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TRANSCRIPT: Technical Briefing - Hallmark/Westland Meat Pack

flounder

Well-known member
Thursday, February 21, 2008

TRANSCRIPT: Technical Briefing - Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company - (02/21/08)

Release No. 0054.08


http://downercattle.blogspot.com/


http://downercattle.blogspot.com/2008/02/transcript-technical-briefing.html



TSS
 

flounder

Well-known member
BEEF RECALL - USA (05)
**********************
A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>




http://www.promedmail.org/pls/otn/f?p=2400:1001:3581618507331539::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,71607



tss
 

flounder

Well-known member
i was going through old documents/files today and ran across a 'untitled' one.
opened it up, and thought it appropriate for today. please note i added to it at
the bottom i.e. addendum II 2008. ...TSS




To the hard working employees of USDA and their untiring efforts to protect our food supply



Little is known and much has been written
Of the deadly disease with which some have been smitten
It is certainly true there have been but a few
But down on the farm there is cause for alarm

It causes great stress to the CNS
T’is a strain on the brain as we shall soon see
The causative agent is anyone’s guess
A transmissible spongiform encephalopathy

Sheep Scrapie somehow in the UK to Mad Cow
Here in the US it is anyone’s guess
It’s not perfectly clear how our elk and our deer
Both the tame and the free got CWD

To the best of our knowledge out west at a college
Where they happened to keep some deer penned with sheep
They didn't know why the deer started to die
Because they did not know they let the rest go

Now from Washington state comes news that’s not great
Ann Veneman tells us how they have found a MAD COW
The Federal Vet said she’s a “down cow” you bet
But Dave Louthan the talker say’s she was a “walker”

She was grist for the mill, she went regular kill
So they started to track when the test did come back
But that was 2 weeks later and people had ate her
The meat was consumed and the recall was doomed

Now we must remember this occurred in December
Ann and Bush have no fears, they’ll have beef for New Years

addendum

There was no proper test In a plant way out west
The old cow was unwell, she staggered and fell
“We don’t want her” said Ronald, “she’s not for McDonald”
The vet made a call and was told not to test after all

Headquarters told Lonestar “we cant send a car”
“It’s too long a trip, you don’t know how to ship”
No brainstem will you tender, just send her to render
We don’t want a section - wait till after election

by the Bard of Bismarck, the Old Curmudgeon
Earl Fairbanks DVM USDA Ret.


addendum II 2008. ...TSS


To the hard working employees of USDA and their untiring efforts to protect our childrens food supply


and who gives a fickle, if the last two were atypical,
more virulent to animals and man, we'll grind em and crush em,
even the stumbling and staggering ones.

those diseased, those sick, the ones injured, be quick.
another shot of antibiotics or hormones, it matters not.
it's profit, it's profit, look at all we got $$$

those downers, those downers, the ones that cannot stand,
oh where, oh where, can they go? with the fork lift at hand,
they chain em and stand, and drag them to where know one goes.
we'll shock em, and poke em, even waterboard em, and then off to
the children they go.

in a long case study, we'll wait and wonder, watching for every
little twitch, which one of these children, will be the first to
succumb, to the monster we know as the mad cow prion.

100% fatal, for those that go clinical, with no therapy there is.
you wait and wonder, as the mind goes, wondering how many others
might have been exposed. there is no test, without any guess,
you don't care to know.

and for those that lay claim, to no one is sick, beware, beware, for
these are the facts. the mad cow prion, can lay dormant before it
attacks. for years and years, and even decades to come, your children,
will incubate, before they might succumb.

while Washington flounders, the mad cows still wanders, the downers
they continue to go, to the cattle feed, to the childrens food and on, nobody knows.
from waxman, to durbin, to bush, to leahy, the lies, and promises abound,
they just seem to go round and round $$$

it's a sad, sad mess i have come to know, but the downers, all the
downers, off to the incinerator they must go. ...TSS 2008



Thursday, May 13, 2004

Food Safety

Failure To Test Staggering Cow May Reflect Wider Problems
Rep. Waxman raises concerns that the recent failure of USDA to test an impaired cow for BSE
may not be an isolated incident, citing the failure of USDA to monitor whether cows condemned
for central nervous system symptoms are actually tested for mad cow disease.

http://reform.democrats.house.gov/documents/20040607142914-86912.pdf

http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20040607142914-86912.pdf


Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy
Senate Agriculture Committee Hearing
On Mad Cow Disease
January 27, 2004


For years I have joined with Senator Akaka in attempting to restrict downers from the human food
supply, thus I am pleased the Department reversed course and will now implement the Downed Animal
Protection Act that was contained in the 2002 Farm Bill for cattle.


http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200401/012704.html


CALIFORNIA STATE CAUCUS

Briefing Report: Mad Cow Disease

2/11/2004 - For Immediate Release


Recent Actions


On December 30, 2003, United States Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announced additional
safeguards to bolster the U.S. protection system against BSE and to further protect public health.
Downer cattle and specified risk material and tissues will immediately be banned from the human food
chain. If people do not eat these dangerous parts of the cow, their risk of acquiring BSE is severely
reduced.


http://republican.sen.ca.gov/opeds/99/oped2091_print.asp



2008


USDA CERTIFIED NON-AMBULATORY DOWNER COW SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM


http://downercattle.blogspot.com/2008/02/beef-recall-nationwide-school-lunch.html


Specified Risk Material SRM


http://madcowspontaneousnot.blogspot.com/2008/02/specified-risk-materials-srm.html



Subject: [Docket No. 03-025IFA] FSIS Prohibition of the Use of Specified
Risk Materials for Human Food and Requirements for the Disposition of
Non-Ambulatory Disabled Cattle


Greetings FSIS,


I would kindly like to submit the following to [Docket No. 03-025IFA] FSIS
Prohibition of the Use of Specified Risk Materials for Human Food and
Requirements for the Disposition of Non-Ambulatory Disabled Cattle

THE BSE/TSE SUB CLINICAL

Non-Ambulatory Disabled Cattle Broken bones and such may be the first signs
of a sub clinical BSE/TSE Non-Ambulatory Disabled Cattle ;

SUB CLINICAL PRION INFECTION MRC-43-00 Issued: Monday, 28 August 2000

NEW EVIDENCE OF SUB-CLINICAL PRION INFECTION: IMPORTANT RESEARCH FINDINGS
RELEVANT TO CJD AND BSE

A team of researchers led by Professor John Collinge at the Medical Research
Council Prion Unit1 report today in the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences, on new evidence for the existence of a ?sub-clinical? form of
BSE in mice which was unknown until now. The scientists took a closer look
at what is known as the ?species barrier? - the main protective factor which

limits the ability of prions2 to jump from one species to infect another.
They found the mice had a ?sub-clinical? form of disease where they carried
high levels of infectivity but did not develop the clinical disease during
their normal lifespan. The idea that individuals can carry a disease and
show no clinical symptoms is not new. It is commonly seen in conventional
infectious diseases. Researchers tried to infect laboratory mice with
hamster prions3 called Sc237 and found that the mice showed no apparent
signs of disease. However, on closer inspection they found that the mice had
high levels of mouse prions in their brains. This was surprising because it
has always been assumed that hamster prions could not cause the disease in
mice, even when injected directly into the brain. In addition the
researchers showed that this new sub-clinical infection could be easily
passed on when injected into healthy mice and hamsters. The height of the
species barrier varies widely between different combinations of animals and
also varies with the type or strain of prions. While some barriers are quite
small (for instance BSE easily infects mice), other combinations of strain
and species show a seemingly impenetrable barrier. Traditionally, the
particular barrier studied here was assumed to be robust. Professor John
Collinge said: "These results have a number of important implications. They
suggest that we should re-think how we measure species barriers in the
laboratory, and that we should not assume that just because one species
appears resistant to a strain of prions they have been exposed to, that they
do not silently carry the infection.

This research raises the possibility, which has been mentioned before, that
apparently healthy cattle could harbour, but never show signs of, BSE. "This
is a timely and unexpected result, increasing what we know about prion
disease. These new findings have important implications for those
researching prion disease, those responsible for preventing infected
material getting into the food chain and for those considering how best to
safeguard health and reduce the risk that theoretically, prion disease could
be contracted through medical and surgical procedures."

ISSUED FRIDAY 25 AUGUST UNDER EMBARGO. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE EMBARGO IS SET
BY THE JOURNAL.


http://www.mrc.ac.uk/index/public_interest/public-press_office/public-press_releases_2000/public-mrc-43-00.htm


SNIP...

https://web01.aphis.usda.gov/regpublic.nsf/0/eff9eff1f7c5cf2b87256ecf000df08d?OpenDocument


PNAS | August 29, 2000 | vol. 97 | no. 18 | 10248-10253 Neurobiology

Species-barrier-independent prion replication in apparentlyresistant species


Andrew F. Hill*, Susan Joiner*, Jackie Linehan*, Melanie Desbruslais*, Peter
L. Lantos , and John Collinge*,


SEE FULL TEXT 17 pages ;

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/Comments/03-025IFA/03-025IFA-2.pdf



Thursday, February 21, 2008

TRANSCRIPT: Technical Briefing - Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company -
(02/21/08)

Release No. 0054.08


http://downercattle.blogspot.com/


http://downercattle.blogspot.com/2008/02/transcript-technical-briefing.html


Sunday, February 17, 2008

Release No. 0046.08 Statement by Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer Regarding Hallmark/Westland
Meat Packing Company Two Year Product Recall

Release No. 0046.08

Contact:
USDA Press Office (202) 720-4623

http://cjdmadcowbaseoct2007.blogspot.com/2008/02/release-no-004608-statement-by.html



Geographical BSE Risk (GBR) assessments covering 2000-2006

Date : 01.08.2006

http://www.efsa.europa.eu/EFSA/Scientific_Document/GBR_assessments_table_Overview_assessed_countries_2002-2006.pdf



In this context, a word is in order about the US testing program. After the
discovery of the first (imported) cow in 2003, the magnitude of testing was
much increased, reaching a level of >400,000 tests in 2005 (Figure 4).
Neither of the 2 more recently indigenously infected older animals with
nonspecific clinical features would have been detected without such testing,
and neither would have been identified as atypical without confirmatory
Western blots. Despite these facts, surveillance has now been decimated to
40,000 annual tests (USDA news release no. 0255.06, July 20, 2006) and
invites the accusation that the United States will never know the true
status of its involvement with BSE.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no12/06-0965.htm


PAUL BROWN COMMENT TO ME ON THIS ISSUE

Tuesday, September 12, 2006 11:10 AM


"Actually, Terry, I have been critical of the USDA handling of the mad cow
issue for some years, and with Linda Detwiler and others sent lengthy detailed
critiques and recommendations to both the USDA and the Canadian Food
Agency."


http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0703&L=sanet-mg&T=0&P=8125


BEEF RECALL - USA (05)
**********************
A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>


http://www.promedmail.org/pls/otn/f?p=2400:1001:3581618507331539::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,71607



MAD COW TESTING USA

http://madcowtesting.blogspot.com/



TSS
 

flounder

Well-known member
so soon we forget. the work van smith did and his testimony in ;


Defense opens case
Cattlemen vs. Oprah Winfrey

By CHIP CHANDLER
Globe-News Staff Writer

snip...

Van Smith, a reporter with City Paper in Baltimore, testified about an
article he wrote on rendering plants. Smith said he saw sheep taken to a
plant despite a voluntary ban on using processed sheep in
protein-enhanced feed, backing up a statement Lyman made on Winfrey's show.

Under cross-examination, Smith said he was not sure whether the sheep
were used for feed or other animal-derived products.

snip...

Van Smith, a reporter with City Paper in Baltimore, testified about an
article he wrote on rendering plants. Smith said he saw sheep taken to a
plant despite a voluntary ban on using processed sheep in
protein-enhanced feed, backing up a statement Lyman made on Winfrey's show.

Under cross-examination, Smith said he was not sure whether the sheep
were used for feed or other animal-derived products.

http://www.amarillonet.com/


Web posted Wednesday, February 18, 1998 2:02 p.m. CT

Graphic pictures greet Winfrey jury

By KAY LEDBETTER
Globe-News Farm and Ranch Editor

Pictures of sheep heads, euthanized pets and roadkill greeted jurors
this morning as they returned to the continuation of the cattlemen vs.
Oprah Winfrey lawsuit.

The lawsuit continues today in U.S. District Mary Lou Robinson's court,
but in a much diminished state.

snip...

Defense lawyer Charles Babcock called Van Smith, a City Paper reporter
from Baltimore who had written an article on rendering plants in
September 1995.

Smith and Babcock went through more than 50 pictures taken as the
reporter toured the Valley Proteins plant in Baltimore and followed a
rendering truck to the local animal shelter, a sausage plant and a
slaughterhouse.

The pictures showed offal being emptied from the slaughterhouses. They
showed animal shelter workers in the euthanasia room; barrels of dead
animals in a refrigerated room at the animal shelter; waste meat from
the sausage plant; and dead sheep from the slaughterhouse.


Web posted Friday, January 23, 1998 5:49 a.m. CT

TSS

Witness testifies some ill cattle sent to rendering plant

By CHIP CHANDLER
Globe-News Staff Writer

snip...

Mike Engler -- son of Paul Engler, the original plaintiff and owner of
Cactus Feeders Inc. -- agreed that more than 10 cows with some sort of
central nervous system disorder were sent to Hereford By-Products.

The younger Engler, who has a doctorate in biochemistry from Johns
Hopkins University, was the only witness jurors heard Thursday in the
Oprah Winfrey defamation trial. His testimony will resume this morning.

According to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report from which Winfrey
attorney Charles Babcock quoted, encephalitis caused by unknown reasons
could be a warning sign for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow
disease.

Encephalitis was indicated on the death certificates -- or ``dead
slips'' -- of three Cactus Feeders cows discussed in court. The slips
then were stamped, ``Picked up by your local used cattle dealer'' before
the carcasses were taken to the rendering plant.

snip...

http://www.amarillonet.com/



I applaud the Humane Society of the United States and the way they handled this situation.
IT is true, if they would have run to the USDA right off the bat, it would have all been swept
under the rug as everything is has been in the past decade. THIS slapped them in the face like
a shovel, and maybe, just maybe things will change. it's all about the almighty dollar, and nothing else.
the heavily laden industry reps that make up
a great deal of the USDA must be broken, dissolved once and for all. WE must go back to
science, sound science, not the junk science the USDA et al have been feeding us.
IT's time for the consumer, and the ranchers to draw a line in the sand and
say enough is enough. ...TSS
 
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