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Consumer groups urge U.S. not to cut mad cow tests 

    WASHINGTON, March 14 (Reuters) - U.S. consumer groups on

Tuesday urged the government to continue its enhanced testing

program for mad cow disease, saying any move to end or

dramatically curb the program would send the wrong message to

Americans and U.S. beef importers.

    As the Agriculture Department nears a decision on the

enhanced surveillance program it adopted after the first U.S.

mad cow case, it is gathering input from scientists, industry

officials and others.

    An agency official spoke on Monday of "the conclusion" of

the program. Advocates of enhanced testing said the

administration's proposed 2007 budget includes funds for only a

fraction of the cattle tests that have been performed in recent

years.

    USDA said on Monday an Alabama beef cow was infected with

mad cow disease, the third time the ailment has been found in

the United States in the past 27 months.

    "It seems to be unwise to say you're going to ratchet

it...down right after you've had another positive," said Carol

Tucker Foreman of the Consumer Federation of America. "I don't

know how you explain either to American consumers or to people

in Japan that we want to sell beef to that you're going to stop

looking for something because you found it."

    The first case of the disease was found in Washington in

2003. USDA launched an enhanced cattle testing program in June

2004 to look at animals seen at the highest risk for mad cow

disease.

    The enhanced program, which was to run for 12 to 18 months,

remains in place. It has tested more than 650,000 animals --

far more than initially planned  -- and was responsible for

finding two of the three cases of the brain-waisting cattle

ailment in the United States.

    Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said in January he 

would decide the future of the program in "early 2006."

    USDA on Monday offered the first hint of its plans when

Agriculture Department Chief Veterinarian John Clifford

mentioned "the conclusion" of the program.

    "As we talk about the conclusion of our enhanced

surveillance program I wanted to reiterate and state that

program was to take a snapshot in time to give us an estimate

of prevalence," Clifford said during a telephone news

conference on the new mad cow case.

    "That was quite a striking statement," said Jane Halloran,

a policy director for Consumers Union. "The alternative is to

put your head in the sand and ignore the problems. The

consequences of that are potentially disastrous," she added.

    Consumers Union, which urged the government to test all

cattle over the age of 20 months at slaughter, said the 2007

fiscal budget provides enough funds to conduct only 40,000

tests, or about 0.1 percent of the 35 million cattle

slaughtered in the United States each year.

    Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, said she opposed

any move by USDA to reduce the testing program.

    "I intend to fight any funding proposals that may cause a

decrease in testing and would inevitably reduce the

effectiveness of the system," she said.

    So far, global markets have had a muted reaction to the

discovery of the third U.S. case of mad cow.

    USDA spokesman Ed Loyd said in responses to e-mail

questions that the overall reaction has been "very measured" as

more countries develop "an increasing understanding worldwide

of (the) safety of U.S. beef."

     Two major Asian markets said the new U.S. case would not

cause any immediate change in plans. South Korea was scheduled

to resume U.S. beef purchases in April. Japan and the United

States are discussing refinements to U.S. meat inspections.


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