This is step one-- then put into effect M-COOL so consumers can tell where the beef they are eating comes from- then open the border....
After delays, U.S. to toughen mad-cow safeguard
Tue Aug 30, 2005 3:10 PM ET
By Charles Abbott
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One of the bedrock U.S. safeguards against mad cow disease -- a ban on using cattle parts in cattle feed -- will be expanded "in the next month or two," the government said on Tuesday.
The U.S. Agriculture Department formally closed its investigation of the first native U.S. case of mad cow disease, which surfaced in late June. It concluded that the Texas animal was infected before a federal ban on using cattle remains in cattle feed was imposed in 1997.
It was the first U.S.-born cow found with BSE and the second U.S. case overall. The previous case was found in December 2003 in a Holstein dairy cow imported from Canada to Washington state.
The Food and Drug Administration, which oversees animal feed, said it aimed to refine the livestock feed ban with an additional rule soon. FDA has said it was considering a broader ban on use of poultry litter, table scraps and cattle blood in feed as well as more restrictions on use of items thought to carry the highest risk of spreading mad cow.
"We hope a rule will be forthcoming in the next month or two," said Stephen Sundlof, director of FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine.
Always fatal, BSE is believed to be spread among cattle through consumption of feed that contains material from infected cattle.
People can contract a human version of the disease by eating contaminated meat.
The major U.S. safeguards against mad cow disease are the feed ban, a prohibition against slaughtering "downer" cattle -- animals too sick to walk on their own -- for human food, and a requirement for meatpackers to remove from carcasses the brains, spinal cords, nervous tissue and other parts most likely to contain the malformed proteins blamed for the disease.
"I am pleased we are now in a position to close this investigation, notify our trading partners and move on," said Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns during a telephone news conference.
Johanns renewed his frequent calls on Japan to "step up" and resume purchases of beef from young cattle, as it agreed to do last year.
"There is simply no risk here," said Johanns, because no one had found mad cow disease in cattle 20 months or younger.
In the Texas case, the 12-year-old, cream-colored cow was selected for testing when it was delivered dead to a pet food plant in Waco last November 15.
It initially was declared free of mad cow disease but a new round of tests in June, ordered by the USDA inspector general, found the cow had bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.
"This investigation found that no feed or feed supplements used on the farm since 1997 were formulated to contain prohibited mammalian protein," the USDA said in a statement. "Due to this finding, FDA has concluded that the animal was most likely infected prior to the 1997 BSE/ruminant feed rule."
Some 67 head of cattle originating from the same farm were tested for mad cow disease but all tested negative. USDA chief veterinarian John Clifford told reporters the results showed "there was no widespread problem."
The Food and Drug Administration said its investigation showed U.S. feed mills and packing plants complied with the 1997 ban on using cattle parts in cattle feed. "FDA has concluded that the animal was most likely infected prior to the 1997 ban," Sundlof said during a teleconference.