THIS IS NOT GOOD!!!!

[Anonymous]

I HOPE THAT THIS INFO IS ALL WRONG- BUT ANYMORE WHO CAN YOU BELIEVE OR TRUST :? THIS ARTICLE WILL DEFINITELY NOT DO GOOD FOR DEMAND

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The World Forum
US Officials Accused Of Covering Up Human Deaths From BSE, Discouraging Testing Of Suspected Animals

By Drog (Canada), Section United States of America
Posted on Sat Jul 02, 2005 at 09:58:51 AM PST

By Wikinews
Dr. Lester Friedlander, a former United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) vet, had been blowing the whistle on the USDA beef inspection practices before the latest case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was confirmed. Dr. Friedlander said that inspectors are allowed only 15 seconds of inspection and that unhygienic practices are common in the meat industry; practices such as cow carcasses with abscesses being hosed off, wrapped up and shipped to the consumer.

Friedlander also claims that some supervisors were more concerned about falsifying inspection documents than protecting consumers and that on June 9, 2005, a cow in Texas with BSE symptoms was sent straight to the rendering plant without testing.


There have also been allegations of a "don't ask,don't tell" approach being applied by US health officials when confronted with human deaths which may be caused by eating BSE contaminated meat. The Organic Consumers Association reported last year that hundreds of people are dying in the US each year from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD or vCJD) (the human counterpart of BSE) and the deaths are being written off as "unexplainable". The disease causes holes in the brains of the victims.
A New Jersey lawyer, Janet Skarbek is being called "the next Erin Brockovich " for her research into the "Cherry Hill cluster" of 12 deaths she said were caused by people eating BSE infected meat;"I'm up to 12 confirmed cases of CJD, where it says CJD on their death certificates and where they all ate at the same racetrack." Skarbek said.

New Jersey state officials have said that the 12 deaths were not a result from the human form of mad cow disease, but rather from sporadic CJD; but Skarbek says the government's numbers don't add up."If you just take five of the victims from New Jersey that ate at the track most recently, two were out of 100 administrative employees and three were out of 1,000 season-pass holders. So out of that population of 1,100 people, we should see one case of CJD every 909 years."

Sources


Michael Condon "Mad cow in US "cover up"". ABC, April 19, 2005

Keila Szpaller "Mad about Cows". Missoula News, June 30, 2005

"Mad Cow Disease In New Jersey?". CBS, April 18, 2004

D.T. Max "The Case of the Cherry Hill Cluster". nytimes, March 28, 2004

"Is mad cow disease causing thousands of human deaths in the US?". Organic Consumers Association, January 16, 2004

 

[frenchie]

old news Ot

 

[Anonymous]

old news Ot

Yeah I know- but yesterday it was posted on the International News Page of the World Forum.....NOT GOOD- When all of USDA's moves are under the microscope... :???:

 

[Murgen]

Old news and are they checking for contaminants other than BSE infected beef, they should maybe. CJD cases are all unexplained, if they are not going to do any research and then just blame it on beef!

 

[frenchie]

old news Ot

Yeah I know- but yesterday it was posted on the International News Page of the World Forum.....NOT GOOD- When all of USDA's moves are under the microscope... :???:

Sorry this is so long ..whats a matter Ot you were not worried about this a little while back whats changed..Remember this thread

So Ot what do you see R- Calf doing about this matter...Are they going to get to the bottom of this story and prove it false....do you think this former U.S.D.A vet is a liar.

Frenchie- Couldn't get the site to open, but I'm sure it is probably the Freidlander story...Anything is possible anymore with government and bureaucrats- looks like GAO should do some more investigating--but I have a hard time believing one formerly fired disgruntled employee- when he claims their are so many more that know about it--In this day of blow the whistle, write a book, and make a million- you'd think they'd be climbing all over each other to get the story out....

Here let me save you the trouble...OT..Tuesday, April 12, 2005 Updated at 2:32 PM EST

Canadian Press

Ottawa — A scientist and former inspector for the U.S Department of Agriculture says he is willing to take a lie detector test to back his charge that the United States is covering up mad-cow disease.

Lester Friedlander, now a consumer advocate, was fired from his job as head of inspections at a large meat-packing plant in Philadelphia in 1995 after criticizing what he called unsafe practices.

Mr. Friedlander said U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarians sent suspect cow brains to private laboratories, which confirmed they were infected with mad cow disease. Samples from the same animals, however, were cleared by government labs.

He would not reveal the names of the veterinarians, saying in an interview that they still work for the agriculture department and would be fired if identified.

The department has denied Mr. Friedlander's allegations, first made in a speech last week in Edmonton.

He is in Ottawa to testify at a Commons committee examining proposed changes to the Canadian food regulation system

SO you are saying he,s a liar.Where is R-Calf on this...are they going to get to the bottom of this and prove it false?
This man raises questions about the U.S.D.a and unsafe practices and was fired.If r- Calf was any kind of cattle org..they should be raising hell to find out the truth one way or the other.

I suppose these guys just hated their jobs too


U.S. accused of covering up mad cow cases
Last Updated Tue, 12 Apr 2005 21:26:58 EDT
CBC News

OTTAWA - There was testimony on Tuesday before a House of Commons committee alleging that the United States has covered up cases of mad cow disease – allegations that are supported by a CBC News investigation.

The testimony raises a question that has been asked many times: how has the U.S. been able to essentially escape bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease, when Canada has had four cases?

Part of the answer could be in a slaughterhouse in Oriskany Falls, N.Y., which eight years ago may have become the home of the first American case of mad cow.

Bobby Godfrey who worked at the plant remembers a cow that arrived.

"I thought it was a mad dog, to tell you the truth. Didn't know what the hell it was. Never seen a cow act like that in all the cows I saw go through there. There was definitely something wrong with it," said Godfrey.

The suspect cow, which was recorded on video obtained by CBC News, was suspected of being the first American case of BSE.

Dr. Masuo Doi was the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) veterinarian in charge of investigating the cow. "Me and my vet, including our inspector, they thought it [the cow] was quite different. They thought it was the BSE," he said.

Doi, recently retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, says he's haunted by fears the right tests were not done and that the case was not properly investigated by his own department.

"I don't want to carry on off to my retirement. I want to hand it over to someone to continue, to find out. I think it's very, very important," said Doi, who has never spoken out publicly about his concerns, until now.

Documents obtained by CBC News show that the U.S. government was preparing for the worst. Initial signs pointed to mad cow disease. But further tests were negative.

The final conclusion: a rare brain disorder never reported in that breed of cattle either before or since.

The conclusion, from an independent university lab, seemed to leave no doubt that this was not a case of BSE.

But CBC News has learned that key areas of the brain were never tested. The most important samples somehow went missing.

It's all in a USDA lab report that was left out of the documents officially released by the department. It proves the scientist in charge knew his investigation of the case was limited.

Without the samples, the question remains: could scientists really rule out mad cow disease?

Dr. Karl Langheindrich was the chief scientist at a USDA lab in Athens, Ga., the lab that ran some of the early tests on the cow. Now retired, he too has never spoken publicly about this case before. Without the missing brain tissue, he says, the USDA will never be able to say for sure what was wrong with the cow.

"Based on the clinical symptoms and the description given by the veterinarian you can verify, yes this animal had CNS, central nervous system disease, but you can't specify it in your findings further than that," he said.

With questions about the first cow still lingering, three months later at the same meat plant there was a second American cow with suspicious symptoms.

The second cow's brain was sent for testing and officials were told verbally the tests were negative.

Dr. Doi made repeated requests for documentary proof of the negative tests. To this day he's seen nothing. "How many are buried ... can you really trust our inspection [system?]

For weeks the USDA insisted it had no records for the second cow. Then just a few days ago it suddenly produced documents that it says proves that a cow was tested and that the tests were negative for mad cow disease.

But the documents also prove, once again, there were problems with the testing. This time so much brain tissue was missing it compromised the examination.

The problems were so severe one USDA scientist wrote that his own examination was of "questionable validity" because he couldn't tell what part of the cow's brain he was looking at.

On Tuesday, a former U.S. agriculture inspector repeated a claim before a House of Commons committee that the U.S. has covered up cases of mad cow disease. He says he's willing to take a lie detector test to prove it.

Washington has denied the allegations.

Leslie Friedlander was fired from his job as head of inspections at a meat-packing plant in Philadelphia in 1995 after criticizing what he called unsafe practices

.Only one thing has changed...the truth came out.

 

[Murgen]

There had been real, accepted clusters, including NE Texas

In Texas, you say, can't be!