beef included meat from a Canadian cow that inspectors in Canada determined was eligible for shipment to the United States. A Canadian audit two weeks later found, however that the cow was too old to be allowed entry to the U.S.

ìThere is a minimal chance, given the age of the animal and the health of the animal, that there was any risk whatsoeverî to people, Steven Cohen, spokesman for the Agriculture Departmentís Food Safety and Inspection Service, said Monday.

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Thursday, 18/08/2005

The United States Department of Agriculture reports more than 1,000 violations of mad cow disease rules in the past 17 months.

The figures were released after freedom of information requests from US consumer groups, who now say rules introduced to try to protect humans from mad cow disease are not working.

The USDA says most packing plants are following the rules, as the figures only represent one per cent of animals slaughtered.

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August 18, 2005
The Associated Press
Libby Quaid

WASHINGTON -- The Agriculture Department acknowledged Wednesday that its testing options for mad cow disease were limited in 9,200 cases despite its effort to expand surveillance throughout the U.S. herd.

In those cases, only one type of test was used -- one that failed to detect the disease in an infected Texas cow.

The department posted the information on its Web site because of an inquiry from The Associated Press.

Conducted over the past 14 months, the tests have not been included in the department's running tally of mad cow disease tests since last summer. That total reached 439,126 on Wednesday.

"There's no secret program," the department's chief veterinarian, John Clifford, said in an interview. "There has been no hiding, I can assure you of that."

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By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter

South Korea is likely to delay the resumption of U.S. beef imports until next year due to some technical problems in proving its safety from mad cow disease, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MOAF) said Tuesday.

The Korean government has requested information from the U.S. on the second bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) case reported there in June, but it has not arrived, ministry officials said.

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By Randy Fabi
Reuters
August 16, 2005

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal food safety inspectors found more than 1,000 instances since 2004 where U.S. meat plants cut corners or violated regulations aimed at preventing the spread of mad cow disease, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Monday.

The USDA said it released documents to the American Meat Institute and the consumer group Public Citizen showing that federal inspectors filed 1,036 noncompliance reports from January 2004 to May 2005 involving the removal of the brain, skull and spinal cord of cattle aged 30 months and older.

The materials are considered to carry the highest risk in spreading the brain-wasting disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The USDA banned them from the human food supply a few days after the December 2003 discovery of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease in a Washington state dairy cow.

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POMONA - In an effort to address the frenzy over mad cow disease, Cal Poly Pomona will sponsor a two-day symposium on the subject next weekend.
The event is organized by university professor Michele Rash. Rash's grandson, a hemophiliac, received blood from a victim of the disease, which has a 25-year incubation period.

Dr. Stephen Morse, director of the Center for Public Health Preparedness at Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, delivers the keynote address on the history of the disease's transmission.

The event Aug. 20-21 costs $250. Tickets for the keynote address and dinner are $50.

Information: (909) 869-2219 or www.bsecalpoly.com.

- Kenneth Todd Ruiz, (909) 483-8555.

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August 13, 2005
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/13/opinion/13sat1.html

Fears of another case of mad cow disease in the United States have, according to this editorial, faded for the time being because tests on the most recent suspect animal came back negative. But that is no reason to feel confident about the American beef supply. The editorial says that American cows still eat food that can potentially infect them with mad cow disease. American meatpackers use dangerous methods that other countries ban. And the United States Department of Agriculture does not require enough testing to ensure that American beef is completely safe.

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(08/10/05 10:50)

DES MOINES (DTN) -- For a second time in as many years USDA denied Creekstone Farms Premium Beef LLC, a privately owned producer and processor, the authority to test company-owned cattle for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), company officials told DTN.

Creekstone Farms wants to regain entry into the Japanese beef market where consumers consider its product high quality. Regaining entry would increase demand for U.S. cattle and the feed they consume. USDA's efforts to reopen the Japanese market have been long and drawn out.

Creekstone made the request to USDA Secretary Mike Johanns after being rejected in its first proposal for self BSE testing by former USDA Secretary Ann Veneman in February 2004.

The reason given by the Johanns administration was consistent with the prior administration's reason, Kevin Pentz, Creekstone Farms senior vice-president of operations, said.

"Because you can't detect BSE in cattle under 30 months of age, the USDA said the testing method in the U.S. needs to be science-based," Pentz said. "That's what they said but I bet some U.S. scientists would disagree with that."

The company estimates the closed Japanese markets costs $400 per head each day in lost revenue -- losses Creekstone hoped the self-testing program could help recoup.

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August 8, 2005
Meatingplace.com
Pete Hisey

With over 425,000 high-risk cattle tested so far in its 18-month surveillance program to measure levels of infection by bovine spongiform encephalopathy in the national herd, USDA will soon test 20,000 older but non-symptomatic cattle on a statistically valid national basis, as it promised to do at the beginning of the program.

APHIS spokesman Jim Rogers said that the agency has been kept busy by the testing of suspect animals through the first 14 months of the program, but will now start testing healthy cattle at slaughter.

Rogers also said that the surveillance program does have regional goals to make it statistically valid but that the agency has not released those figures yet. At the end of the program, USDA will release a wealth of data about the tested cattle, including location, age where available, symptoms and the like.

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By Kenneth J. Bender, Pharm.D., M.A.
Psychiatric Times July 2005 Vol. XXII Issue 8

The confirmation hearing for the nomination of Lester Crawford, D.V.M., Ph.D., to head the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was conducted by the same Senate committee that had two weeks earlier probed the agency's capability to weigh drug benefits against risks and evaluate postmarket safety.

Apparent failures of the FDA to discern cardiovascular effects of COX-2 inhibitors and suicidality in children receiving antidepressants prompted the Consumers Union to demand that the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) "vet the vet." Janell Mayo Duncan, counsel for Consumers Union, indicated in a press release:

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From Mary Kugler,
Your Guide to Rare / Orphan Diseases.

Degenerative fatal brain disorder
Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is the "mad cow" disease that people contract when they are exposed to food contaminated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). A case of BSE in the United States was confirmed in 2003. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) monitors the incidence in the United States of all types of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Disease has no cure
The public has good reason to be concerned about the transmission of BSE to humans. Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, like the other types of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, is a degenerative, fatal brain disorder. There is no cure.

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August 4, 2005
USDA News Release
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdahome?navtype=MA&navid=NEWSROOM

WEST ALLIS, Wis. - Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns today announced that the Philippines will resume imports of U.S. beef and beef products.
"I am very pleased with the reopening of the Philippines market to U.S. beef and beef products, which demonstrates their commitment to trade based on internationally accepted scientific standards for human and animal health," said Johanns. "The Philippines recognizes that U.S. beef and beef products are safe. This is another step forward in our efforts to reopen global markets for U.S. beef."
Under the agreement announced today, the United States will now be able to export boneless beef from cattle not older than 30 months to the Philippines. The estimated value of the Philippines market reopening to U.S. boneless beef is $2.5 million.
In 2003, the United States exported $4.9 million worth of beef and beef products to the Philippines. After the December 2003 discovery of the first BSE-infected cow in the United States, the Philippines adopted measures to restrict imports of certain types of U.S. beef, while allowing imports of U.S. boneless beef from cattle not older than 30 months with its memorandum order in January 2004. In June 2005, the Philippines imposed a temporary ban on beef and beef products from the United States following confirmation that a second U.S. cow had tested positive for BSE.

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WASHINGTON, August 3, 2005

(AP) A cow suspected of having mad cow disease has tested negative for the brain-wasting ailment, the Agriculture Department said Wednesday.

Testing by the department's laboratory in Ames, Iowa, and the internationally recognized laboratory in Weybridge, England, came back negative, said John Clifford, the department's chief veterinarian.

"Needless to say, we are very pleased with these results," Clifford said in a statement. "I do want to emphasize that the most important protections for human and animal health are our interlocking food-safety protocols."

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Americansí tolerance of BSE has been remarkable. During the two quarters following the December, 2003, announcement of the first BSE case on US soil, the index of US beef demand increased several points and surpassed even the most optimistic market observerís vision of how the US consumer would respond. After the second case was announced in June of this year, there was minimal market fluctuation. Now, a month later, USDA has announced the possibility of a third case of BSE, with the target of the investigation being an animal born prior to the imposition of the 1997 ruminant to ruminant feed ban. Prices on the futures market barely skipped a beat, and live cattle futures prices rallied the day after the news.

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By Miho Yoshikawa
Reuters

Japan dropped its policy of testing all cattle for the deadly mad cow disease on Monday and will require checks to be conducted only on cattle that are 21 months or older.

However, blanket testing will in effect continue in Japan as all local governments have decided to keep checking all cattle born in their region, a Health Ministry official said.

"Testing will now only be mandatory for cattle aged 21 months or older," the official said.

Under pressure from the United States, the Japanese government decided in early May to ease its policy of blanket testing after the move was approved by the country's food safety watchdog, the Food Safety Commission (FSC).

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Mon Aug 1, 6:48 AM ET
USA Today

When bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease, first surfaced in the United States in 2003, cattle ranchers and government officialsshrugged it off as a cow infected in Canada before being imported here.

When a native-born cow tested positive this June, they explained it away once again, saying the animal was infected before cattle feed restrictions were put in place in 1997.

And when a third possible domestic case surfaced last week, they hastened to note that the 12-year-old cow hadn't entered the food chain.

The story is always the same. Consumers are urged not to worry about the chance of a major outbreak of the disease, like the one that occurred in Europe a decade ago. They are assured they will be protected by the practices of the cattle industry and the policies of responsible government agencies.

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