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5/9/2005 7:19:00 PM
R-Calf Cattle Update: USDA Ignores Recommendations of BSE Experts
(Billings, Mont.) – For years, R-CALF USA has defended the United States' long-standing safeguards to protect against the introduction of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) into the U.S. cattle herd from countries affected by this disease. However, advocates of relaxing those critical safeguards have said R-CALF USA does not follow "sound science."
Two years ago, officials with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) rejected (almost entirely) the recommendations of its own 14-member expert panel after scientists on the panel warned USDA that because of Canada's BSE problem – at that time just one known case – most Canadian beef products should be classified as moderate-risk to high-risk – not low-risk.
Importantly, the panel stated that specific mitigation measures should be implemented before the U.S. lifted its ban on Canadian beef or cattle.
"Most of these measures were not implemented before August 2003, when USDA lifted the ban on boxed beef," said Bill Bullard, R-CALF USA CEO. "Even those precautionary measure that were implemented back then will now be relaxed under USDA's Final Rule."
USDA assigned its Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) Working Group the task of determining the risk of introducing BSE into the United States through imports of Canadian cattle and/or beef products. In a memo dated June 16, 2003, the group reported that 22 of the items investigated – including veal calves and certain boneless beef cuts from animals younger than 24 months of age – should be classified as low-risk, provided certain risk-mitigation measures were applied. Twenty-six other products – including whole/half carcasses from animals under 24 months of age and bone-in beef from animals over 24 months of age – were deemed to be moderate risk. But 10 other items – including animals over 24 months of age imported for immediate slaughter, as well as ground beef – should be considered high risk.
Importantly, the panel said if additional cases of BSE were found in Canadian animals, additional precautions would be needed. Now that four cases of BSE have been discovered – all in animals of Canadian origin – serious questions have arisen regarding USDA's continued efforts to allow Canada to export cattle and beef into the U.S. when it is produced under weaker standards than are practiced in every other country where BSE is known also to exist.
"The working group made about seven specific recommendations to USDA in order to maintain the health and safety of our domestic cattle herd – which USDA should recognize as the single most important priority for this industry – but these recommendations have been dismissed by the agency in favor of apparently political goals," Bullard said.
"Nearly all of the science-based measures recommended by this scientific TSE team are measures R-CALF USA has encouraged USDA to follow, beginning with its first comments to the agency in early 2004," continued Bullard. "We simply don't understand why the agency refuses to follow well-reasoned and scientifically supported measures before taking actions to expose the U.S. to unnecessary and avoidable risks."
USDA had hoped to reopen the Canadian border on March 7 through its Final Rule published on Jan. 4, 2005, but R-CALF USA requested and was granted (on March 2) by the federal court in Billings, Mont., a preliminary injunction to stop that from happening. The final hearing in district court is slated for July 27th, although USDA has appealed the case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and it is unknown how quickly that particular court will make an announcement about the case.
Visitors to: www.r-calfusa.com can click the "BSE-Litigation" link to view the TSE Working Group Memo in its entirety. Listed below are just a few examples of the scientific precautions USDA chose to ignore:
Final Rule does not require a determination of Canada's BSE prevalence rate through increased testing prior to increasing or decreasing the restrictions recommended by the TSE Working Group.
Final Rule does not require, and Canada has not achieved, a sufficient level of testing to detect BSE at a rate of less than 1 case per million adult cattle as recommended by the TSE Working Group. In fact, Canada itself states it must test 30,000 head annually to determine a prevalence rate of 1 case of BSE per million cattle. Canada tested only 23,550 cattle in all of 2004.
The Final Rule does not require Canada to remove SRMs (defined on page 7 of TSE report as the brain, spinal cord, intestine (not just small intestine), eyes, and tonsils from cattle of all ages from human food as recommended by the TSE Working Group. The Final Rule only requires Canada to remove the tonsils and small intestines from Canadian cattle that are younger than 30 months of age.
Final Rule does not require the removal of SRMs from animal food as recommended by the TSE Working Group (to prevent the inadvertent feeding of pig, poultry, or pet food to cattle).
Final Rule does not require dedicated rendering facilities and mills for processing of ruminant byproducts as recommended by the TSE Working Group (this measure is to prevent cross-contamination that has been known to occur in non-segregated facilities, despite flushing and cleansing efforts that have been shown to be ineffective in preventing such cross-contamination).
USDA did not complete an assessment of trade impacts with the rest of the world before issuing the Final Rule as recommended by the TSE Working Group. In fact, USDA is now trying to convince U.S. export countries that they should accept the BSE measures the Final Rule imposes on Canada, which are far more lenient than the measures applied by every other BSE-affected country in the world.
Neither APHIS nor FDA has eliminated the current U.S. plate-waste exemption, in the feed ban, as recommended by the TSE Working Group.
The Final Rule did not include any additional restrictions after the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cases of BSE were detected in Canadian cattle in late 2003 and early 2005, as recommended by the TSE Working Group. In fact, the Final Rule remains weaker, in all respects, to the recommendations of the TSE Working Group, demonstrating that risk mitigation measures were weakened, rather than strengthened after multiple cases of BSE were detected.
The Final Rule does not prohibit the importation of live cattle over 24 months of age as recommended by the TSE Working Group, which classified cattle over 24 months of age as high-risk. The Final Rule only prohibits the importation of live cattle over 30 months of age.
10. The Final Rule does not prohibit the importation of ground beef as recommended by the TSE Working Group, which classified ground beef from cattle of any age as high-risk.
The Final Rule does not require that only beef from cattle slaughtered before reaching the age of 24 months – and which have had their brain, spinal cord, tonsil, eyes, and intestines removed – can be imported into the United States. The Final Rule allows beef from cattle up to 30 months of age – with only the tonsils and small intestines removed – to be imported into the United States.
Did not remove poultry litter and blood from cattle feed.
R-Calf Cattle Update: USDA Ignores Recommendations of BSE Experts
(Billings, Mont.) – For years, R-CALF USA has defended the United States' long-standing safeguards to protect against the introduction of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) into the U.S. cattle herd from countries affected by this disease. However, advocates of relaxing those critical safeguards have said R-CALF USA does not follow "sound science."
Two years ago, officials with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) rejected (almost entirely) the recommendations of its own 14-member expert panel after scientists on the panel warned USDA that because of Canada's BSE problem – at that time just one known case – most Canadian beef products should be classified as moderate-risk to high-risk – not low-risk.
Importantly, the panel stated that specific mitigation measures should be implemented before the U.S. lifted its ban on Canadian beef or cattle.
"Most of these measures were not implemented before August 2003, when USDA lifted the ban on boxed beef," said Bill Bullard, R-CALF USA CEO. "Even those precautionary measure that were implemented back then will now be relaxed under USDA's Final Rule."
USDA assigned its Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) Working Group the task of determining the risk of introducing BSE into the United States through imports of Canadian cattle and/or beef products. In a memo dated June 16, 2003, the group reported that 22 of the items investigated – including veal calves and certain boneless beef cuts from animals younger than 24 months of age – should be classified as low-risk, provided certain risk-mitigation measures were applied. Twenty-six other products – including whole/half carcasses from animals under 24 months of age and bone-in beef from animals over 24 months of age – were deemed to be moderate risk. But 10 other items – including animals over 24 months of age imported for immediate slaughter, as well as ground beef – should be considered high risk.
Importantly, the panel said if additional cases of BSE were found in Canadian animals, additional precautions would be needed. Now that four cases of BSE have been discovered – all in animals of Canadian origin – serious questions have arisen regarding USDA's continued efforts to allow Canada to export cattle and beef into the U.S. when it is produced under weaker standards than are practiced in every other country where BSE is known also to exist.
"The working group made about seven specific recommendations to USDA in order to maintain the health and safety of our domestic cattle herd – which USDA should recognize as the single most important priority for this industry – but these recommendations have been dismissed by the agency in favor of apparently political goals," Bullard said.
"Nearly all of the science-based measures recommended by this scientific TSE team are measures R-CALF USA has encouraged USDA to follow, beginning with its first comments to the agency in early 2004," continued Bullard. "We simply don't understand why the agency refuses to follow well-reasoned and scientifically supported measures before taking actions to expose the U.S. to unnecessary and avoidable risks."
USDA had hoped to reopen the Canadian border on March 7 through its Final Rule published on Jan. 4, 2005, but R-CALF USA requested and was granted (on March 2) by the federal court in Billings, Mont., a preliminary injunction to stop that from happening. The final hearing in district court is slated for July 27th, although USDA has appealed the case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and it is unknown how quickly that particular court will make an announcement about the case.
Visitors to: www.r-calfusa.com can click the "BSE-Litigation" link to view the TSE Working Group Memo in its entirety. Listed below are just a few examples of the scientific precautions USDA chose to ignore:
Final Rule does not require a determination of Canada's BSE prevalence rate through increased testing prior to increasing or decreasing the restrictions recommended by the TSE Working Group.
Final Rule does not require, and Canada has not achieved, a sufficient level of testing to detect BSE at a rate of less than 1 case per million adult cattle as recommended by the TSE Working Group. In fact, Canada itself states it must test 30,000 head annually to determine a prevalence rate of 1 case of BSE per million cattle. Canada tested only 23,550 cattle in all of 2004.
The Final Rule does not require Canada to remove SRMs (defined on page 7 of TSE report as the brain, spinal cord, intestine (not just small intestine), eyes, and tonsils from cattle of all ages from human food as recommended by the TSE Working Group. The Final Rule only requires Canada to remove the tonsils and small intestines from Canadian cattle that are younger than 30 months of age.
Final Rule does not require the removal of SRMs from animal food as recommended by the TSE Working Group (to prevent the inadvertent feeding of pig, poultry, or pet food to cattle).
Final Rule does not require dedicated rendering facilities and mills for processing of ruminant byproducts as recommended by the TSE Working Group (this measure is to prevent cross-contamination that has been known to occur in non-segregated facilities, despite flushing and cleansing efforts that have been shown to be ineffective in preventing such cross-contamination).
USDA did not complete an assessment of trade impacts with the rest of the world before issuing the Final Rule as recommended by the TSE Working Group. In fact, USDA is now trying to convince U.S. export countries that they should accept the BSE measures the Final Rule imposes on Canada, which are far more lenient than the measures applied by every other BSE-affected country in the world.
Neither APHIS nor FDA has eliminated the current U.S. plate-waste exemption, in the feed ban, as recommended by the TSE Working Group.
The Final Rule did not include any additional restrictions after the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cases of BSE were detected in Canadian cattle in late 2003 and early 2005, as recommended by the TSE Working Group. In fact, the Final Rule remains weaker, in all respects, to the recommendations of the TSE Working Group, demonstrating that risk mitigation measures were weakened, rather than strengthened after multiple cases of BSE were detected.
The Final Rule does not prohibit the importation of live cattle over 24 months of age as recommended by the TSE Working Group, which classified cattle over 24 months of age as high-risk. The Final Rule only prohibits the importation of live cattle over 30 months of age.
10. The Final Rule does not prohibit the importation of ground beef as recommended by the TSE Working Group, which classified ground beef from cattle of any age as high-risk.
The Final Rule does not require that only beef from cattle slaughtered before reaching the age of 24 months – and which have had their brain, spinal cord, tonsil, eyes, and intestines removed – can be imported into the United States. The Final Rule allows beef from cattle up to 30 months of age – with only the tonsils and small intestines removed – to be imported into the United States.
Did not remove poultry litter and blood from cattle feed.
