MAD COW NEWS

NCBA to Hold Satellite Town Hall Meeting on BSE Response

01/06/2004

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) will hold a Satellite Town Hall Meeting, Jan. 8 from 7-8 p.m. Mountain Time, to answer producer questions and discuss NCBA's response to the discovery of a single Canadian-born cow in the U.S. with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

NCBA Chief Executive Officer Terry Stokes, Vice President of Government Affairs Chandler Keys and Executive Director of Regulatory Affairs Gary Weber, PhD, will provide the latest information on the BSE case, discuss USDA regulatory issues and address efforts to resume U.S. beef exports. Additionally, the senior staff will discuss NCBA's BSE crisis response plan, which is implemented with NCBA member dues and with beef checkoff dollars on behalf of the Cattlemen's Beef Board and state beef councils.

The 60-minute Satellite Town Hall Meeting will broadcast live on RFD-TV. Cattlemen from around the nation can call into a telephone number provided on-screen to ask questions of and provide input to the NCBA staff.

The live broadcast can be viewed on the RFD-TV agricultural channel available on:

DISH TV Channel 9409

DirecTV Channel 379 (Multi-Sat System Required)

MediaCom Cable Providers, Check Local Listings

NCTC Cable Providers, Check Local Listings

C-band coordinates, T5-20, 41 Mghz., Horizontal, 6.2-6.8 audio

A tape of the show will be rebroadcast three times on the RFD-TV channel at six hour intervals, following the initial broadcast. The program will also be broadcast on Sunday, Jan. 11 at 3 p.m. Mountain Time.

BSE has protectionist legislators, industry jumping on Buy U.S. bandwagon Recall Canadian livestock. Stop importing their beef products. Slap Born in the U.S.A. stickers on meat packages in grocery stores. A wave of protectionism hit the United States on Wednesday, a day after genetic tests confirmed that a Washington state cow that tested positive for mad cow disease had been born on an Alberta farm. U.S. Agriculture Department officials have been careful to call the continent's second mad cow case a North American problem. And even-handed stories about the cow's origin were played inside major American newspapers. But some took advantage of the news to promote long-held agendas that stress buying American and blaming Canada for the latest assault on the industry. Leo McDonnell, president of the Rancher and Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, said recalling all Canadian livestock and shutting down beef imports again would allow Americans to regain their $3.6-billion US export market by next week. "We're looking at some heavy losses," said McDonnell. "And it's not even a cow from the U.S. I mean, you know, (the disease) is not native to the United States." He was backed by Tom Daschle, the Senate minority leader, and other politicians from Midwest beef states. "Obviously we need to get as much information about the safety of products from Canada as we can," said Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat. "The only way we can do that effectively is to stop the product from coming into this country."...Calves Killed to Prevent Mad Cow Disease A winter storm Wednesday delayed federal officials' plans to bury 449 calves killed to prevent the spread of mad cow disease. State officials, meanwhile, said disposing of the carcasses at a landfill was safe. It may be "a day or two" before trucks are able to remove the carcasses, which officials had planned to bury at a regional landfill in southern Washington, said Robert Nelson, a state Agriculture Department spokesman. A worker at the landfill, about 60 miles south of Yakima, said it was closed Wednesday after receiving about a foot of snow...Leading Democratic Senator Calls For Immediate Country-of-Origin Meat Labeling The U.S. Senate's top Democrat is calling on the U.S. food industry to immediately begin labeling meat with its country-of-origin. South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle's comments come after the first case of mad cow disease in the United States was traced to Canada. Under a bill passed by the House of Representatives and awaiting Senate approval later this month, beef would be required to be labeled with its country of origin. The measure would apply to other perishable commodities, including fruits, vegetables, fish, lamb and pork, but not chicken. The House bill would delay the measure's implementation by two years. The chamber's Republican majority argued the labeling would be too costly for the meat industry...Japan says must move slowly on lifting US beef ban Japan consumer confidence could be eroded if a ban on U.S. beef, due to mad cow concerns, is lifted too soon, Japanese Trade Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said Wednesday. Following a meeting with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, Nakagawa, whose remarks were translated into English, said moving too quickly "could result in loss of confidence" among Japanese consumers. He added that it is best to "move forward step by step" on eventually ending Tokyo's ban on American beef...U.S. Faces Pressure on Beef Safety While the Bush administration tries to thaw a freeze on beef exports because of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease, consumer and farm groups said on Wednesday that Americans deserve to know the source of their lunchtime hamburgers and dinner steaks. They joined Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle in calling for an immediate federal order to put country-of-origin labels on meat. The labels are scheduled to be mandatory by Sept. 29 but House Republicans have sought to delay them because of the cost to the U.S. meat industry. Farm activists and consumer groups said food-origin labels were a speedier way to bolster food safety than a national animal identification system. The Bush administration opposes labeling and says it will speed up creation of the ID system. U.S. meat industry sources said another option being discussed would require U.S. slaughter plants to test only cattle over the age of 30 months for mad cow disease and only if the meat was intended for Japan...Opening the border is taking longer than thought at first Ontario Cattlemen's Association president Ron Wooddisse says it's unlikely the discovery of a BSE-infected cow in Washington state last month will delay the opening of the U.S. border to live Canadian cattle under 30 months old. "My projection is that the border will open up in two to four months," Wooddisse said in an interview with Voice of the Farmer. That prognostication hasn't changed since a second cow infected with BSE was discovered south of the border, he said, stressing that it was never realistic to believe the Americans would miraculously reopen the border as soon as the calendar turned over to 2004. "We all knew it would take longer," he said...Decision on beef ban will wait for fact-finding team Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Wednesday the government will not rush to decide whether to lift a ban on U.S. beef imports following confirmation that an American cow infected with mad cow disease was born in Alberta, Canada. "We have to look into the matter in detail before making a judgment (over the import ban). We will wait for a report from a fact-finding team, which leaves for the United States on Thursday," Fukuda said. Earlier Wednesday, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry said Wednesday it will dispatch a fact-finding team to the U.S. and Canada to gather information about the first case of mad cow disease in the U.S...Cattle prices rally Cattle prices jumped Wednesday after a report out of Japan hinted the top U.S. beef market may lift its import ban on U.S. beef if tests prove the meat does not have mad cow disease. CME live cattle for delivery in February closed up the daily trading limit of 1.50 cents a pound at 75.400 cents. The contract had closed at 90.675 cents on Dec. 23, before the mad cow discovery was announced. On Wednesday, the Nikkei news agency reported that Japan's agriculture ministry was reviewing a plan that could allow imports of U.S. beef if it was inspected by private firms. "That gives us a sliver of hope where Japan can possibly justify lifting the ban," said Jim Clarkson, livestock analyst with A & A Trading Inc in Chicago. The cattle market was also buoyed by confirmation on Tuesday that the infected cow in Washington state had been imported from Canada...FDA chief says America's beef supply is safe The Texas-raised head of the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that his agency's procedures worked as expected in handling the first case of mad cow disease in the United States. Dr. Mark McClellan, FDA commissioner, said all of the parts of the cow infected with the brain-wasting disease that the FDA regulates have been accounted for. The animal, born in western Canada in 1997, was slaughtered in Washington state last month. "Because we have these vigilant systems in place, that gives us a high degree of confidence in our beef supply," said McClellan, who was in San Antonio to speak to scientists gathered for the first meeting of the Texas Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine. FDA's oversight relevant to mad cow disease includes the use of cattle parts in animal feed and the rendering of non-edible tissue for use in drugs, cosmetics and other products...Ottawa rules out ban on use of slaughterhouse waste in cattle feed Federal officials have ruled out a ban on feeding slaughterhouse waste to cattle even though some government scientists say such a ban is the only way to be sure of stopping mad cow disease. Brian Evans, chief veterinarian for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, said a ban would not be based on science and would be impossible to enforce. Britain and other European countries have maintained such a ban for years and it has been under study in Canada. But a panel of foreign experts advised against the idea, said Evans...Mad Cow, Iron Levels Knock Out Potential Blood Donors The American Red Cross is in dire need for blood donations, but there are some new restrictions that may impact whether you can give blood. The mad cow disease that raced through countries across the Atlantic has created new directives for potential donors here in the United States. According to the Greater Chesapeake and Potomac chapter of the American Red Cross, people cannot donate if, since January 1, 1980, you have: Spent a total time that adds up to 3 months in the United Kingdom. Spent a total time that adds up to 6 months or more in any country in the United Kingdom, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Turkey, or Oman. Received a blood transfusion in any of these regions...Florida Ranchers Relieved As Cattle Prices Hold Steady Wider BSE Testing May Woo Buyers The United States will have to institute wider-spread testing of cattle for bovine spongiform encephalopathy before key importers will open their borders to U.S. beef again, a key U.S. meat industry official said Tuesday. Richard Fritz, the vice president for trade development for the Denver- based U.S. Meat Export Federation, told DTN it is unclear how much testing the United States will have to do to satisfy trading partners, but that it will have to be on a larger scale than the 20,000 cows that were tested annually before the case of mad cow disease was discovered...Food: Beefing it up like the president After all, President Bush is still eating beef. On Jan. 2, though having been on a successful hunt for quail at Falfurrias, Texas, he declared, "As a matter of fact, I ate beef today, and will continue to eat beef." Scott McClellan, a White House spokesman, announced that despite the mad cow scare, the U.S. food supply was safe and public risk from the discovery of the disease was low. For this particular Brit, those positive proclamations rang too many apprehensive bells. In May 1990, the British minister of Agriculture in John Major's Conservative government appeared on television enthusiastically encouraging his 4-year-old daughter Cordelia to bite greedily into a hamburger. British beef, he claimed merrily, was "completely safe." Just five years later, in another May, the first recorded victim of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease died. Like most of the other 119 British victims as of December 2002, Stephen Churchill was pitifully young -- 19. In December 1995, the year of his death, Prime Minister John Major declaimed, "There is no scientific evidence that BSE can be transmitted to humans or that eating beef causes it in humans."...Japanese team in Brisbane for beef talks A Japanese Ministry of Agriculture delegation arrives in Brisbane today to talk to local producers about redirecting US-bound exports to Japan. Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) spokesman Peter Barnard says the delegation will meet with officials from export companies Teys Brothers and Australian Meat Holdings before heading to Sydney for further talks. "The product beef that the United States was sending to Japan and Korea will now be marketed in the domestic market in the United States, so there's likely to be an easing of demand for Australian beef in the United States, while at the same time there's increase for Australian beef in Japan and Korea," Dr Barnard said. Dr Barnard says local companies will put forward a strong argument for expanding into the Japanese market...Secrecy of beef recalls blasted Federal regulators have more power to order and publicize the recall of a batch of canned corn or auto parts than they do a load of tainted beef or poultry -- a gap consumer groups call outrageous. USDA rules barred local officials from naming five Vietnamese restaurants in Alameda County suspected of serving beef bones from the Washington slaughterhouse where a single cow was found to have mad cow disease last month. Meanwhile, the final destination of 10,000 pounds of beef from the 19 other cows slaughtered with the diseased Holstein on Dec. 9 remains a secret under U.S. Department of Agriculture rules. By contrast, products with less than 2 percent meat, poul-try or pork face different recall guidelines, overseen by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which include the publication of batch numbers, quantities and the tainted items' distribution network...Facts vs. Fears: Mad Cow Reality BRIT HUME, HOST: The Agriculture Department (search) said today that that cow, out in Washington State that was diagnosed with Mad Cow disease (search) last month, came from Canada. The department also said it will slaughter another 450 cattle from that quarantined herd in which the sick one was found. At least 37 countries have now banned the import of U.S. beef. But is any of this really necessary? For answers, we turn to David Ropeick, of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, who is co-author for "Risk, A Practical Guide For Deciding What`s Really Safe And Dangerous In The World Around Us." He joins us from our Boston Bureau. Welcome to you, sir...Researchers Seek to Clone 'Mad Cow Disease' Resistant Cattle Strain With about $300,000 in funding from the National Institutes of Health, scientists in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine (VMRCVM) at Virginia Tech are trying to clone cattle that are genetically incapable of developing "Mad Cow Disease." As federal and state government officials grapple with strategies to limit the economic and health risks associated with the troublesome discovery of the nation's first case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) -- or Mad Cow Disease -- Drs. Will Eyestone and Bill Huckle are conducting important research with the little understood molecules believed to cause the deadly brain-wasting disease... Accurate BSE test of live animals is goal of Ohio research Ohio State University researcher Srinand Sreevatsan not only believes early detection is the best way to fight mad cow disease. He's also creating tools to make it possible. "There is a desperate need for a fast and reliable test for the diagnosis of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) in live animals," said Sreevatsan, a scientist with the Food Animal Health Research Program (FAHRP) on the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center's (OARDC) Wooster campus. "Early detection could lead to efficient surveillance systems that may avert or control this group of diseases."...Mad cow has state's ranchers wary of selling cattle About 1,200 animals were sold Monday at Centennial Livestock Auction in Fort Collins. The operation that draws from Colorado, Wyoming and Utah normally runs through 8,000 to 9,000 cattle a day this time of year, auction owner Wayne Kruse said. "Some of the guys who sold were pretty nervous about this (mad cow) thing," Kruse said. "We had a lot of cattle consigned, but some converted to next Monday and some decided to wait until later in the year." The sale was one of the region's first after the holidays and after the announcement Dec. 23 of the country's first case of mad cow disease. At the Winter Livestock Auction in La Junta, general manager John Campbell said about 400 to 500 cattle would be sold Tuesday. The normal total at the southeastern Colorado auction ranges from 4,000 to 5,000. The Ranchland Livestock Auction in Wray on Colorado's eastern plains canceled a sale Jan. 2 because no cattle were offered for sale...Ottawa earmarks funds for anti-BSE measures The federal government is introducing increased surveillance and tracking to further reduce the risk of mad cow disease, Federal Agriculture Minister Bob Speller said Tuesday. Speller has obtained funding for a package of anti-BSE measures which are already underway. He did not give a dollar amount or specify how many animals would be tested. Brian Evans, chief veterinarian at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, said the goal is to be able to detect a one-in-a-million case of mad cow... Tyson cuts beef production due to lower demand US meat processor Tyson Foods is reducing operating hours at its US beef plants due to lower demand for US beef following the discovery of a case of BSE, or mad cow disease. "We plan to keep the plants at reduced hours while we evaluate the effect of the discovery of mad-cow," Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson was quoted by the Associated Press as saying. Tyson, which operates 11 beef processing plants in the US and one in Canada, exported US$1.7bn worth of beef last year to countries including Japan and South Korea, reported AP...KGH removes beef from menu Beef isn't what's for dinner -- or lunch and breakfast -- at Kennewick General Hospital's Ivy Cafe. The menu posted for January offers plenty of chicken, pork, fish and turkey, but nothing that would come from a butchered steer, calf or cow. Even though the hospital's food supplier guarantees that its beef products have no connection to cattle stock affected by mad cow disease, the beefless menu is a courtesy for people who don't have a choice not to eat beef, said Christy Evanson, the hospital's director of food and nutrition...Meat packers to be scrutinized Federal officials will be keeping an eye on meat packers to make sure they don't use mad cow disease as an excuse to pay ranchers less for their cattle than what the animals are worth, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., said Monday. Burns asked U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman last week to "scrutinize livestock transactions" to ensure ranchers get a fair price for their cattle. J. P. Donovan, a Burns spokesman, said Monday that Veneman has personally promised the senator that her agency would look into cattle transactions...Mad-cow rules could affect Hispanic meals Meat safety regulations aimed at reducing the risk of mad cow disease may have their biggest impact on some Hispanics, whose culinary favorites may include tacos filled with brain and small intestines, soup with spinal cord bits and, at holiday times, a cow's head. The rules, imposed after the Dec. 23 disclosure of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease, prohibit the sale of skull, brain, eyes, vertebral column and spinal cord from cattle older than 30 months...Beef pulled from school menus Fears that mad cow disease could spread to children have prompted some school officials to take beef off school lunch menus. The Jefferson County School District, the largest in Colorado, is taking a handful of beef and beef byproducts out of its school cafeterias until it can confirm they are safe to eat. A food contractor in Aspen has also stopped serving beef indefinitely to elementary and middle school students over fears of a mad-cow outbreak. "I know the government says beef is safe, but I don't believe the government has much credibility right now," said Anne Owsley, owner of The Lunchroom Co. in Aspen... In N.J., a link to mad cow? Although U.S. health officials say no one has gotten mad cow disease from American beef, a Cinnaminson woman says seven people died of a closely related disease after eating at the Garden State Race Track in Cherry Hill. The seven apparently died of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a fatal brain-wasting malady, according to a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Janet Skarbek, an accountant, discovered the cases after an acquaintance died of the illness in 2000. She contacted the CDC. Now, it is asking her questions. The human version of mad cow disease is a very similar condition known as new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The differences between the two can be definitively detected only by examining brain tissue in an autopsy. Health experts are skeptical of the contentions of Skarbek. If a link were established between the deaths and the victims' diets, it would be the first time beef has been linked to sporadic CJD, they say...U of I team working on food-tracing system University of Illinois scientists may develop technology used to trace cattle and hogs back to the farms on which they were raised. It's focused on creating, maintaining and tracing food products through the U.S. food distribution system. A team of researchers plans to develop technology to trace meat from a single cow or soybeans from an individual field all the way to the grocery shelf. Dahl's piece of the research project centers on a small, implanted device for livestock that's about the size of a single grain of sand. It draws power from radio waves that examine the device for data. About 25,000 of the implants suspended in a small bottle of water are barely visible. That means they're too small to be taken out and switched to another animal...Wash. cattlemen 'tickled' at prices after mad cow Fewer cattle made it to the auction block at the Toppenish Livestock Commission, but the prices they drew made cattlemen smile for the first time since word broke that mad cow disease had been detected in the state. Only about 100 cows were sold Monday, with the market high 61 cents a pound for an 1,850-pound cow. That was down only 2 cents from the 63-cents-a-pound high for slaughter cows in late December, said John Top, co-owner of the Yakima Valley-based auction...