U.S. Prepares for Mad Cow Impact - Officials Investigate How Animal May Have Been Infected

12/24/2003 U.S. Prepares for Mad Cow Impact - Officials Investigate How Animal May Have Been Infected - 12/24 AP

''The risk to human life is extremely low,'' Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman told reporters, even as country after country slapped import bans on American beef.

Federal and state-level officials worked to trace the Holstein's history before it came to its last home, Sunny Dene Ranch in Mabton, Wash., in 2001. Agriculture Department chief veterinarian Ron DeHaven said officials have identified two livestock markets in Washington where the animal could have been purchased, but he did not identify them.

Because the brain-wasting disease is usually transmitted through contaminated feed and has an incubation period of four to five years, it is ''important to focus on the feed where she was born,'' DeHaven said.

''Once we have the birth herd, we'll want to know what animals have come into that herd and what animals have left that herd and all the feeding practices for that herd,'' DeHaven said.

The human form of the disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob, is thought to be contracted by eating meat from an infected animal, specifically from the brain or spinal cord. Officials stressed that these parts of the sick cow were removed before the rest of the carcass was sent to processing plants.

Consumers had a mixed reaction to Tuesday's announcement of the first apparent U.S. case of mad cow disease - formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

''I'm content to have a freezer full (of beef), said Helen Spinetto of Cambridge, Mass. ''But if I had to purchase it again, maybe I'd think twice.''

However, the mad cow case reinforced the opinions of Barbara Seaton of the Albany, N.Y., suburb of Colonie. She does not eat beef, and said there it will ''absolutely not'' be on her holiday table.

On Wall Street, stocks in meatpacking companies and restaurant chains took a hit. Among the losers: McDonald's Corp., Wendy's International and Tyson Foods.

U.S. beef exports totaled $2.6 billion in 2002, with Japan, South Korea, Mexico and Hong Kong the biggest importers. They all have banned U.S. beef, along with at least seven other countries.

Agriculture Department officials told a briefing the cow was culled from its herd and slaughtered Dec. 9, after she became paralyzed, apparently as a result of calving. Preliminary tests showed the cow, believed to about 5 years old, had mad cow disease.

Tissue samples were sent to Britain's Veterinary Laboratories Agencies, a world leader in mad cow identification, for confirmation. ''We should have a result within a few hours of the initial test,'' said Steven Edwards, chief executive of the lab in Weybridge, west of London.

Politically, Democrats jumped on Republicans who removed a ban on processing meat from ''downed'' animals - those that are ill when they reach the plant - from a massive agriculture spending bill.

''This is something that's a potential disaster,'' said Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., a leader in supporting the processing prohibition. ''This was so predictable by anybody following the issue.''

Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., said the mad cow case ''does not have to result in any widespread panic in our country, because the likelihood of there being any effect on humans is extremely remote.''

Contaminated feed has been blamed in other countries for carrying the misshapen animal proteins, called prions, that can transmit mad cow. The United States since August 1997 has banned the use of cow and sheep byproducts for animal feed.

Investigators were at processing plants in Oregon, where meat from the infected cow had been turned into boneless beef, said a spokesman for the Agriculture Department. Authorities want to know where the meat was sent, although they stressed that the cow's brain and spinal cord, the only parts that are considered able to transmit the disease, did not enter the food supply.

The animal was one of 20 slaughtered Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses Lake Meat Co. in Moses Lake, Wash. All 10,410 pounds of beef from those carcasses have been recalled in ''an abundance of caution,'' Veneman said.

''We continue to believe that the risk to human health from this situation is extremely low, and people should continue to feel very confident in the safety of our meat supply,'' Veneman said.

President Bush, spending Christmas with his family at Camp David, Md., was getting regular updates, a White House spokesman said.

The beef industry sought to reassure Americans.

''It's important to recognize what we learned from Canadian consumers,'' Terry Stokes, CEO of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, told reporters. ''They had confidence in Canadian beef and we feel American consumers will follow accordingly.''

Canada had an isolated case of mad cow disease earlier this year. The United States banned imports of Canadian beef immediately after that announcement but has gradually begun allowing them.

Investigators are trying to determine whether the case in Canada is linked, a USDA official said, but a connection is unlikely because the animals were of different breeds.

Consumer activists expressed concern. ''Consumer confidence in the safety of the U.S. meat supply will be damaged by the finding of a domestic animal infected,'' said Carol Tucker Foreman of the Consumer Federation of America.

But Flavius Barker, head of the Tennessee Farm Bureau, said, ''The isolated finding in Washington state gives no reason for consumers to fear the safety of their beef products.''

12-24-03 20:24EST

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