MAD COW DISEASE

Tainted feed possibly sold after ban As U.S. investigators travelled north yesterday to assess the steps Canada has taken to prevent mad-cow disease, Ottawa for the first time raised the possibility that manufacturers pumped out tainted livestock feed after such practices were banned. Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials said they are checking into more than a dozen feed sources — from cat food for barn cats to questionable practices at feed mills and rendering plants —that could have caused the brain wasting disease in an Alberta cow born after the tough new feed rules were implemented in 1997....
Johanns Begins Review Of Canada Cattle Trade Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns began his new job Monday caught in a dispute between meatpackers and some ranchers over reopening U.S. borders to cattle from Canada. He also faced reluctance in Japan to resuming imports of U.S. cattle. Johanns told reporters that in the aftermath of a new case of mad cow disease discovered in Canada on Jan. 11, U.S. inspectors were traveling there Monday to investigate that country's compliance with its 1997 ban on putting cattle remains in feed. The brain-wasting disease is thought to spread through infected animal parts added to animal feed. "It is my goal here to make sure that I look at everything that is available, that I look at what the team finds in Canada, that I make sure that my briefings are thorough, and that I've got all the information at my disposal," Johanns said on his first day at the Agriculture Department. The newest Canadian animal to test positive for the disease was significant because, unlike in two earlier cases, it was born after the feed ban....
China, Japan, Taiwan May Drop Canadian-Beef Ban Soon Canada expects several Asian markets that banned Canadian beef after the country reported a case of mad cow disease in May 2003 to resume imports soon, Canadian Beef Export Federation President Ted Haney said. China is expected to allow the import of beef and other cattle product to resume gradually in the first half of this year, probably after Japan, South Korea and Taiwan resume imports in the next few months, Haney said in an interview in Hong Kong. The recent cases didn't hurt sales in Hong Kong, which allowed imports of Canadian beef to resume Nov. 30, Haney said. The city of 6.8 million people is a ``sentinel market'' and its decision to allow imports may prompt other countries in the region to follow, he said....
Editorial: Don't wait for crisis Federal officials should wake up to their own lack of knowledge about the risks from mad cow disease. New scientific research underlines the fact that little is known about the illness, which can cause a fatal brain disease in people. Researchers, led by Adriano Aguzzi at the University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland, found that prions, which are believed responsible for mad cow disease, can live in various organs in the bodies of lab mice. Prions are previously unknown types of folded proteins that are thought to accumulate in parts of the body, causing several brain-wasting diseases. The finding of prions in mice organs still has to be checked in cows. But the research calls into glaring question the adequacy of U.S. and foreign regulations that assume only beef parts from the head and central nervous system present a risk to people....