US lags on Mad Cow test
By Don Maroc
Mar 19 2007
The federal and provincial governments say they are tightening the rules to make sure the beef we eat is not spreading Mad Cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy).
As usual the regulations are a bit of a double-edged sword.
The idea is to separate Specified Risk Materials (SRM) from edible meat throughout the butchering processes. Scientific study claims BSE prions (infecting proteins) accumulate in the SRM, making it the most dangerous part to eat.
SRM includes the skull, brain, nerves attached to the brain, eyes, tonsils, spinal cord and nerves attached to it, and a portion of the small intestine.
In the case of condemned cattle and those dead on arrival the entire carcass must be considered SRM and identified with a stripe of meat dye the length of its back. All SRM material must also be dyed and stored for transport in special sealed plastic containers.
SRM materials must be removed from all cattle for human consumption. As of June 2007, they are also banned from all animals feeds, pet foods, and fertilizers.
While the new regulations can be considered mostly positive for consumers, they require a lot of extra work for abattoir operators, both butchering and filling out forms.
For each animal they must record the name and address of the processing facility, the date of removal and staining of the SRM, weight of the SRM, name of the dye used, Canadian Cattle ID tag numbers, name and address of company transporting the SRM and the destination. The records must be kept for 10 years.
All this should be for our best interests, but the reality is it’s being done to satisfy the Americans to whom we sell most of our exported meat.
We have been carrying out reasonably thorough testing of our cattle and have found nine cows suffering from Mad Cow disease. During that time the U.S. has grudgingly admitted to three cases of BSE.
With their usual hypocrisy, the Americans waved off the first BSE case noting the Washington State cow was born in Canada. The second case was in Texas. U.S. authorities refused to do a second laboratory test to verify a positive field test until the agency’s inspector general finally ordered one seven months later. We are still waiting for a confirming lab test for a third suspected BSE animal in Alabama.
Dr. Paul Brown, former medical director of the National Institutes of Health’s Laboratory for Central Nervous System Studies, has said he has absolutely no confidence in USDA tests. In addition the U.S. is making ID tags voluntary and has cut back the numbers of cattle tested by 90 per cent. The U.S. no longer even refers to its program as testing; they now call it a surveillance program.
In the U.S. cattle too sick or injured to be accepted at the slaughterhouse are not tested before being rendered. Ya don’t test ‘em, ya don’t find ‘em, right.
To paraphrase our Mexican fellow sufferers, poor Canada, so far from God, so close to the United States. Don Maroc writes for the News Leader
http://www.starjournal.net/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=4&cat=48&id=855915&more=
TSS
By Don Maroc
Mar 19 2007
The federal and provincial governments say they are tightening the rules to make sure the beef we eat is not spreading Mad Cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy).
As usual the regulations are a bit of a double-edged sword.
The idea is to separate Specified Risk Materials (SRM) from edible meat throughout the butchering processes. Scientific study claims BSE prions (infecting proteins) accumulate in the SRM, making it the most dangerous part to eat.
SRM includes the skull, brain, nerves attached to the brain, eyes, tonsils, spinal cord and nerves attached to it, and a portion of the small intestine.
In the case of condemned cattle and those dead on arrival the entire carcass must be considered SRM and identified with a stripe of meat dye the length of its back. All SRM material must also be dyed and stored for transport in special sealed plastic containers.
SRM materials must be removed from all cattle for human consumption. As of June 2007, they are also banned from all animals feeds, pet foods, and fertilizers.
While the new regulations can be considered mostly positive for consumers, they require a lot of extra work for abattoir operators, both butchering and filling out forms.
For each animal they must record the name and address of the processing facility, the date of removal and staining of the SRM, weight of the SRM, name of the dye used, Canadian Cattle ID tag numbers, name and address of company transporting the SRM and the destination. The records must be kept for 10 years.
All this should be for our best interests, but the reality is it’s being done to satisfy the Americans to whom we sell most of our exported meat.
We have been carrying out reasonably thorough testing of our cattle and have found nine cows suffering from Mad Cow disease. During that time the U.S. has grudgingly admitted to three cases of BSE.
With their usual hypocrisy, the Americans waved off the first BSE case noting the Washington State cow was born in Canada. The second case was in Texas. U.S. authorities refused to do a second laboratory test to verify a positive field test until the agency’s inspector general finally ordered one seven months later. We are still waiting for a confirming lab test for a third suspected BSE animal in Alabama.
Dr. Paul Brown, former medical director of the National Institutes of Health’s Laboratory for Central Nervous System Studies, has said he has absolutely no confidence in USDA tests. In addition the U.S. is making ID tags voluntary and has cut back the numbers of cattle tested by 90 per cent. The U.S. no longer even refers to its program as testing; they now call it a surveillance program.
In the U.S. cattle too sick or injured to be accepted at the slaughterhouse are not tested before being rendered. Ya don’t test ‘em, ya don’t find ‘em, right.
To paraphrase our Mexican fellow sufferers, poor Canada, so far from God, so close to the United States. Don Maroc writes for the News Leader
http://www.starjournal.net/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=4&cat=48&id=855915&more=
TSS