MAD COW DISEASE

U.S. mad cow coverup alleged A former American government packing plant veterinarian says the United States government is hiding cases of mad cow disease. Dr. Lester Friedlander said Wednesday that colleagues with the United States Department of Agriculture have told him of cases that the USDA has chosen not to announce. Friedlander, who has been invited to speak to Parliament's agriculture committee next week on proposed changes to Canadian inspection legislation, refused to give details. He said the USDA employees are close to retirement and risk losing their pensions. He has previously spoken out, however, about a Texas cow that had mad cow symptoms and went untested to a rendering plant after a USDA veterinarian condemned it at a packing plant in San Angelo....
U.S. Agriculture Department denies allegation it's hiding mad-cow cases The U.S. Agriculture Department said Thursday there's "no way" it would hide cases of mad-cow disease because that would hurt the beef industry. A former department veterinarian, Dr. Lester Friedlander, said this week on a speaking tour in Edmonton that U.S. officials found new cases of the disease and chose not to reveal them. "That's just not the case," spokesman Ed Loyd said, adding officials expected to discover more cases but haven't yet. "There's no way we'd benefit by being anything less than completely transparent. It would jeopardize the markets we're trying to open," said Loyd. "It would set the entire beef industry in this country back. We're not going to do anything to jeopardize that."....
Taiwan Lifts Ban on U.S. Beef Taiwan will lift a ban on U.S. beef imposed after the discovery of mad cow disease 14 months ago in a Washington state heifer, the Agriculture Department said Thursday. In the year before the ban, Taiwan imported more than $76 million in U.S. beef and beef products, the department said. That amounts to about 5 percent of the biggest market for U.S. beef, Japan, which still has not resumed beef imports. Japan imported more than $1.5 billion in beef in 2003, according to the department. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said Taiwan's decision is further progress in reopening global markets to U.S. beef. "Our goal is the resumption of normal beef trade throughout the world and, we are working tirelessly to that end," Johanns said. Taiwan's government will allow imports of boneless beef from animals younger than 30 months, effective April 16. The age cutoff is based on the belief that infection spreads with age....
Farmer sues over 'mad cow' border closure A Quebec farmer hopes to secure court approval for a class-action suit against the federal government and animal feed company Ridley Inc. over mad cow disease and the U.S. ban on Canadian beef exports. Donald Berneche of St-Gabriel-de-Brandon, Que. alleges Canadian authorities delayed in prohibiting the addition of meat and bone meal from ruminant animals in cattle feed. This, he argued, made it possible for a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy to be found in an Alberta cow in 2003, causing the U.S. border closure against Canadian cattle and beef. The cow—born in the spring of 1997—became infected with BSE soon after being fed with Ridley’s products, Berneche alleged. The action, filed in Quebec Superior Court, claims $100,000 in damages because of the border closing and the farmer’s inability to sell his herd. It seeks certification as a class action on behalf of all affected farmers in the province. The suit alleges Minnesota-headquartered Ridley was a possible supplier of feed to the affected Alberta cow early in its life, and it says the company should have stopped using ruminant meat and bone meal in its feed even before it was banned in 1997....

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