MAD COW NEWS

Mad cow suspicions downplayed OFFICIALS throughout Canada downplayed the significance of the origins of a cow that was found to have mad cow disease in Washington, saying today that it was not confirmed that the sick animal came from a farm in Alberta. "Finding out where the cow came from is only one aspect of an investigation. It's equally important to find out in fact where the feed came from that gave the cow BSE and also particularly where that cow contracted it," Agriculture Minister Bob Speller told a news conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He also said it was essential to ensure proper tagging and slaughterhouse procedures were followed, and that Canada and the United States have begun separate DNA tests, but did not know when results could be expected...Federal ag minister says U.S. mad cow should not delay border opening If the Americans stick to science in the handling of their first mad cow case, there is no reason it should delay the resumption of trade in live cattle with Canada, the new federal agriculture minister said Monday. Bob Speller delivered that message in Winnipeg as producers and politicians alike scrambled for answers about what effect the discovery might have on the cattle industry and on trade relations between the two countries...U.S. Searches for Links in Mad Cow Case Authorities said Monday they are looking for links between the Holstein infected with mad cow disease and a Canadian cow that was diagnosed with the deadly illness in May. Repeating their insistence that the U.S. food supply is safe, agriculture officials also said they are searching for 81 Canadian-born cows from the same herd as the sick Holstein that records indicate entered the United States in late 2001. Dr. Ron DeHaven, the Agriculture Department's chief veterinarian, said records from the Washington dairy farm that was the infected cow's last home, and in Canada, confirm that the animal was born in Alberta, Canada in April 1997. Alberta also was the home of the infected Canadian cow. More significantly, both cows were born before the United States and Canada began banning from use in cattle feed brain and spinal cord tissue that is the primary means by which the ailment is transmitted. The ban, which took effect in August 1997, prohibits feeding the cattle protein to cattle, sheep and goats... Editorial: Confidence essential to U.S. beef industry Public confidence in the safety of beef is essential for the continued health of the cattle industry in the United States. The detection of a case of mad cow disease in Washington state has raised questions about U.S. safety procedures. Although officials say the danger to the public is minimal, 10,000 pounds of beef have been recalled. About two dozen nations banned U.S. beef imports on the heels of the discovery. American consumers obviously love beef. Still, they can't help but have questions about meat inspection and safety procedures... Mad cow scare raises profile of similar brain-wasting disease The first U.S. case of mad cow disease has raised public awareness -- and confusion -- about an extremely rare related disorder in humans. It's probably safe to say that before last week, most Americans had never heard of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a brain-wasting disease first reported in 1920 by two German doctors. Scientists did not link mad cow disease with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD, until the mid-1990s. They named the human ailment linked to eating tainted beef "new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease" to distinguish it from conventional CJD...U.S. livestock tracking system may begin mid-2004 U.S. farmers and ranchers will take the first step toward a nationwide animal tracking system in mid-2004, a program intended to swiftly pinpoint the history of livestock suspected of mad cow disease or other dangerous diseases, program developers said on Monday. The goal of the voluntary program is to identify within 48 hours of a disease outbreak the animals involved and the farm, ranch or feedlot where they were raised so the disease cannot spread. That would be faster and more reliable than the welter of systems that producers now use. Numbering systems vary from farm to farm and producers often track different information...USDA Sees Little Benefit in Testing All Sick Cows U.S. officials, faced with the first case of mad cow disease on American soil, said on Monday testing all injured or sick cattle for the brain-wasting disease would do little to strengthen food safety. Kenneth Petersen of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites)'s Food Safety and Inspection Service told reporters that increasing mad cow testing to cover all injured or sick cattle "doesn't appear to be prudent, from at least a food safety standpoint." Some cattle arrive for slaughter with broken bones that are "extremely localized" and do not affect the quality of their meat, he said... Safeguards Failed To Keep Infected Cow From Food Supply An exclusive KIRO Team 7 Investigation has exposed how safeguards set up to prevent diseased cattle from entering our food supply failed. The mad cow in question was never supposed to be made into hamburger. KIRO Team 7 Investigators have discovered the U.S. Department of Agriculture knows that and has opened an internal investigation, trying to figure out why their own codes weren't followed. When a crippled or sick dairy cow can't walk into a slaughterhouse, federal meat inspectors label it a downer. Because there's something obviously wrong with the animal, they randomly draw blood and test for mad cow. What's not so typical in this case is that regulators let the "suspect" animal meat get to store shelves before looking at the mad cow test results. "Somebody made a big mistake. They shouldn't have passed it along," said former USDA Veterinarian Dr. Lester Friedlander...Canada still hopes to boost beef trade with U.S. Canada hopes the U.S. mad cow crisis won't hamper efforts to allow more Canadian beef to cross the border early in 2004, Agriculture Minister Bob Speller said on Monday. "This is all about science, it isn't about a trade war," Speller told reporters after meeting with farmers in Winnipeg. Many Canadian cattle farmers worry they won't see a speedy end to trade bans that have depressed morale and markets for the export-dependent cattle industry since a single case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, was discovered seven months ago in the western province of Alberta...Beef futures plummet in mad cow aftermath Beef futures fell the maximum amount allowed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Monday for the third straight trading session since the emergence of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease. With a ban on U.S. beef imports by more than two dozen nations still in place, near-term cattle futures all fell to the new limit Monday. Live cattle for delivery in February -- the current benchmark contract -- fell 5 cents to 81.17 cents a pound. Concerned about the impending expiration of the December contract on Wednesday, the exchange took emergency action for a second time to raise the daily trading limit for that contract on Tuesday. The Merc said that if the contract again falls the 5-cent limit Tuesday morning and stays there for an hour, an additional 2.5 cents would be allowed for a maximum fall for the trading day of 7.5 cents...Industry and government have plans for nationwide cattle ID system, but funding is lacking Last week's discovery of a single cow with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a Washington state dairy herd illustrates the need for a national livestock identification system to trace infected cattle in the U.S., government and beef industry officials say, but plans to deploy such a system are still hobbled by a lack of funding. A consortium of livestock producers and processors as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in September developed the U.S. Animal Identification Plan (USAIP) ,which called for identifying all 30 million cattle in the U.S. with a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag by July 2005. But, according to Robert Fourdraine, chief operating officer at the Wisconsin Livestock Identification Consortium, who also served as IT director for the USAIP, funding "is the $600 million question." That sum is the estimated cost to deploy an electronic tracking system throughout the U.S. livestock industry, covering cattle as well as other animals such as pigs and sheep...South Florida Woman Battling Mad Cow As the federal government continues to assure Americans that there is little risk of mad cow disease spreading to humans after an infected cow was found in Washington state, a South Florida family knows first-hand how devastating the disease can be. Mad cow disease was first discovered in England in 1986 and a similar disease began showing up in humans 10 years later. To date, there are only about 150 known cases in the world, including one in South Florida. Charlene Singh is unable to speak, move or eat on her own. It has been nearly two years since she was diagnosed with Variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease. VCJD is the degenerative fatal brain disorder linked with eating meat from cattle infected with mad cow disease...BSE update: Finger pointing and trade issues Over the past week USDA has been forthcoming with new information about the first US case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or mad cow) as it becomes available in part to keep the markets from wide price swings based on uncertainty over the future of domestic consumption and the fate of export markets. The sharing of unconfirmed information has led to outcry from officials and producers in Canada. Over the weekend many, including Minister of Agriculture Bob Speller, said USDA was pointing fingers on Saturday when officials announced to the press that an eartag on the diseased Holstein indicated a connection to a farm in Alberta Canada...Sheep Ailment May Hold Clues to Mad Cow Disease No one knows for sure when or where the first cow went mad, but the first recorded case occurred in December 1984 when a dairy cow on a farm in West Sussex began to stumble around and act strange. That cow, identified only as No. 133 in a British government report, died two months later, as others on the same farm fell ill. An autopsy on one in 1985 found its brain full of holes, like a sponge. Sick animals turned up on other farms, and by 1986 the British knew they were facing an epidemic of a terrible new cattle disease. By 1994, the illness had spread to people, probably from eating beef. So far, the number of human cases has remained relatively small, 137, mostly in England, out of millions there who may have eaten contaminated meat. But the disease inspires fear because it is fatal, the incubation period is uncertain, people have no way of knowing they have been infected until they get sick and the symptoms are horrific. The disease attacks the brain, leaving a person mentally and physically helpless. Many victims were young, including some in their teens and 20's. Many scientists think Britain's mad cow epidemic had its origins in scrapie, a spongiform brain disease that occurs in sheep and goats. The name comes from the sick animals' tendency to rub against things and scrape off patches of wool... McDonald's Japan To Stop Selling US Beef Hot Dogs -Nikkei McDonald's Holdings Co. (Japan) Ltd. (2702.JA) on Tuesday will suspend sales of hot dogs that contain beef imported from the U.S. following the discovery there of a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported in its Tuesday edition. The Japanese arm of U.S. fast-food giant McDonald's Corp. uses Australian beef for its hamburgers, but 15% of its hot dogs consist of U.S. beef. McDonald's Japan will destroy all of the frankfurters that are in distribution and in stock at its stores. Following the suspension of hot dog sales, all of the beef products on its menu will use Australian beef...