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Anyone following the Mad Cow reports?
Reply With QuoteTweetThis is the latest article on it. Consumer beware!!
Second Herd Quarantined in Mad Cow Probe
By Randy Fabi and Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Agriculture Department quarantined a second herd of cattle in Washington state on Friday, as the $27 billion U.S. cattle industry came to grips with its first case of mad cow disease.
The department said an investigation, launched after the discovery of the deadly, brain-wasting disease in a four-year-old Holstein dairy cow in rural Washington state, could take months.
Venezuela and Egypt on Friday joined some two dozen nations that halted imports of U.S. beef. Food company stocks and cattle prices tumbled as investors worried that U.S. consumers could begin to eat less beef.
Some two dozen nations that buy U.S. beef halted shipments, including announcements on Friday by Venezuela and Egypt.
The department said it would dispatch a team of trade experts to Japan, the biggest single buyer of U.S. beef, to begin talks on Monday on how to address that nation's concerns and resume shipments. Last year, Japan bought about $1 billion worth of American beef, veal and variety meats.
The department said it would step up its testing of U.S. cattle for possible infection with mad cow disease, and would examine other regulations to see if they need to be tightened.
An outbreak of mad cow disease, known formally as bovine spongiform encephalopathy forced the slaughter of millions of cattle in Europe in the 1990s. At least 137 people, mostly in Britain, died of a human form of the disease, known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
In both cattle and humans, the disease destroys portions of the brain, causing paralysis and blindness. There is no cure.
The investigation to pinpoint how the U.S. cow was infected will take time, said Ron DeHaven, USDA's chief veterinarian.
"It might not be a matter of days, it might be a matter of weeks or months," DeHaven told reporters.
The USDA quarantined a second herd of 400 bull calves in Sunnyside, Washington, that contains a calf recently born to the infected Holstein cow, he said.
Earlier, the USDA quarantined a 4,000-animal herd at a farm in Mabton, Washington where the infected cow lived before it was slaughtered on Dec. 9. The cow was sent to slaughter after complications from calving left her unable to walk.
She gave birth to two other calves during her lifetime, DeHaven said. One died and the other is a yearling heifer living with the mother's herd, which is under quarantine.
It was "highly unlikely" that BSE -- which is conveyed through infected brains, spinal column and nervous system tissue -- could be spread to other animals through birth, but scientists cannot rule out that possibility, he said.
The investigation by the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration focused on where the infected cow was born, and what kind of feed she consumed early in life.
"We assume it was infected very early in life because the average incubation period is generally four or five years," said Stephen Sundlof, the FDA's chief veterinarian.
In 1997, the FDA banned the use of cattle remains as an ingredient in feed for other cows. However, cattle brains, spinal cords and other potentially risky material can be ground up and used in feed for poultry, pigs and household pets.
DeHaven also said it was "premature" to speculate whether the infected cow was born in Canada. In May, Canadian officials found a single case of BSE in a Black Angus cow in Alberta. Investigators were never able to determine the cause.
The U.S. probe could be broadened to "potentially many states," DeHaven said.
Bush administration officials again emphasized that the beef supply is safe for consumers. President Bush (news - web sites) continues to eat beef, a White House spokesman said.
Shares in beef processor Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE:TSN - news) were pounded again on Friday. Major hamburger chains like McDonald's Corp. recovered modestly, as investors tried to gauge the impact on consumer demand.
"It's quite possible that there's a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about the situation," said Midwest Research analyst Christine McCracken.
USDA officials said they plan to increase testing of U.S. cattle for BSE, with an estimated 38,000 animals to be tested this fiscal year. Last year, the USDA tested about 20,000.
Seeking to head off repercussions, U.S. cattlemen said slaughter houses should hold the carcasses of cattle that are too sick to walk until mad cow test results come back. The infected Holstein in Washington state was processed into hamburger and other meats before the USDA received confirmation of BSE.
The industry previously said downer cattle posed no clear risk to the human food supply because sometimes they simply had a broken leg from being unloaded at slaughter houses.
The FDA said it was assessing its rules, with an eye toward possibly banning the use of cattle remains in all animal food.
Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's on Wednesday placed the debt ratings of most U.S. beef protein processors on watch, with negative implications.
In Chicago, cattle futures fell the maximum amount allowed, tumbling 3 cents per pound to 86.175 cents per pound. Analysts said cattle prices could fall another 15 to 20 percent before the market stabilizes.
