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Japan Suspends Beef Imports From U.S. Plant

flounder

Well-known member
Japan Suspends Beef Imports From U.S. Plant

Manufacturing.Net - July 22, 2009

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Japanese government said Wednesday it has suspended beef imports from a U.S. plant after two packages of chilled beef were found to contain spinal columns, a risk material for mad cow disease, at Tokyo port.

The two packages were among 16 tons of U.S. beef flanks and other parts in 810 packages which arrived at the port from Creekstone Farms Premium Beef LLC's plant in the state of Kansas, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Spinal columns were found when the Animal Quarantine Service examined 28 of the 810 packages on Tuesday. No risk materials for the disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, were found in the remaining 808 packages.

The ministries asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate why the two packages were among those shipped to Japan.

Japan has limited U.S. beef imports to those from cattle aged 20 months or less since the first U.S. case of BSE discovered in December 2003.

Japan's import conditions also include the removal of brains, spinal columns and other specific risk materials that could cause the disease.

Since Japan resumed beef imports from the United States in July 2006, there have been 12 violations of the bilateral beef trade agreement committed by U.S. meatpacking plants, including the latest incident which is the second case involving a BSE risk material.

Japan has imported a total of 148,000 tons of beef from 41 U.S. plants since the resumption of imports, including 9,000 tons from Creekstone' Kansas plant.



http://www.manufacturing.net/News-Japan-Suspends-Beef-Imports-From-US-Plant-072209.aspx



DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES UNITED STATES FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION CENTER FOR BIOLOGICS EVALUATION AND RESEARCH

This transcript has not been edited or corrected, but appears as received from the commercial transcribing service. Accordingly the Food and Drug Administration makes no representation as to its accuracy.

TRANSMISSIBLE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES ADVISORY COMMITTEE

21st Meeting Friday, June 12, 2009 8:00 a.m. Holiday Inn

DR. ROHWER: We first detected infectivity at that point, but that was part of several measurements over the incubation period and you could extrapolate that curve and it extrapolated to zero back around 30 percent of the incubation time.

DR. HOGAN: Dr. Manuelidis?

DR. MANUELIDIS: Yes, I think there are a couple of things that concern me. One is that using one model of animals may not always be the most effective one. In 1978 we wrote an article in Science showing that infectivity was present basically from about half way in the disease and went through the end and at the end it became highly infectious, much more infectious in the guinea pig for instance than in Bob's models. I would also like to point out that, for instance, vCJD is BSE and basically in a cow blood is not infectious and in primates it is. So, one must be very careful about this. The third thing which is a concern of mine is that in the report here it says we are talking about vCJD and my

PAPER MILL REPORTING 301 495-5831 163

concern is that we are limiting things to vCJD. It says because BSE has been detected in so few US cattleB-now, anybody who works with the USDA knows that the USDA has been impossible about letting anybody work with BSE and we actually had no surveillance. So, we have no idea about how many US cattle are really infected as compared to places like Japan that look at every single cow. The fourth thing is that there are recent reports that have been going back for several years and have now become more important of variants of BSE which are not vCJD, some of which people believe have more of a linkage to sporadic CJD. We also do not look for these things.

So, I think that in looking at what we say about what should be done, although this has no practical application right now to what the FDA is going to do about saying we can't use this blood or that blood, I think it is a much broader problem. I also agree with people in the audience who came and said that CJD is not a reportable disease in many places, and I think this is very frustrating in terms of knowing what is really going on in our population. So, I would like to add that.

PAPER MILL REPORTING 301 495-5831 164

DR. HOGAN: I think those are most important points that a lot of us agree with, and I know that the staff is looking at some of those in the future. What we are specifically charged with today is a little bit less encompassing issue but, nonetheless, exactly what you say should be considered.

SNIP...

MR. TEMPLIN: I just want to make two comments. I am sort of troubled that we don't know how much is actually infectious. A comment too about what Dr. Manuelidis said about cattle. If a farmer has cattle that he thinks may e

PAPER MILL REPORTING 301 495-5831 166

infectious he is going to throw it out in the back 40 and cover it up or throw it on the compost pile and never report it to the government because he is going to lose everything he or she owns.

DR. HOGAN: I think we are going to have some speakers this afternoon that are going to address the current USDA situation. So, we will have questions for them at that point. Miss Hamilton?

MS. HAMILTON: I have a comment about what Dr. Manuelidis said to a question. It troubles me because a few years ago there was a lot of hype about the downed cattle that were getting through and being used in food for animals and what-not, and now we don't hear anything else about it, and she was saying that there is no surveillance in that area at all. My big question is why.

DR. HOGAN: Well, we will ask the USDA this afternoon, but I am not sure that zero is correct. I think it has been lowered significantly from its initial stages but it is not zero. Dr. Kreindel?

DR. KREINDEL: We are going to have a presentation on the USDA surveillance, but we do have surveillance and our surveillance is according to international standards.

PAPER MILL REPORTING 301 495-5831 167

You know, it is not surveillance that really protects the US population. You know, we do have surveillance and there was a lot of surveillance going on. We called that surveillance enhanced surveillance. We are going to have information about that. We still have surveillance going on, you know, at the level requested by international standards but we do cover a lot of mitigations about sequential interlocking that really prevent, you know, if any BSE is present to be recycled.

DR. HOGAN: Thank you. Perhaps we will defer the discussion of surveillance till this afternoon. Do any of the statistics experts on the panel have anything to say relative to the mathematical accuracy of this model, since all those equations make me dizzy?

SNIP...then the BSe picks up on page 205 with the mathmatical formula's and the junk science of the OIE, but then on page 216 please see the questions on BSE testing in the USA by Dr. Manuelidis ;

DR. MANUELIDIS: I am just curious if you can explain to me the difference between the testing that is going on now in Europe with all the other variants or other strains of BSE, the test that is used, and whether the USDA still refuses to sort of use tests that other countries use, and what might our tests have that may be different and are they still restricted, or what is the rationale for that?

DR. HUGHES: Well, the USDA uses tests that have been validated.

DR. MANUELIDIS: I believe that the tests have been validated for the European and the Japanese stuff, they all use a standard test. So, I am curious about why the USDAB-there was the import I think you were referring to where the Japanese stopped importing food because, as I understood it and this is, of course, from places like The New York Times that may be totally wrong but as I understood it, the USDAB-this must have been about three or four years ago, said that they refused to use the test even though the plant was willing to use it. They said they had their own tests and they said they would only use their own tests.

PAPER MILL REPORTING 301 495-5831 217

Maybe you can clarify that for me and tell me what the difference is between the tests, and whether you think that you can pick up the variants of BSE, not just the UK version of BSE. If there is really a difference in the sensitivity of the tests, if any independent side-by-side comparison has been done.

DR. KREINDEL: I am not sure I can answer your question but I think you are referring to the fact that they wanted to test all animals, rather than following the USDA requirements for testing.

DR. HUGHES: The question was why don't we test all animals.

DR. MANUELIDIS: There is a test that is used in Europe and in Japan. It is used all over I think. It is a bioride[?] test and what the plant was willing to do, I understood from The New York Times, was to test their animals according to that protocol. The USDA said no, even though everybody else uses it, we want to use our own test. Then they never really did those tests. So, what I am really getting at is are our tests in the USDA as sensitive and as comprehensive even if we don't test every animal--

PAPER MILL REPORTING 301 495-5831 218

DR. HUGHES: Yes.

DR. MANUELIDIS: -Bfor all the variants of BSE and on what basis? Have you ever picked up any cases of BSE-H or BSE-L? Would you have an independent control that shows you that you can pick up these things with the tests as currently employed? Have there been any blind controls where an animal has a little bit of this or that just to see if you can pick it up out of a group?

DR. HUGHES: I think what you might be referring to is the Creekstone case.

DR. MANUELIDIS: Yes.

DR. HUGHES: Okay. Of course, I can't comment on current litigation but, basically, the USDA is unwilling to, you know, have a test be validated as a food safety test. Again, this gets back to what I spoke about earlier, that the BSE test really isn't a food safety test. It is possible to test an animal for BSE and have it be negative and still have the animal be positive for BSE. So, using that to put on a package label is just very confusing and kind of disingenuous to the public because it gives them a false sense of security about it. Our main focus for protecting human health is on other

PAPER MILL REPORTING 301 495-5831 219

mitigation measures, such as the feed ban the FDA has in place; removal of specified risk materials. So, the tissues that we know are likely to contain agent never make it into the food chain in the first place. So, that is the basis of the refusal to allow that private company to do their own testing.

DR. MANUELIDIS: I don't want to be difficult because BSE is not my specialty, minus the vCJD version of it, but as I understand, some of the BSE cases, like the typical UK BSE case, have been found in muscle where muscle has been found to be infectious. So, the food ban wouldn't really deal with those. That is why I was asking what is the test. If you did a side-by-side comparison with blind controls would you be able to pick up what Europeans and Japanese pick up? That is really what I am asking.

DR. HUGHES: And I am afraid I can't answer that, and I am not sureB-you know, the experts on that would be the folks at NVSL that are responsible for validating the test and choosing which test we use. But evidently they are not convinced that the other tests are better than what we use currently. But, again, I am sorry, I am not the expert

PAPER MILL REPORTING 301 495-5831 220

in that particular category.

snip...

SEE FULL TEXT 346 PAGES ;



http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AdvisoryCommittees/CommitteesMeetingMaterials/BloodVaccinesandOtherBiologics/TransmissibleSpongiformEncephalopathiesAdvisoryCommittee/UCM171810.pdf



Sunday, May 10, 2009

Meeting of the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Committee On June 12, 2009 (Singeltary submission)



http://tseac.blogspot.com/2009/05/meeting-of-transmissible-spongiform.html



Sunday, April 12, 2009

BSE MAD COW TESTING USA 2009 FIGURES

Month Number of Tests

Feb 2009 -- 1,891

Jan 2009 -- 4,620



http://www.aphis.usda.gov/newsroom/hot_issues/bse/surveillance/ongoing_surv_results.shtml



http://madcowtesting.blogspot.com/2009/04/bse-mad-cow-testing-usa-2009-figures.html



10,000,000+ LBS. of PROHIBITED BANNED MAD COW FEED I.E. BLOOD LACED MBM IN COMMERCE USA 2007

Date: March 21, 2007 at 2:27 pm PST

RECALLS AND FIELD CORRECTIONS: VETERINARY MEDICINES -- CLASS II

___________________________________

PRODUCT

Bulk cattle feed made with recalled Darling's 85% Blood Meal, Flash Dried, Recall # V-024-2007

CODE

Cattle feed delivered between 01/12/2007 and 01/26/2007

RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER

Pfeiffer, Arno, Inc, Greenbush, WI. by conversation on February 5, 2007.

Firm initiated recall is ongoing.

REASON

Blood meal used to make cattle feed was recalled because it was cross- contaminated with prohibited bovine meat and bone meal that had been manufactured on common equipment and labeling did not bear cautionary BSE statement.

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE

42,090 lbs.

DISTRIBUTION

WI

___________________________________

PRODUCT

Custom dairy premix products: MNM ALL PURPOSE Pellet, HILLSIDE/CDL Prot- Buffer Meal, LEE, M.-CLOSE UP PX Pellet, HIGH DESERT/ GHC LACT Meal, TATARKA, M CUST PROT Meal, SUNRIDGE/CDL PROTEIN Blend, LOURENZO, K PVM DAIRY Meal, DOUBLE B DAIRY/GHC LAC Mineral, WEST PIONT/GHC CLOSEUP Mineral, WEST POINT/GHC LACT Meal, JENKS, J/COMPASS PROTEIN Meal, COPPINI - 8# SPECIAL DAIRY Mix, GULICK, L-LACT Meal (Bulk), TRIPLE J - PROTEIN/LACTATION, ROCK CREEK/GHC MILK Mineral, BETTENCOURT/GHC S.SIDE MK-MN, BETTENCOURT #1/GHC MILK MINR, V&C DAIRY/GHC LACT Meal, VEENSTRA, F/GHC LACT Meal, SMUTNY, A- BYPASS ML W/SMARTA, Recall # V-025-2007

CODE

The firm does not utilize a code - only shipping documentation with commodity and weights identified.

RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER

Rangen, Inc, Buhl, ID, by letters on February 13 and 14, 2007. Firm initiated recall is complete.

REASON

Products manufactured from bulk feed containing blood meal that was cross contaminated with prohibited meat and bone meal and the labeling did not bear cautionary BSE statement.

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE

9,997,976 lbs.

DISTRIBUTION

ID and NV

END OF ENFORCEMENT REPORT FOR MARCH 21, 2007

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/enforce/2007/ENF00996.html

NEW URL



http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/EnforcementReports/2007/ucm120446.htm




Thursday, March 19, 2009

MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF POUNDS OF MAD COW FEED IN COMMERCE USA WITH ONGOING 12 YEARS OF DENIAL NOW, WHY IN THE WORLD DO WE TO TALK ABOUT THIS ANYMORE $$$


http://madcowfeed.blogspot.com/2009/03/millions-and-millions-of-pounds-of-mad.html



Saturday, June 13, 2009

BSE FEED VIOLATIONS USA UPDATE From 01/01/2009 To 06/10/2009



http://madcowfeed.blogspot.com/2009/06/bse-feed-violations-usa-update-from.html



Tuesday, July 14, 2009

U.S. Emergency Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Response Plan Summary and BSE Red Book Date: February 14, 2000 at 8:56 am PST

WHERE did we go wrong $$$



http://madcowtesting.blogspot.com/2009/07/us-emergency-bovine-spongiform.html



Rare BSE mutation raises concerns over risks to public health

SIR - Atypical forms (known as H- and L-type) of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) have recently appeared in several European countries as well as in Japan, Canada and the United States. This raises the unwelcome possibility that variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) could increase in the human population. Of the atypical BSE cases tested so far, a mutation in the prion protein gene (PRNP) has been detected in just one, a cow in Alabama with BSE; her healthy calf also carried the mutation (J. A. Richt and S. M. Hall PLoS Pathog. 4, e1000156; 2008). This raises the possibility that the disease could occasionally be genetic in origin. Indeed, the report of the UK BSE Inquiry in 2000 suggested that the UK epidemic had most likely originated from such a mutation and argued against the scrapierelated assumption. Such rare potential pathogenic PRNP mutations could occur in countries at present considered to be free of BSE, such as Australia and New Zealand. So it is important to maintain strict surveillance for BSE in cattle, with rigorous enforcement of the ruminant feed ban (many countries still feed ruminant proteins to pigs). Removal of specified risk material, such as brain and spinal cord, from cattle at slaughter prevents infected material from entering the human food chain. Routine genetic screening of cattle for PRNP mutations, which is now available, could provide additional data on the risk to the public. Because the point mutation identified in the Alabama animals is identical to that responsible for the commonest type of familial (genetic) CJD in humans, it is possible that the resulting infective prion protein might cross the bovine-human species barrier more easily. Patients with vCJD continue to be identified. The fact that this is happening less often should not lead to relaxation of the controls necessary to prevent future outbreaks. Malcolm A. Ferguson-Smith Cambridge University Department of Veterinary Medicine, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ES, UK e-mail: [email protected] Jürgen A. Richt College of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State University, K224B Mosier Hall, Manhattan, Kansas 66506-5601, USA

NATURE|Vol 457|26 February 2009



http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v457/n7233/full/4571079b.html



see full text ;

Monday, May 11, 2009

Rare BSE mutation raises concerns over risks to public health



http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2009/05/rare-bse-mutation-raises-concerns-over.html



Monday, June 01, 2009

Biochemical typing of pathological prion protein in aging cattle with BSE

snip...

Greetings,

O.K., let me get this straight, we have typical, U.K. c-BSE, we have now a spontaneous atypical h-BSE and l-BSE, of which they are now just calling an 'old cow disease', which happens spontaneously without any route or source, just happens.

OH, and then we have the new/old ibncBSE, of which is just another 'old cow prion disease', another one of those spontaneous events $$$

IT SEEMS there is a pattern here to make all Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies a spontaneous event, even though there is no such evidence what so ever.

WITH all the sub-types of TSE showing up now in the Scrapie, BSE, CWD, (all of which has been rendered and fed back to livestock producing animals for human and animal feed), and even in humans i.e. CJD, there is no way, they know for a fact that all are of a spontaneous, sporadic event, that just happened due to a twisted up protein that folded the wrong way by itself, from no route and no source. they do NOT know if any of these atypical TSE are of a spontaneous old cows prion disease or not, but yet they preach it like it's the gospel $$$

I don't believe them today, and i will never believe that 85%+ of all human sporadic CJD, just happens without any route and source from anything. ...

kind regards, terry

Absence of spontaneous disease and comparative prion susceptibility of transgenic mice expressing mutant human prion proteins

snip... see full text ;



http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2009/06/biochemical-typing-of-pathological.html



Sunday, June 07, 2009

L-TYPE-BSE, H-TYPE-BSE, C-TYPE-BSE, IBNC-TYPE-BSE, TME, CWD, SCRAPIE, CJD, NORTH AMERICA



http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2009/06/l-type-bse-h-type-bse-c-type-bse-ibnc.html



Sunday, May 10, 2009

Identification and characterization of bovine spongiform encephalopathy cases diagnosed and NOT diagnosed in the United States



http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2009/05/identification-and-characterization-of.html



Transgenic mice expressing porcine prion protein resistant to classical scrapie but susceptible to sheep bovine spongiform encephalopathy and atypical scrapie. Emerg Infect Dis. 2009 Aug; [Epub ahead of print]



http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2009/07/transgenic-mice-expressing-porcine.html



Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Transmissible mink encephalopathy - review of the etiology



http://transmissible-mink-encephalopathy.blogspot.com/2009/07/transmissible-mink-encephalopathy.html



TSS
 

PORKER

Well-known member
DR. HUGHES: Okay. Of course, I can't comment on current litigation but, basically, the USDA is unwilling to, you know, have a test be validated as a food safety test. Again, this gets back to what I spoke about earlier, that the BSE test really isn't a food safety test. It is possible to test an animal for BSE and have it be negative and still have the animal be positive for BSE. So, using that to put on a package label is just very confusing and kind of disingenuous to the public because it gives them a false sense of security about it. Our main focus for protecting human health is on other ????????????????????????

Ron --- Where is that Live BSE test ?
 

flounder

Well-known member
PORKER said:
DR. HUGHES: Okay. Of course, I can't comment on current litigation but, basically, the USDA is unwilling to, you know, have a test be validated as a food safety test. Again, this gets back to what I spoke about earlier, that the BSE test really isn't a food safety test. It is possible to test an animal for BSE and have it be negative and still have the animal be positive for BSE. So, using that to put on a package label is just very confusing and kind of disingenuous to the public because it gives them a false sense of security about it. Our main focus for protecting human health is on other ????????????????????????

Ron --- Where is that Live BSE test ?



porker, bottem line, the USDA is NOT going to validate anything that would confirm any case of BSE in the USA bovine, or any TSE in the USA bovine. just look at past history, and i can supply that informatiion to anyone that has not already seen it.

let's stop bullshitting each other on this matter. ...


TSS
 

flounder

Well-known member
flounder said:
PORKER said:
DR. HUGHES: Okay. Of course, I can't comment on current litigation but, basically, the USDA is unwilling to, you know, have a test be validated as a food safety test. Again, this gets back to what I spoke about earlier, that the BSE test really isn't a food safety test. It is possible to test an animal for BSE and have it be negative and still have the animal be positive for BSE. So, using that to put on a package label is just very confusing and kind of disingenuous to the public because it gives them a false sense of security about it. Our main focus for protecting human health is on other ????????????????????????

Ron --- Where is that Live BSE test ?



porker, bottem line, the USDA is NOT going to validate anything that would confirm any case of BSE in the USA bovine, or any TSE in the USA bovine. just look at past history, and i can supply that informatiion to anyone that has not already seen it.

let's stop bullshitting each other on this matter. ...


TSS



porker, bottem line, the USDA is NOT going to validate anything that would confirm any case of BSE in the USA bovine, or any TSE in the USA bovine, (i should add) AND USE IT, in sufficient numbers to find. ...snip





Tuesday, July 14, 2009

U.S. Emergency Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Response Plan Summary and BSE Red Book Date: February 14, 2000 at 8:56 am PST

WHERE did we go wrong $$$



http://madcowtesting.blogspot.com/2009/07/us-emergency-bovine-spongiform.html



Transgenic mice expressing porcine prion protein resistant to classical scrapie but susceptible to sheep bovine spongiform encephalopathy and atypical scrapie. Emerg Infect Dis. 2009 Aug; [Epub ahead of print]



http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2009/07/transgenic-mice-expressing-porcine.html




Transmissible mink encephalopathy - review of the etiology


http://transmissible-mink-encephalopathy.blogspot.com/2009/07/transmissible-mink-encephalopathy.html





Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Nor98 scrapie identified in the United States J Vet Diagn Invest 21:454-463 (2009)



http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2009/07/nor98-scrapie-identified-in-united.html



Monday, June 01, 2009 Biochemical typing of pathological prion protein in aging cattle with BSE

SOMETHING TO PONDER ???

O.K. confusious asks, IF all these new atypical BSEs i.e. new strains of mad cow disease is just an 'OLD COW PRION DISEASE', why then can not the 'old human prion disease' such as the sporadic CJD, be from an 'old cow prion disease', same as the nvCJD 'young people mad cow disease' (which also happens in 74 year old), but why cannot the 'old cow prion diseases', i.e. l-BSE, h-BSE, and ibncBSE, cause the 'old people prion disease', which looks like sporadic CJD. seems that is what some of the pathology is showing ???

OH, that probably makes too much sense, and that the only answer could be that it's all just a happenstance of bad luck and or a spontaneous event, that just happens out of the clear blue sky $$$

IF this is the case, then where are all the SPONTANEOUS BSE CASES OF MAD COW DISEASE IN THE U.S.A., AND WHERE HAVE THEY BEEN BURIED IN THE USA OVER THE LAST 25 YEARS ???



http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2009/06/biochemical-typing-of-pathological.html


TSS
 
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