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USDA Secretary: Some Banned 'Downer' Cattle Weren't BSE Threat
by Bill Tomson Today 3/1/2005 5:10:00 PM
USDA Secretary: Some Banned 'Downer' Cattle Weren't BSE Threat
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. Department of Agriculture banned meat from the human food supply from cattle too sick or injured to walk following the discovery of mad-cow disease in just such an animal over a year ago, but some of those banned cattle carried "no threat" of the disease, the department's secretary said Tuesday.
"Let's say in the transport of an animal, the animal breaks its leg," USDA Secretary Mike Johanns said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires. "Everybody agrees that there is no (mad-cow disease) risk whatsoever. You have an animal with a broken leg."
The ban on all cattle too sick or injured to walk - called "downers" - together with an expansion of the types of bovine tissue considered at risk for carrying mad-cow disease and restrictions on advanced meat recovery technology to scrape meat from carcass bones were all implemented as "interim" rules in January 2004.
The interim mad-cow, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, safety rules are costly to U.S. producers and processors that once profited from products now banned from the human food supply. The interim rules are subject to change, but the industry will remain in the dark on what those changes will be until the USDA creates a final set of rules.
And USDA won't consider amending those rules, including the prohibition on meat from "downers" until it has completed the 12- to 18-month nationwide BSE testing program it began in June 2004, according to the secretary and other department officials.
It won't be until after all of the results are in from the testing program that USDA will consider the "downer" prohibition "and make some judgment as to whether we want to continue with that approach," Johanns said.
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'"Everybody agrees that there is no (mad-cow disease) risk whatsoever. You have an animal with a broken leg." ' - Johanns
That is one disturbing statement considering that the BSE positive Charolais cow from Innisfail,AB exhibited no symptoms of neurological disease.
She was tested after she broke her leg as a matter of following the "4D" guidelines set out by CFIA.
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Take care.
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USDA Secretary: Some Banned 'Downer' Cattle Weren't BSE Threat
by Bill Tomson Today 3/1/2005 5:10:00 PM
USDA Secretary: Some Banned 'Downer' Cattle Weren't BSE Threat
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. Department of Agriculture banned meat from the human food supply from cattle too sick or injured to walk following the discovery of mad-cow disease in just such an animal over a year ago, but some of those banned cattle carried "no threat" of the disease, the department's secretary said Tuesday.
"Let's say in the transport of an animal, the animal breaks its leg," USDA Secretary Mike Johanns said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires. "Everybody agrees that there is no (mad-cow disease) risk whatsoever. You have an animal with a broken leg."
The ban on all cattle too sick or injured to walk - called "downers" - together with an expansion of the types of bovine tissue considered at risk for carrying mad-cow disease and restrictions on advanced meat recovery technology to scrape meat from carcass bones were all implemented as "interim" rules in January 2004.
The interim mad-cow, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, safety rules are costly to U.S. producers and processors that once profited from products now banned from the human food supply. The interim rules are subject to change, but the industry will remain in the dark on what those changes will be until the USDA creates a final set of rules.
And USDA won't consider amending those rules, including the prohibition on meat from "downers" until it has completed the 12- to 18-month nationwide BSE testing program it began in June 2004, according to the secretary and other department officials.
It won't be until after all of the results are in from the testing program that USDA will consider the "downer" prohibition "and make some judgment as to whether we want to continue with that approach," Johanns said.
~
'"Everybody agrees that there is no (mad-cow disease) risk whatsoever. You have an animal with a broken leg." ' - Johanns
That is one disturbing statement considering that the BSE positive Charolais cow from Innisfail,AB exhibited no symptoms of neurological disease.
She was tested after she broke her leg as a matter of following the "4D" guidelines set out by CFIA.
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Take care.
