FDA Mad Cow Testing too Slow to Catch Disease - GAO
WASHINGTON - By the time the US government completes its tests of cattle feed, it may be too late to prevent the spread of mad cow disease, according to a report issued on Wednesday by Congress's investigative arm.
In nearly half of the 989 samples tested between August 2003 and June of this year, it took the US Food and Drug Administration more than a month to determine if they contained banned protein products responsible for mad cow disease.
The report released by Congress's nonpartisan Government Accountability Office also found that in 21 of those cases, the review took more than 100 days to complete.
"By the time FDA conducted its follow up to determine whether a violation had occurred, the feed may have been consumed," GAO said in its 29-page report.
FDA criticized the GAO report for unfairly analyzing only a small portion of the government's larger efforts to monitor for mad cow disease in the United States.
The agency said in a written response included by GAO in its report that FDA relies on more than analytical testing methods to enforce the feed ban.
"FDA disagrees that laboratory testing time frames to complete sample analysis for domestic surveillance samples are a critical element to minimize cattle's exposure to potentially contaminated feed," the agency said.
Since 1997, FDA has restricted the use of cattle parts in cattle feed. The so-called feed rule is one of the primary US safeguards against mad cow disease, which is believed to be spread through feed containing infected animal tissue.
Last month FDA said it would tighten the restrictions by banning cattle brains and spinal cords from all animal feed instead of just from cattle feed.
GAO blamed FDA for not properly documenting its testing program. It also said FDA officials did not have adequate oversight controls in place to assure that the program was being implemented correctly.
The GAO report was requested by a bipartisan group of four senators including Iowa's Tom Harkin, Democratic leader on the Agriculture Committee.
"If FDA's testing program is not catching violations, and catching them in time, that needs to be corrected immediately," Harkin said in a statement.
Following the discovery of the first US case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in December 2003, the USDA increased the number of cattle tested for the brain-wasting disease.
Since June 1, 2004, the United States has sampled nearly 500,000 cattle brains in animals seen as at the highest risk and found one additional case in a 12-year-old Texas beef cow.
Story by Christopher Doering
Story Date: 10/11/2005
