Creekstone Farms Premium Beef is finding out how difficult life can be when your opponent in court is the U.S. government. One thing is certain, the government is not worried about running up legal bills.

Here's what we are talking about.  Your government wants to stop Creekstone from using its own money to test each and every one of its Black Angus beef cattle for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease.

Last March, Creekstone beat the government at the trial court level.  U.S. Judge James Robertson of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. said the United States Department of Agriculture's prohibition of private tests was "unlawful."

On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard oral arguments in the case. USDA, which currently tests only one percent of slaughtered cows for BSE, brought the appeal. 

With near riots in 30 locations in South Korea over the re-entry of U.S. beef cattle to the Asian country, Creekstone's plan to test for BSE are looking more than savvy. Its testing facility, a state-of-the-art laboratory, is ready to go at its Arkansas City, Kansas plant. All that stands in the way of its ability to respond to customer demand in Korea, Japan and other countries concerned about Mad Cow Disease is Uncle Sam.

USDA says more widespread testing does not guarantee food safety and could result in a false positive that scares consumers. They said Creekstone wants to "create false assurances."

Creekstone said USDA's regulations covering the treatment of domestic animals contain no prohibition against an individual company testing for mad cow disease, since the test is conducted only after a cow is slaughtered. The company insists USDA no authority to prevent the private sector from using the test to reassure customers. Creekstone says USDA wants to keep information from consumers.

Appeals courts generally issue their rulings some weeks after hearing the case.

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The return of U.S. beef to the South Korean market is encountering severe turbulence.   Thousands of South Koreans have "hit the bricks" to protest the decision by its government to let U.S. beef back in the country for the first time since 2003.

The Korea Times has this report on what's happening:

More than 10,000 people participated in a candlelight vigil in Seoul, according to police, which was organized by a coalition of 1,500 civic groups and Internet-based communities in what was the biggest gathering since the government announced plans to relax the import restrictions on U.S. beef. Organizers of the rally claimed that the crowd numbered closer to 30,000.

Protestors urged the Lee Myung-bak government to take a harder look at the health concerns on U.S. beef from cattle older than 30 months, which is believed to be more at risk from BSE, commonly called ``mad cow" disease.

Similar rallies were also held in more than 10 towns and cities across the country, including Incheon, Suwon, Daejeon, Busan and Jeonju

[So far,none of the protest rallies have turned into one of those famous South Korean riots as shown here.]

Last weekend, Dr. Richard Raymond, USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety, issued the complete text of his statement to the South Korea trade delegation.  Dr. Raymond told the group that "the U.S. beef supply is among the safest in the world."   The complete text can be found here.

South Korea has agreed to open itself up to U.S. beef for the first time since 2003 when a "mad cow" was found in Washington State.  

Whether the public protests will impact the government remain to be seen.   However, the Korea  Times makes it clear, some opponents won't be giving up.  The newspaper reports:

Internet cafe members, professors' groups and some doctors said that they will fight against the government until the beef deal between the two countries is scrapped.

Go here for the rest of the Korea Times story.

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The wall to keep Mad Cow Disease out of America was erected somewhat higher last week.  This week, the debate is whether that action resulted from a true concern by the soon-to-be outgoing Bush Administration about health or was it the required cave-in to get South Korea to once again import American beef.

The blog, OMB Watch, put it this way:

FDA's announcement came as a bit of a surprise since OMB seemed content to allow the rule to languish under its review while the cattle industry continued to avoid further regulation. The turning point came at a meeting between U.S. and South Korean officials on trade. According to the Wall Street Journal,  "South Korea last week agreed to lift restrictions on U.S. beef and, according to one U.S. government official, the country did so on the condition that the U.S. strengthen its livestock feed rules."

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) said the regulation first proposed in 2005, barring certain cattle materials from all animal feed, including pet food, protects animals and consumers against bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, also known as "mad cow disease").

Some details from FDA:

The new measure builds on FDA's 1997 feed regulation, which prohibited the use of certain mammalian proteins in ruminant feed.

The materials that can no longer be used in animal feed are the tissues that have the highest risk for carrying the agent thought to cause BSE. These high risk cattle materials are the brains and spinal cords from cattle 30 months of age and older. The entire carcass of cattle not inspected and passed for human consumption is also prohibited, unless the cattle are less than 30 months of age, or the brains and spinal cords have been removed. The risk of BSE in cattle less than 30 months of age is considered to be exceedingly low.

The removal of high-risk materials from all animal feed will further protect against inadvertent transmission of the agent thought to cause BSE, which could occur through cross-contamination of ruminant feed (intended for animals with four-chambered stomachs, such as cattle) with non-ruminant feed or feed ingredients during manufacture and transport, or through misfeeding of non-ruminant feed to ruminants on the farm. The added measure of excluding high-risk materials from all animal feeds prevents any accidental feeding of such ingredients to cattle.

Today's regulation finalizes a proposed rule that the FDA issued for public comment in October 2005. The final rule is effective 12 months from today to allow the livestock, meat, rendering, and feed industries time to adapt their practices to comply with the new regulation. Under the new requirements of the final rule, renderers that process cattle not inspected and passed for human consumption must make available for FDA inspection their written protocols for determining the age of cattle and demonstrating that the brain and spinal cords of cattle have been effectively removed

OMB Watch's Matt Madia summed it up this way:

Nonetheless, it's a sad commentary that the Bush White House is more responsive to the concerns of the South Korean government (and the domestic producers who will benefit from increased exports) than to its own food safety agency or considerations of public health. The rule is fairly typical of Bush's cronyism approach to regulation: "Fight tooth-and-nail against government intervention, unless it would help out my buddies."

But bottom line, new policies are now in place that could prevent an outbreak of mad cow disease. The rule takes effect in April 2009

The FDA news release is  here.

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Food industry lobbyists are crawling about the Executive Office of Management & Budget to stop approval of new regulations that would give consumers the right to know which retail outlets were supplied tainted meat that’s subject to recall.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) first sent the right to know regulations over to OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in February 2005. They’ve been hung-up there ever since.

USDA renewed its call for the new regulations after the 143 million pounds of beef was recalled when its became known that at least some “downer” cows were processed by the Chino slaughterhouse.

Once “downer” cows reach the food supply, experts say there is a much greater risk of humans contracting “Mad Cow” disease.

About a third of the Hallmark/Westland beef went to school lunch programs, but the other two thirds went into the overall retail chain. Consumers were left clueless by the federal government and the food industry.

OMB Watch, an independent blog, is down and dirty with what’s going on:

While the rule would be a step in the right direction, the devil is in the details (as it so often is with the Bush administration). Insiders say the new rule may only apply to Class I recalls. USDA classifies recalls based on the potential risk to public health; Class I recalls are for products which pose the highest risk, Class II and III recalls are for products which pose lower risks.

Most meat recalls are Class I (50 of 58 in 2007), but consumers have a right — and a need — to know about Class II and III recalls as well. For example, USDA classified an April 2007 recall of more than 5,000 pounds of salami as a Class II recall but also called the health risk "high."

For more on the behind-the-scenes rule making, go here

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The  Virginian-Pilot has reported on the death of a 22 year old woman that may be related to a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, known as vCJD, a rare degenerative brain disorder that has been linked to consumption of contaminated beef.

The V-P reports:

A 22-year-old woman who may have had a rare degenerative brain disorder that has been linked to eating beef from cattle infected with mad cow disease has died.

The story can be found here.

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We could really gross you out with this one.   Elkhorn Valley Packing in Harper, KS is  voluntarily recalling 406,000 pounds of frozen cattle heads because the tonsils were not completely removed.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service requires that tonsils from cattle of all ages be removed as a specified risk material that may possibly be an infectious agent for mad cow disease.

The product recall from Elkhorn Valley Packing is for various weight bulk boxes labeled "Beef Whole Heads, Keep Refrigerated." Each shipping package bears the establishment numbers EST 19549A inside the USDA mark of inspection as well as a package code of 91700 or 93700.

The other cow parts that are banned from the human food chain include the skull and brain, eyes, small intestine, and vertabrat and spinal cord.  (See illustration from USDA)

The problem was discovered at a state-inspected processing company that received some of the products, which were packed before March 28, and verified that there had been incomplete removal of the tonsils.

There have been no reports of illness from the product and the recall is being listed as "low risk."

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We always get a little discomfort whenever someone in the media gives themselves the title of "Watchdog."

Maybe its because we always think of the late Marvin Zindler, the Texas TV consumer reporter who during one ratings period decided to force the shutdown of a rural brothel.  It was the story that musical "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" was based upon.   Since he died last August 1st, I won't say more about Marvin.  But here's his picture.

At the Kansas City Star, its Watchdog was recently asked about the death of Milton Eugene Rebarchek, specifically whether it was "related to Mad Cow."  Here's how the Watchdog replied:

The man’s death was not related to “mad cow.” Instead, it was Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, says Joe Blubaugh, spokesman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

And Blubaugh says that you can breathe easy because Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD, is far different than mad cow.

Blubaugh says about three people die of CJD each year in Kansas.

The Watchdog says, fortunately, you probably have more to fear from mad dogs than mad cows

We do not think that is a very good answer.  Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) are both prion diseases.  We reported Mr. Rebarchek's death as being a case of confirmed CJD.   We said CJD is related to BSE because they are both prion dieases.  

Here's what the Centers for Disease Control has to say about Prion Diseases:

Prion diseases or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are a family of rare progressive neurodegenerative disorders that affect both humans and animals. They are distinguished by long incubation periods, characteristic spongiform changes associated with neuronal loss, and a failure to induce inflammatory response.

The causative agent of TSEs is believed to be a prion. A prion is an abnormal, transmissible agent that is able to induce abnormal folding of normal cellular prion proteins in the brain, leading to brain damage and the characteristics signs and symptoms of the disease. Prion diseases are usually rapidly progressive and always fatal.

As our readers know, we've followed news and developments involving all kinds of Prion Disease and the investments being made in Prion research.   So don't make this subject too cute and simple, no matter how many mad dogs there are in Kansas City.

 

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A suspected victim of  Mad Cow Disease has been identified and his death by Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease confirmed.

Milton Eugene Rebarchek of Monument, Kansas died in January and now the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center confirms he died of C-J, which is related to Mad Cow Disease, and  turns the brain tissue spongy.

Mr. Rebarchek's identity and National Prion's findings were made public by his brother, Frank Rebarchek of Scott City,  Kansas.   The victim worked in a packing plant 15 or 20 years ago, according to the brother.

Where the victim was exposed remains unkown.   The incubation period for C-J disease can run to decades and the diagnosis requires testing brain tissue.  It is always fatal.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob can come from blood transfusions and can be hereditary in very rare cases. On average, 250 to 300 cases are reported in the United States

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The largest beef recall in United States history occurred largely because of video evidence that at least a couple "downer cows" made it into the food supply.

Now comes word from the Animal Welfare Institute, a 57-year old non-profit that wants to abolish so-called "factory" farming and achieve humane slaughter practices, that it has records from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) of 501 humane-handling or slaughter violations involving "downer cows."

The violations apparently occurred in the 18 months prior to March 2004.    The records tell of a downed cow being pushed 15 feet with a forklift. Other companies were cited for dragging downed but conscious animals, letting downed cattle be trampled and stood on by others and, in one case, using "excessive force" with a rope and an electric prod to get a downed cow to stand.

The USDA records indicate that more than 10 percent of the humane-slaughter violations issued by the department involved animals, mostly cattle, that could not walk.

"Downer cows" are much more likely to be carrying diseases like Mad Cow, E. coli, and salmonella.   Since an undercover video tape surfaced of a Chino, CA slaughterhouse that was forcing "downer cows" into the "knock" or kill box, USDA has been under pressure to stop such animals from entering the human food supply.

For more, check out the USA Today story here.

 

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From reading the newspapers today, you would think that Steve Mendell, who owns Westland and managed Hallmark, who were partners in the Chino slaughterhouse, was given a rough time on Capitol Hill yesterday.

Mendell gave the impression that he is not a very curious man.   He had not looked at a second Humane Society video tape that actually showed "downer" cows being forced into the "knock" box at the Chino slaughterhouse.   That narrated video was the "smoking" gun that caused the United States Department of Agriculture to demand Mendell make the largest recall of beef in US history.

USDA was suppose to send him a copy.  It never did.  He never bothered to go looking for it on the Humane Society website where it was available to anyone.  After it was shown to him by the House Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations, Mendell amended his testimony to acknowledge that at least two "downer" cows had made it into the food supply in violation of USDA policies.

Sure, Mendell went through some discomfort before the Subcommittee.  He clearly does not like watching the Humane Society video tapes.  He wanted to say the tapes showed there was an animal welfare problem, not a food  safety issue.  After the second tape, he had to admit to both.

For the most part, however, Mendell came across as a victim.  A  CEO who could produce documents, training manuals, and numerous government and third party audits.   But, he was personally clueless as to what was going on in the pens and on the floor of the slaughterhouse.  "Obviously, my system broke down," he said.

Best places to go for stories are: The Chicago  Tribune; The New York Times; and the Los Angeles Times.

 

 

 

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Mad cow disease is an awful way to die. Contracting it is a little like coming down with Alzheimer’s, with the body and brain both deteriorating — except that it affects people of any age, not just the elderly. It is terrifying even to think about.

Enough time has passed on the breaking news that was the Chino slaughterhouse that writers are weighing in with analysis pieces.   The quote above was from the New York Times story that ran over the weekend by Joe Nocera.  It ran the business section and can be found here.

Nocera does a good job of logging all the events that followed the secret video taping of extreme cruelty to "downer" cows inside the Chino meat processing plant that is owned by Hallark/Westland.   He then gets into the controversy, writing that:

You see, downer cows — animals that are not standing on their feet when they are slaughtered — are said to have an increased risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (B.S.E.), the dreaded mad cow disease

Today there is another analytical story out on "downer cows" by the Chicago Tribune's Stephen J. Hedges.  It ran in the Buffalo News and can be found here.  Hedges notes that:

But the video also has focused new light on a practice that some animal welfare and food safety experts contend is an old problem: the use in beef production of dairy cows that are spent and barely able to stand, due to calcium depletion from being milked intensively for years.

If we put aside concerns about the nation's school lunch program and all the problems surrounding the biggest beef recall in history, we still cannot help be being struck by the fact that all of this is occurring without causing anyone illness nor even being considered much of a health risk. 

But the potential threat from "downer" cows and Mad Cow Disease has sure captured everyone's attention.  So read on and remember, the pictures with some of these stories are graphic.  We've decided not to put anymore of them here.  At least for now.

 

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Edward T. Schafer, Secretary of Agriculture, this week was defending the status quo when it comes to "downer" cows.  USDA's current policy is that if a cow on the way to slaughter goes down,  there should be additional inspection by a veterinarian, who might rule the animal is healthy enough to get whacked.

The Humane Society of America wants a complete ban against putting "downer" cows in the human food supply, and the organization that is responsible for the undercover video of the now closed Chino slaughter house went to court this week to get its way.  The same suggestion was given to Schafer by Democrat Senators.  Example:

"We cannot allow a single downer cow to enter our food supply under any circumstances," said Herb Kohl, D-Wisconsin.

Kohl called for installing cameras in slaughterhouses.  Today, Stephen J. Hedges, who works out of the  Washington Bureau of the Chicago Tribune, published a piece that really does an excellent job of making sense out of all of this "downer" cow business.  Hedges writes:

USDA and beef industry officials were quick to acknowledge, then discount, an obvious health concern presented by the videotape of downer cows at the Chino plant: mad cow disease.

The inability of a cow to stand is considered a symptom of mad cow, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), though cattle may go down for a number of reasons, including ailing or broken limbs, exhaustion and lack of water.

BSE deteriorates a cow's nervous system and brain, and can similarly afflict humans who eat meat infected with BSE.

The rest of the Chicago Tribune story can be found here.

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Ever since the arrest warrants were issued for Daniel Navarro of Pomona, and Luis Sanchez of Chino on multiple charges of animal cruelty at the Chino slaughterhouse, we've said these individuals were perhaps guilty, but probably not the  ultimate decision-makers.

Navarro and Sanchez are the guys seen in the Humane Society video that led to closure of the Hallmark/Westland slaughterhouse and shortly thereafter to the largest beef recall in U.S. history.

They are the guys fired by the Hallmark/Westland owners, and charged by the county prosecuting attorney under California law.  Is anybody looking any higher up the food  chain?

Yes, the Riverside-based Press Enterprise is on the case.  Reporters Ben Goad and Janet Zimmerman today wrote this:

Irene Zamora, who said she worked as a Hallmark quality assurance inspector in 2004, blamed the problems on a manager at the plant. She spoke to a reporter Tuesday at her home in Riverside and was not part of the congressional hearing.

Zamora said the two men charged with animal abuse in the case, pen manager Daniel Ugarte Navarro, 48, and his assistant, Jose Luis Sanchez, 32, were acting on the other manager's orders.

According to Zamora, she was fired after six months because she was zealous about cleaning up the plant, making sure workers had new boots and gloves and were following procedures for cleanliness and safety.

Zamora, 41, said she went to Stan Mendell, the operations manager and brother of owner Steve Mendell, and complained about the manager, but Stan Mendell told her there was nothing he could do.

The plant's owners and top executives only visited the area called the kill floor once or twice a week, she said.

"I feel bad for Stan and the bosses. There's a lot of things Irene Zamora, who said she worked as a Hallmark quality assurance inspector in 2004, blamed the problems on a manager at the plant. She spoke to a reporter Tuesday at her home in Riverside and was not part of the congressional hearing.

Zamora said the two men charged with animal abuse in the case, pen manager Daniel Ugarte Navarro, 48, and his assistant, Jose Luis Sanchez, 32, were acting on the other manager's orders.

According to Zamora, she was fired after six months because she was zealous about cleaning up the plant, making sure workers had new boots and gloves and were following procedures for cleanliness and safety.

Zamora, 41, said she went to Stan Mendell, the operations manager and brother of owner Steve Mendell, and complained about the manager, but Stan Mendell told her there was nothing he could do.

The plant's owners and top executives only visited the area called the kill floor once or twice a week, she said.

"I feel bad for Stan and the bosses. There's a lot of things that man (the manager) did without anybody knowing. If you did not do what he said, you were out the door," said Zamora, who went to work for the city of Riverside's recreation program and also stocked shelves at a Food 4 Less after leaving Hallmark.

The Press-Enterprise is not naming the manager because he has not been formally accused of criminal wrongdoing or charged with any crimes.

that man (the manager) did without anybody knowing. If you did not do what he said, you were out the door," said Zamora, who went to work for the city of Riverside's recreation program and also stocked shelves at a Food 4 Less after leaving Hallmark.

The Press-Enterprise is not naming the manager because he has not been formally accused of criminal wrongdoing or charged with any crimes.

If true, the Westland/Hallmark empire was destroyed by not by the owners, but someone they hired to run their operations.  And, they did not listen to warnings about it.   This isn't all The Press Enterprise has to say.  Check it out here.

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While we've all been focused on "downer" cows in the United States, Canada has actually found its 12th case of Mad Cow disease.   The International Herald Tribune today (2/26/08) reports that:

"Canada confirmed a new case of mad cow disease on Tuesday, marking the country's 12th such case since the disease was first discovered there in 2003.

"The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said no part of the cow's carcass entered the human food or animal feed chains.

"The animal is a six-year-old cow from Alberta, born after the implementation of Canada's feed ban in 1997.

"The national monitoring program targets cattle most at risk for the disease, which is also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

"The food inspections agency said it expects to detect a small number of cases over the next 10 years as Canada moves toward its goal of eliminating the disease from its herds."

Two cases of mad cow disease have been found in the U.S. since 2003.  U.S. agricultural officials says the finding of a 12th cow with the diease in Canada is "no cause for concern" and will not impact cross border trade.   The Herald Tribune story can be found here.

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Editorial writers at The Arizona Republic Sunday gave their readers a lot to think about when it comes to food safety and preventing Mad Cow disease.

They said our belief that food is safe and our assumption that animals are treated humanely were both dashed by the Chino slaughterhouse scandal that led to the largest beef recall in U.S. history.

The fact that all of this came to light, not from our Federal food inspectors, but from the Humane Society of the United States caused the AR to call for  " a sustained effort to structure a food-safety inspection system that is up to the challenges presented by modern factory farming and emerging food-borne health threats."

The AR editorial speaks specifically to the issue of "downer" animals and the risk of Mad Cow disease.  It says:

The animal-protection group's surreptitiously filmed video shows workers abusing non-ambulatory animals in an effort to get them onto their feet for slaughter. Cows too weak to stand were kicked, smacked in the eye with a paddle and shocked repeatedly. Some were taken to slaughter by forklift.

Federal regulations ban most "downer" cows from the food supply because an animal that is too sick to walk is more likely to carry mad-cow disease or other contamination. Inspectors should have excluded these animals from the slaughter. But, according to society investigators, inspections were done on a set schedule. That meant violations could take place when no one was watching.

What's more, the federal law banning downer cattle has huge loopholes, says Wayne Pacelle, president of the society. It does not even cover downer pigs, sheep or goats, although two proposals in Congress, S 394 and HR 661, cover these animals.

The full AR editorial can be found here.

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A federal judge in South Dakota soon will making a ruling that could again close the United States to the import of all cattle from Canada.   American cattlemen, who say they just want to keep bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) out of the USA , are trying to shutdown the program that allows cattle older than 30 months to come south of the border.

The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, also known as R-CALF, leads the coalition of groups to keep older Canadian cattle out of the United States.  R-CALF makes several points in its campaign against Canada, including:

• Allowing over 30 month cattle from Canada will make it more difficult for US cattlemen to regain foreign market share.  American cattle were shut out of foreign markets after an animal from Canada was discovered in Washington State with mad cow disease.
• The US should not relax its import standards until there is scientific evidence that Canada has eliminated BSE from its feed and that conclusion is accepted worldwide.

• The US should wait until there is country or origin labeling.

• Since its now known that BSE has continued to be a problem in Canada after the feed ban, the US has reason to be suspicious of high risk animals.
• Both the US and Canada need to let more time pass since the feed ban.  Canada needs more testing.

• And, there should be health and safety risk and economic studies done before the border is open to cattle traders.

R-CALF wants the federal judge to issue an order stopping the United States Department of Agriculture  from keeping the border open to older cows.  USDA says its rules and procedures already protect the public.

There's an Associated Press story on the case here.

 

 

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After the nation's school districts have been stuck holding their illegal meat in public freezers for more than two weeks, the Chino slaughterhouse has finally done the obvious and issued a recall.

The Food Safety & Inspection Service of the United States Department of Agriculture announced  on Sunday afternoon that 143,383,823 pounds of raw and frozen beef products from Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company of Chino, CA were being "voluntarily recalled."

FSIS said the meat did not receive the "complete and proper inspection"  in situations when non-ambulatory cattle were involved.  In other words, the Hallmark/Westland slaughterhouse in Chino was processing "downer" cows and selling the meat from them to America's school lunch program.

Only a "pen manager" and his assistant have been charged in the slaughterhouse scandal.  Their images being cruel to the "downer" cows were captured on video taken by an undercover operative from the Humane Society of America.

The FSIS statement on the recall can be found here.

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Meet Michael A. Ramos,  San Bernardino County District Attorney.  He has just filed criminal charges in the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company's mistreatment of downer cows.

We are not, at least at this point, going to see Westland/Hallmark President Steve Mendell being taken away in handcuffs.   No, neither Mendell or any other Westland/Hallmark corporate officials being "frog-marched" passed the media.

No, but according to the Los Angeles Times "Daniel Ugarte Navarro of Pomona faces up to eight years and eight months in prison if convicted of five felony counts of animal cruelty and three misdemeanor counts of illegal movement of a non-ambulatory animal. Navarro, who was a head pen manager at Hallmark Meat Packing, was fired last month after the release of the video by the Humane Society of the United States.

A pen manager?  The LA Times also reports "authorities today also filed three misdemeanor counts against 32-year-old Luis Sanchez of Chino, who worked directly under Navarro and was also fired last month. Sanchez faces up to three years in prison if convicted.

We guess Sanchez was trying to work his way up to "pen manager."   He was probably the other guy fired immediately by Westland/Hallmark after the Humane Society went public with its video tape.

"Downer" cows, which are many more times more likely to spread Mad Cow disease,were being routinely mistreated at the Westland/Hallmark Chino slaughterhouse.  Are we to believe that responsibility for these practices stop with a "pen manager" and his trusty companion?

Schools nationwide have been forced to pull beef from their menus and leave it stacked in their freezers until this mess is cleaned up.  On one hand, we have to give D.A. Ramos credit for filing at least some criminal charges in this matter.   However, one has to wonder where is the U.S. Justice Department?

Or how about Homeland Security?   What's more important than protecting the security of the food supply going into every school lunch program in the country.   

Maybe if the feds would put their considerable resources to work they could find away to charge someone higher up than a "pen manager."  D.A. Ramos says "We want to send the message that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated."

That message Mr. Ramos would be better sent by charging those in charge.

Go here for the whole LA Times story.

 

 

 

 

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Suffolk & Essex online today reports that Guy Massey, a 53-year old Suffolk businessman,  died on Jaunary 28, 2008 from the human form of mad cow's disease.  He died just ten weeks after he was told he had the rare Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and eight months before he was due to marry later this year.

Suffolk & Essex online reports that:

Variant CJD (vCID), believed to be the human form of mad cow's disease, is extremely rare and affects only a handful of people each year.

Family members are unsure whether a cornea graft operation he had seven years ago at West Suffolk Hospital might have been connected with the disease.

But hospital chiefs last night said cases of the disease were extremely rare and encouraged the family to get in touch with any concerns they might have.

Mr. Massey was clearly a man who enjoyed life and was greatly loved.   His story can be found here.

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The Humane Society caught the Chino, CA slaughterhouse processing "downer" cows; breaking a bunch of federal laws.   It was more than an embarrassment to the United States Department of Agriculture as not only was its Food Safety & Inspection Service (FSIS) at Chino not on the job; but federal food buyers were busy buying all the beef produced by the plant for the school lunch program.

Talk about the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing.  Or maybe it did.

Anyway, more than a few people are watching and wondering about how USDA is handling this smelly little situation.   Oh, the Chino plant has been shut down and school districts across the nation have been ordered to sit on the beef in their freezers, but what next?

Blogger Martha Rosenberg is among the watchers and she's been keeping an eye on Ed Schafer, who is serving as the lameduck's last Secretary of Agriculture.  She writes:

"For the new Agriculture Secretary, Ed Schafer, the Hallmark/Westland Meat Company recall has been the perfect storm...

..".With his predecessor Mike Johanns running for the Senate in Nebraska and ex Secretary Ann Veneman safely at UNICEF, Schafer, former North Dakota Governor, no doubt resents the mess he's inherited and has resorted to swiftboating.

"The Humane Society, since late October, has been willing to let animals suffer out there," rather than notify USDA he said in front of a cattle group in Reno last week, ignoring the fact that eight inspectors were on-site.

"But the Los Angeles Times isn't buying it.

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture has 7,800 pairs of eyes scrutinizing 6,200 slaughterhouses and food processors across the nation. But in the end, it took an undercover operation by an animal rights group to reveal that beef from ill and abused cattle had entered the human food supply," it wrote.

Everything Rosenberg had to say can be found here.

"Downer" cattle are many more times likely to contain Mad Cow disease, which is why federal law bans the processing of animals that cannot get up on their own.

 

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Schools across America were left pulling beef from their lunch menus after Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing was caught mistreating "downer" cows.  In doing their reports on the local school districts, most television stations showed some images from the Humane Society video that was taken by an undercover operative.

After a week of that, enough was enough for the United States Department of Agriculture, which announced the Chino, CA slaughter house was going from being suspended to shut down. Dr. Richard Raymond, USDA's undersecretary for food safety, said:

"On Feb. 4, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) suspended inspection at Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company based on the establishment's clear violation of Federal regulations and the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. This Notice of Suspension is a regulatory course of action available when FSIS finds egregious violations of humane handling regulations.

At the time allegations were revealed on Jan. 30, the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company voluntarily stopped operations on Feb. 1. The USDA suspension will remain in effect and the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company will not be allowed to operate until written corrective actions are submitted and verified by FSIS   to ensure that animals are humanely handled.

When USDA meat inspectors leave the building with their purple stamps, you are pretty much out of the meat business until they come back.  Previously, USDA put a hold on products from the Chino plant and stopped its involvement with the school lunch program.   The "hold," however, is not a recall and state and local school districts  at this point are wondering what to do with the beef from Chino that is now held in their freezers.

A good wrap up of the situation can be found in today's Los Angeles Times here.

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Westland Meat Company/Hallmark Meat Packing own and operate a slaughterhouse in Chino, CA that they say has operated “under the strictest possible standards for animal welfare, occupational health and safety and food safety precautions for 10 years.”

Today, however, that Chino slaughterhouse is shut down because the Humane Society of the United States went public with a powerful video tape that shows downed animals being brutally forced through the packing house.

“The video appears to show employees jabbing downed cows in the eyes, using repeated electric shocks, dragging them with forklifts and tormenting them with water in efforts to move them into the slaughter chutes,” reports the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.

“Downer Cows,” meaning animals that are not able to rise off the ground on their own, cannot be slaughtered for human use out of control for controlling diseases like Mad Cow.

One thing is certain; the video was powerful enough to rattle the United States Department of Agriculture. USDA was not only one of Westland’s regulators; it was one of its biggest customers. The government agency bought 27 million pounds of beef from Westland last year for the school lunch program.

Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer promised an investigation by USDA’s various arms.
"We are confident in our inspection system and the food safety regulations that ensure the safety and wholesomeness of the food supply. Among the federal safeguards in place, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) prohibits non-ambulatory disabled cattle and cattle tissue identified as specified risk materials for use in human food,” Schafer said a prepared statement.

Someone from the Humane Society took the video while working undercover inside the packing plant last fall. Two employees identified in the video by the company were immediately fired.

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If cattle in the United States ever started showing up with Mad Cow disease in any significant numbers, the outcry for locating and tracking histories on the impacted animals would probably be over-whelming.

After 9-11, we all recall the sharp elbows that were exchanged over who did and who did not “connect the dots.”

So it’s not surprising that government and industry have been working on a solution for tracking animals. It’s called the National Animal Identification System or just NAIS for short.

At this point, NAIS has managed to work itself into a gray area as a program that is not mandatory, but one that might require you to volunteer for it. For example, if your kid’s 4H animal is going to get into the fair or if you want to sell to certain feedlots.

So now opposition is developing to NAIS. Its being called everything from “the Agriculture Gestapo” to “the Barnyard Big Brother.”

The LA Times last week published a long article on all of this. It reported that:

A Bush administration initiative, the National Animal Identification System is meant to provide a modern tool for tracking disease outbreaks within 48 hours, whether natural or the work of a bio-terrorist. Most farm animals, even exotic ones such as llamas, will eventually be registered. Information will be kept on every farm, ranch or stable. And databases will record every animal movement from birth to slaughterhouse, including trips to the vet and county fairs.

But the system is spawning a grass-roots revolt.

To read the entire story, go here.

We wanted to more fully understand the objections to NAIS. The Farm & Ranch Freedom Alliance lists “the problems with NAIS” including:

[] Massive intrusion into people’s lives: individuals will have to provide detailed information about their property, businesses, and their own movements to government and private databases; 

[]  Burden on property rights: the premises registration number will attach to the land forever, and people’s rights to manage their land and animals will be restricted; 
[] High costs: registration, tagging, and reporting all carry costs in both time and money;   Loss of small farmers and ranchers: many will be unable to afford the program, or unwilling to accept the government intrusion; 
[]  Damage to the economy: businesses that rely on small farmers, such as sales barns, supply stores, and even tourism, will be harmed; 
[]  Reduced choices and increased costs for consumers; 
[]  Violation of many Americans’ religious beliefs; and 
[]  Increased government bureaucracy and waste of taxpayer dollars.

We think  the Alliance's list of "problems" can be taken apart pretty easily.  If costs to the small farmer or rancher are an issue,  that can and should be addressed.  But NAIS in some form or another is probably needed in the world in which we live.

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If you want to catch the world's attention,  there's probably not a better place to do it than the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.   The death last week of a Kansas man due to the rare brain disease Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease caught  the Exchange's attention.  Today, it was celebrating the fact that it appears there is no relation to this man's demise and Mad Cow disease.

Here's what  Reuters is reporting out of Chicago:

Preliminary tests indicate that a 53-year-old Kansas man, who died on Friday, had the rare brain disease Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, which is not related to mad cow disease, health officials said on Wednesday.

However, it will be several weeks before final tests are completed to positively identify the disease.  A physician who treated the man had said the brain disease was "not the mad cow version," said a spokesman for the Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, where the man was treated.

Reuters said the cattle market early on Wednesday was filled with speculation  that the man might have died from variant CJD, which scientists believe can be contracted by eating contaminated parts from cattle with mad cow disease.  Reuters calmed the waters, saying:

Normal CJD is naturally occurring and the Kansas Department of Health said the state averages about three cases a year. "We have no reason to believe it is not anything but CJD," said Joe Blubaugh, spokesman for the Kansas Department of Health.

The United States has had three cases of mad cow disease in cattle.

 

 

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Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease has taken the life of a 53-year old Colby, Kansas man.  He died Friday, Jan. 11, 2008 at  the Wesley Medical Center in Wichita where he where he had been a patient since December. .

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease is a rare disease that affects the central nervous system and turns brain tissue spongy. 

Karen Shideler reported on the death today in the Wichita Eagle.   She says:

One variation of the disease is the so-called mad cow disease but the human form of that has never been seen in the United States in someone who hadn't had exposure elsewhere.

Because the incubation period for the disease is years or even decades, health officials don't know how or when the Kansas man got the disease, nor what its source may have been.

They won't know for several weeks, until testing is complete, which form of the disease he had.

The diagnosis at this time is Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, or CJD, said Wesley spokesman Paul Petitte. The only way to confirm CJD is through testing of brain tissue, which will be done through the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center.

Kansas has an average of three CJD cases a year, according to Joe Blubaugh, spokesman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

Nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one to two people per million have a spontaneous case of CJD each year. On average, 250 to 300 cases of CJD are reported annually.

In addition to the spontaneous cases, a certain form of CJD can come from consumption of beef that has been infected with mad cow disease, as happened in Great Britain in the mid-1990s. The United States and other countries implemented various measures in response, to prevent the disease and better track infected cattle.

CJD can also come from blood transfusions, and it can be hereditary in very rare cases.

Richard Liepins, who was the attending physician in the local case, said, "We have no idea of how he possibly contracted this."

Go here for the rest of the story.

 

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Nebraska game officials have found 18 deer with chronic wasting disease out of  3,310 tested. 

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a transmissible neurological disease of deer and elk that produces small lesions in brains of infected animals. It is characterized by loss of body condition, behavioral abnormalities and death. CWD is classified as a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE), and is similar to mad cow disease in cattle and scrapie in sheep, according to the Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance.

One of the diseased deer was found in Hall County, Nebraska and that caused a long look at the situation by Mark Coddington at the Grand Island Independent.   He notes that most CWD-infected deer in Nebraska are found in the Panhandle, but there were cases scattered about the state as far as 200 miles away from the enemic area.

The CWD Alliance notes that:

"Infectious agents of CWD are neither bacteria nor viruses, but are hypothesized to be prions. Prions are infectious proteins without associated nucleic acids.

"Although CWD is a contagious fatal disease among deer and elk, research suggests that humans, cattle and other domestic livestock are resistant to natural transmission. While the possibility of human infection remains a concern, it is important to note there have been no verified cases of humans contracting CWD. "

Coddington reports that the rate of CWD in Nebraska at about 1 percent is far from the 5 percent rate in Colorado and Wyoming.  "The red flag for us is that it has spread,: says Bruce Trindle, who heads up big game research for Nebraska.

 

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     The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)  is going with a rule-change that makes it more likely that a "mad cow" could make its way into the United States, but two powerful Western Senators are trying to block it.   Democrat Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Republican Mike Enzi  of Wyoming explained why they are seeking U.S. Senate action to block the USDA rule-change in the this guest editorial in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.  It ran on New Year's Day.

 

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The National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center at Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University is getting $27.5 million from the Centers for Disease Control--enough to continue its work for another five years.   The Cleveland Plain Dealer's Sarah Jane Tribble wrote that:

"The center became a national hot spot when mad cow disease, which is the newest strain of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, hit global headlines several years ago. Hospitals nationwide send suspected cases to Cleveland to be tested. And earlier this year the center was part of an international study that announced a new prion protein that may provide insight into how the brain functions with the disease.

"Mad cow disease is the best known of several brain-wasting diseases for humans and animals thought to be associated with malformed proteins called prions. Another disorder in this family includes chronic wasting disease, which has infected Wisconsin deer.

"Since 1997, neurologists and pathologists have sent brain tissue and spinal specimens from nearly 3,000 individuals to Case, which confirmed about 1,500 cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Pierluigi Gambetti, center director,  said.

"To date, Gambetti said the center has not found any cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease from eating contaminated beef, elk or deer meat in the United States. "But we have to keep looking because otherwise we may indeed miss it," he said. "

Having the Cleveland center to call upon may be timely for Japan, which just discovered its 34th case of mad cow disease, and Canada, which turned up its 11th case of BSE since 2003.

The National Prion center was founded in 1997 and is the only one of its kind in the United States.

 

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Canada's new Prime Minister Stephen Harper wanted to put food safety front and center this week, but he probably did not want help from an aged Alberta cow who showed up with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

Here's how it played out.  On Monday, the PM announced the Government of Canada would be taking preventive measures in 2008 to ensure food safety.  On Tuesday, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed the 13-year old beef cow from Alberta did suffer from BSE. The animal's carcass was said to be under CFIA control and no part of it entered either the human or animal food systems.

The discovery will not change Canada's risk status for BSE under World Organization for Animal Health guidelines.  That is because the aged cow was born before Canada's feed ban went into effect in 1997.

The PM meanwhile is promising to "transform the government’s approach to regulating product safety. For the first time in Canada, instead of merely reacting to problems, the regulations will be designed to prevent them."

New measures will include:

Mandatory product recalls when companies fail to act on legitimate safety concerns.

Making importers responsible for the safety of goods they bring into Canada.

Increasing maximum fines under the Food and Drug Act from $5,000 up to current international standards.

Better safety information for consumers and guidance to industries on building safety throughout their supply chains.

Because of the date of the feed ban, Canada expects it will continue to identify a small number of BSE infected animals over the next decade or so.  The detection program has tested about 190,000 of the animals considerd most at risk.  The government says the surveillance results reflect an extremely low incidence of BSE in Canada.

Harper food safety remarks were delivered in Ottawa at a Salvation Army Toy Depot.   The aged Mad Cow was found on a farm near Red Deer, Alberta.

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Utah's ranchers got a stern warning yesterday from the state veterinarian: feeding cattle with pet food could cause Mad Cow Disease.   Dawn House at the Salt Lake Tribune reported  that high hay costs and burned out ranges could tempt some ranchers into using pet food linked to Mad Cow.

Some pet foods contain animal byproducts that if fed to beef or dairy cows pose the threat of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, says state veterinarian Earl Rogers.
"It is possible that some pet food manufacturers who have heard of the depletion of feed sources in Utah because of drought and fire may offer their scrap material to Utah ranchers," said Rogers. "Both buyers and sellers must know that any pet food containing cattle or other ruminant material cannot be fed to other cattle."
Feeding pet food to cattle, which is banned under state and federal law, could result in the slaughter of an entire herd, he said.

The Tribune went on to report that Utah officials are worried that some ranchers may be tempted to supplement cattle feed with banned material because often pet food is fed to swine and poultry.  Feed for cattle isn't suppose to contain certain ruminant protein from beef.

Mad Cow Disease, known in science as Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, has struck 140 people in the United Kingdom and one person in the United States.  That person, however, was probably living in the UK when stricken.

Ranchers in the West this winter are dealing with some of the highest feed prices in history.  Drought and fire have also impacted their own productive capacities for the near future.

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Phyllis Entis isn't buying the single milk substitute theory as the reason why 33 cows in Japan came down with bovine spongiform encephalopathy ten years ago.
The Japanese Agricultural Ministry released an investigative report Friday (12/14/07) that blamed Dutch-produced animal fat powder that was used as a milk substitute for the outbreaks of Mad Cow Disease in Hokkaido and Kanto.
Entis, a food safety microbiologist, who writes for eFoodAlertcom says the theory that Japanese cows got Mad Cow Disease from Dutch animal fat is an old one. CNN offered it up in 2001. 
"There are other possible explantions for the Japanese mad cow outbreak, " she wrote. "The     milk substitute was actually processed in Japan, using animal fat from the Netherlands as one ingredient. The powder might have been contaminated by meat and bone meal--a high risk material for mad cow transmission ---during mixing. Another source might have been dried cattle blood, which is sometimes used as an ingredient in milk substitute for feeding cattle"

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We’re coming up on the 5th anniversary of the discovery of Mad Cow disease in the United States. It came here with an unfortunate little cow from Canada that found its way to Washington State.
It ended, for a long time, U.S beef exports. The cost to the U.S. economy? $6 billion a year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Somewhat less, according to Kansas State University.

Now U.S. beef is getting back in the overseas pipeline. Last May, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) cleared U.S. beef from animals of any age as a “controlled BSE risk” and therefore safe for export.

BSE, of course, is Bovine spongiform encephalopathy---science’s name for Mad Cow Disease. Other countries with controlled BSE risk include Brazil, Canada, Chile, Switzerland, and Taiwan.
If you are looking for countries with less BSE risk, you might want to look at beef from Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Singapore, and Uruguay. Those countries have “negligible” BSE risk, according to the OIE.

Russia, however, is looking to cut a deal for genuine U.S. beef. With its pockets filled with dollars f