| 12/30/2003 USDA Mulls Changes to Meat Testing System - 12/29 Successful Farming Ron DeHaven, USDA's chief veterinary officer, said the department is considering more testing and looking at which types of cattle should be tested for the disease. "We feel we have a very good and appropriate program" in place for testing cattle, he said. However, he added he thinks it's "only prudent" given the new finding that USDA look at the program and "consider changes we may need to make based on the new information." "The science would suggest that this is a disease of older animals," he said. The disease has been found mostly in cattle that are three to six years of age, he said. The first known case of Mad Cow disease in the US was a dairy cow unable to walk to slaughter. When asked why USDA does not test all such "downer" cows for BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy – the scientific name for Mad Cow disease) DeHaven and other government officials said that many downer cows aren't sick. They have simply become injured, sometimes while being shipped to slaughter. From a public health standpoint there's no reason to suspect they pose a risk, according to Ken Petersen, of the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) Office of Public Health and Science. They're scrutinizing the inspection system, though, and looking for areas to improve, he said. "The Food Safety and Inspection Service has been in business since 1906 keeping diseased animals out of the food chain," DeHaven added. At federally inspected packing plants, a USDA veterinarian determines whether an animal has signs of disease. Last year, only 130 cattle showed signs of nervous system disease and all of those were tested for BSE, he said. None of them tested positive. DeHaven also pointed out that records tracing the diseased cow to a herd in Alberta, Canada show it was born in April of 1997, a few months before a ban on feeding rendered animal products to ruminants took effect. Consuming infected material in feed is believed to be the only way cattle have become infected with BSE, although he admitted that it's almost impossible to prove that there is no spontaneous occurrence of the disease in cattle. USDA officials are hoping that is more evidence that a rare disease in cattle is becoming even rarer. Related Link: http://www.agriculture.com |
This
website is best viewed in Internet
Explorer or
Netscape Navigator versions
4.0 and
above. All content contained herein is subject to copyright law.
Click here to unsubscribe
above. All content contained herein is subject to copyright law.
Click here to unsubscribe