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

April 26, 2006

Reuters

SEOUL - South Korea will stick to a plan to resume U.S. beef imports after the government confirmed that the latest U.S. case of mad cow disease was in an animal born before safeguards were put into place, the Agriculture Ministry said on Wednesday.

Safeguards against mad cow disease, such as a ban on using cattle parts in cattle feed, began in April 1998. Scientists say the disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, can be spread through infected cattle feed.

A South Korean team of experts verified the infected U.S. cow was at least 8 years old after traveling to the United States to inspect its carcass, the ministry said in a statement.

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April 26, 2006

Reuters

TALLINN - Estonian authorities said on Wednesday that tests for mad cow disease had proved negative in the case of a dead 11-year-old animal earlier suspected of being the country's first case of BSE.

"There is no case. Of course, this is a big relief for us," Ago Partel, director of the Veterinary and Food Authority, told Reuters.

Earlier this week Agriculture Ministry officials announced that the disease might have been detected in the cow after a routine test at a slaughterhouse.

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April 24, 2006

Reuters

TALLINN- Estonian authorities have detected mad cow disease in a dead 11-year-old cow after a routine test at a slaughterhouse, the Agriculture Ministry said on Monday.

If confirmed, it would be the country's first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a disease that destroys the brains of cattle.

"The rapid test needs to be confirmed with a positive test for BSE and the results from that test will be out on Wednesday," Ago Partel, Director of the Veterinary and Food Authority, told Reuters.

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April 21, 2006

Trail Daily Times

Opinion

The panic that used to accompany every new case of mad cow in North America seems to have evaporated, but the global economic threat of the disease has not.

Last week, another case was discovered in Canada, this time from a dairy cow in B.C.'s Fraser Valley. The animal was a six-year-old dairy cow. It was suspect because it was sick and could not stand up. Testing after it was put down confirmed it had BSE.

News of the finding barely caused a ripple. Officials on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border were quick to say that the latest case would not close the border to trade in cattle, which has devastated Canada's beef industry at a cost of billions of dollars since the spring of 2003.

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LIBBY QUAID
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration wants to end remaining mad cow disease-related restrictions on Canadian cattle, despite two fresh cases there.

The new cases have slowed the effort, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns acknowledged Thursday.

Still, "we here at USDA are very committed to this," Johanns said during a news conference with Canada's new agriculture minister, Chuck Strahl.

"I want to make sure it's done right, first and foremost," Johanns said. "I want to make sure it will withstand not only our rigorous internal challenges but challenges that can come from court cases."

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April 17, 2006

Reuters

TOKYO - Japan is conducting tests on a 20-month-old steer suspected of having mad cow disease, a top government official said on Monday, and the case could have wide repercussions on Tokyo's beef trade policy if confirmed.

When Tokyo last December eased a ban on beef imports from the United States and Canada, imposed after the two countries reported cases of mad cow disease, it stipulated that the meat could only come from cattle aged up to 20 months.

The ceiling was set because mad cow disease, formally called bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), had never been found in Japan in an animal younger than 21 months.

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April 16, 2006

CCNMatthews

OTTAWA - Testing at the National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease in Winnipeg has confirmed bovine spongiform encephalopathy in a cow from British Columbia. As reported on April 13, 2006, samples from this animal were sent to Winnipeg for additional testing after screening tests produced inconclusive results.

This finding does not affect the safety of Canadian beef. Tissues in which BSE is known to concentrate in infected animals are removed from all cattle slaughtered in Canada for domestic and international human consumption. No part of this animal entered the human food or animal feed systems.

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April 15, 2006

The Gazette (Montreal)

CanWest News Service

The president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association says he's optimistic that even if another case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy is confirmed in Canada, it will blow over quickly.

"I guess I'm a little apprehensive depending on how our major trading partners view it," Hugh Lynch Staunton said yesterday from his ranch near Lundbreck in southern Alberta.

"But I think they'll look at it and it'll be a ho-hum thing."

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Testing is being done to confirm if a Fraser Valley cow is the province's first case of mad cow disease.
On Thursday, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said confirmatory testing is being conducted on samples from a six-year-old dairy cow from a farm located in central/eastern Fraser Valley.
The samples were initially screened at the Ministry of Agriculture facility in Abbotsford on Tuesday and showed a "high level of reactivity" to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), which is also known as mad cow disease. The samples were sent to the lab in Winnipeg for further testing on Wednesday and preliminary tests confirmed the results from Abbotsford, said Dr. Ron Lewis, B.C.'s chief veterinarian.

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By Kathy Jones
Apr 17, 2006, 14:13

Federal officials in Canada have confirmed Sunday that the 6-year-old dairy cow in Canada did die from the dreaded mad cow disease. This is now Canada's fifth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE since May 2003, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said.

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12:21:37 EDT Apr 17, 2006
HIROKO TABUCHI

TOKYO (CP) - A 20-month-old steer in northeastern Japan may have had mad cow disease, and if the case is confirmed it could affect Japan's imports of U.S. and Canadian beef, officials said Monday.

A young Holstein slaughtered for meat last week in Fukushima prefecture, some 240 kilometres northeast of Tokyo, was found to have tested positive for the brain-wasting disease, according to Toshitaka Higashira of the Agricultural Ministry.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report on April 14 titled, Preliminary FoodNet Data on the Incidence of Infection with Pathogens Transmitted Commonly Through Food - 10 States, United States, 2005. FoodNet collects data from 10 U.S. states regarding diseases caused by enteric pathogens transmitted commonly through food. This report describes preliminary surveillance data for 2005 and compares them with baseline data from the period 1996-1998.

In its annual report on the incidence of infections from foodborne pathogens, the CDC noted significant declines in 2005 from the 1996-1998 baseline in illnesses caused by Yersinia (49%), Listeria (32%), Campylobacter (30%), E. coli O157 (29%), and Salmonella (9%). Although Salmonella incidence decreased overall, of the five most common Salmonella serotypes, only the incidence of S. Typhimurium (42%) significantly decreased. The estimated incidence of S. Enteritidis increased 25% and S. Heidelberg increased 25%.

"The release of the 2005 data clearly shows that the reductions in human illness from foodborne pathogens witnessed during the past few years have been sustained. Healthy People 2010 national objectives are close to being met for E. coli O157, Campylobacter and Listeria monocytogenes," stated Under Secretary for Food Safety Dr. Richard Raymond. "FSIS looks forward to continuing its collaboration with the CDC to find better ways to detect and prevent human illness from the foods we regulate."

The report is available on CDC's Web site at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm5514.pdf

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OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada, April 13, 2006 (ENS) - A cow from British Columbia is suspected of having mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). If confirmed, this would be the fifth case of the fatal brain disease found in Canada. Since Canadian beef and cattle are imported into the United States, there are concerns that the finding could depress demand for beef across North America.

No part of the animal has entered the human food or animal feed systems, said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), and confirmatory testing is underway. Results are expected Sunday and meanwhile, the entire carcass has been "placed under control."

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Inspectors testing dairy cow in British Columbia

Updated: 3:35 p.m. ET April 13, 2006

TORONTO - Federal officials said Thursday they were testing a 6-year-old dairy cow in British Columbia for mad cow disease, unsettling news for Canadian cattle ranchers still recovering from a two-year ban on their beef in the United States.

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April 6, 2006

CSPI Media Release

Despite the discovery of three cows infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, long overdue measures to ensure the safety of the food supply and to keep foreign markets open to American beef have been stalled, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). In a report coauthored with OMB Watch and Consumer Federation of America, CSPI says special-interest lobbying at federal agencies and at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) helped keep reforms, such as a nationwide animal identification system and a strong regulation governing cattle feed, from being finalized.

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April 6, 2006

Globe and Mail

Canadian Press

EDMONTON -- An American ranchers' group has lost its bid for a permanent injunction to ban Canadian cattle and beef from coming into their country.

In a court in Billings, Mont., United States District Judge Richard Cebull rejected the request by R-CALF, the Canadian Cattlemen's Association said in a news release.

The trade protectionist group wanted Judge Cebull to scrap the U.S. Department of Agriculture rule that reopened the border to live cattle less than 30 months old and boxed cuts of Canadian beef.

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April 6, 2006

New York Times

Editorial

Late last month, Creekstone Farms, a Kansas-based beef company, sued the United States Department of Agriculture. The reason? Creekstone wants to use tests for mad cow disease on all of the cattle it slaughters, and the U.S.D.A. won't let it.

In contrast, the U.S.D.A.'s testing program for mad cow disease tests only high-risk cattle ó those that die on the farm, can't walk or are obviously sick. In other words, the department tests about 1 percent of the 35 million cattle that are slaughtered in this country every year. It believes, based on its statistical models, that testing 1 percent is plenty. We disagree.

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By BOB INGRAM / Guest Columnist
(Updated: Tuesday, April 4, 2006 3:24 PM CDT)
Bob Ingram

MONTGOMERY ó As recent as a week ago I was defending Roy Moore, the GOP gubernatorial candidate, for expressing his fears, albeit clumsily, about the possible dangers involved in electing delegates to a Constitutional Convention.

He warned, not without justification, that in all likelihood the special interests in Alabama, the AEA in particular, would most likely elect a majority of delegates and write a Constitution to their liking.

But I had scarcely put my words on paper defending Moore when he made an incredulous charge about the report of a mad cow being found in Alabama.

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SEOUL (Yonhap) ㅡ The United States has failed to provide the date of birth of a cow linked to a third case of mad cow disease on its shores, a matter that could jeopardize Seoul's resumption of American beef imports, the government said Wednesday.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said Washington forwarded information on the cow Friday but gave no conclusive evidence to indicate its age.

``The data contained expert testimonies by veterinarians, but we cannot determine for certain if the cow was born before April 1998,'' said Park Hyun-chul, head of the ministry's livestock bureau.

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Korea says the U.S. has failed to prove its claim that a cow found infected with BSE there last month is 10 years old. That would jeopardize Koreaís resumption of beef imports from the U.S. since the two sides agreed in negotiations in January that Korea can suspend imports again if U.S. cattle born after April 1998 come down with mad cow disease. On that date, the U.S. banned ìcannibalisticî feed made from cattle parts that is blamed for causing the disease.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said Wednesday it has been unable to determine whether the cow in question was born before or after March 1998 based on pictures and a letter from a veterinarian provided by the U.S. It asked the U.S. to provide more data, it added.

(englishnews@chosun.com )

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