Saturday, January 03, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Private help comes to public land The U.S. Forest Service once managed and paid the bills for everything concerning the national forests, from timber sales to firefighting to campground and trail maintenance. But increasingly, nonprofit, community-based forestry groups are stepping forward to provide some of those services, using federal dollars from grant programs and private money from foundations and individuals to hire independent contractors. During the past decade, the community-based groups have sprouted in Oregon and throughout the West. They've filled a gap caused by Forest Service budget cuts that followed a decline in timber revenue after logging on national forests was sharply curtailed in the 1990s...Conflict looms over timber It's a new year and new battles are on the horizon between environmentalists and the Bush administration over federal forests in the Pacific Northwest -- but the theme is continuing conflict. Central to the clash are changes the Bush administration is making this year in the Northwest Forest Plan, the document hammered out under President Clinton in 1994 to end the standoff over logging federal old-growth forests. Government officials are expected this month and next to finalize rule changes that will make it easier to carry out timber sales without explicitly protecting salmon, and without extensive surveys to discover whether logging would endanger more than 300 hard-to-find slugs, snails, lichens and other species. Later in the year, officials are expected to finalize reviews of whether the spotted owl and another rare bird, the marbled murrelet, should continue to be protected under the Endangered Species Act...Forest plan a regulatory war There is one thing Colorado's two giant ski resort competitors agree on: the revised White River Forest Plan adopted in 2002 has some provisions that need to be changed. That new plan restricts both the acreage available for ski area expansion and imposes stricter clean water standards for ski areas. Both provisions are being appealed by Vail Resorts, Intrawest and Colorado Ski Country USA, an industry advocacy group... Oil rigs help biologists unlock mystery of ocean life From his office in downtown New Orleans, Dan Allen can see to the bottom of the ocean. Allen, a marine biologist with Chevron Texaco, studies the ocean's depths using images from the remote-controlled vehicles that fix oil pipelines and wells on the sea floor as well as the eyes of hundreds of workers manning offshore platforms. "We just recently discovered a very large shark in the Gulf of Mexico in about 10,000 feet of water. It was the first ever observed in the Gulf," Allen said. "We want to get feedback from people offshore as to what they are seeing when and where." For land-bound academics and the hardcore biologists working for major corporations, oil exploration has become a surrogate for scientific research unlike ever before...Soar subject The 3-month-old bald eaglets huddled like two scared kids while a gaggle of photographers surrounded them at the Barr Lake gazebo. Division of Wildlife raptor expert Jerry Craig had snatched them out of their nest at the edge of the lake and boated to the gazebo so spectators could watch as he weighed the eaglets, drew blood from them and crimped bands on their legs...Bear advocate an enigma in death Timothy Treadwell's death came just the way he had predicted. Treadwell and his girlfriend were mauled by a 1,000-pound grizzly bear last October in a remote section of Alaskan wilderness that Treadwell knew well after years of living among its bear population. He had started an environmental group and received donations from celebrities such as actor Leonardo DiCaprio, in part by saying the bears he loved were in jeopardy. He spun colorful stories about his adventures for the Discovery Channel, David Letterman's late-night audience and the Walt Disney Co. What few knew about Treadwell was that much of his life was an invention...Salton Sea's mud delays dike plan Scientists have uncovered a distressing secret about the lakebed of the Salton Sea: Portions of it are covered with a 50-foot-thick layer of silt the consistency of peanut butter. That revelation is particularly troubling for California's largest lake, a place of promise and despair that has endured three decades of scientific study and political haggling. The latest findings place in jeopardy a proposal by state and federal agencies to build an 81/2-mile dike across the desolate and smelly lake to stave off ecological disaster. Salton Sea Authority officials say the costs of that plan could increase 200 percent, to $3 billion...Lockheed sells rocket test site near Beaumont as preserve Behind a padlocked gate sits thousands of acres filled with stands of cottonwoods and willows, a gentle stream, big granite boulders and abundant wildlife, including deer, bobcat and quail. It's also a spot where aerospace giant Lockheed tested rocket engines for America's space program at the height of the Cold War. On Friday, government agencies and environmentalists announced a $25.5 million land deal for about 9,100 acres that will create a huge nature preserve in southern Beaumont. Outdoor lovers will hike, ride horses and bird watch when it opens in several years... 2 Missing Condors Might Have Perished in October's Piru Blaze Two California condors that were seen in the vicinity of the 64,000-acre Piru fire in October have not been spotted again by wildlife officials, who fear they may have perished. The birds were among the 39 living in a number of wild regions in California, where the species nearly died out in the mid-1980s...Train being proposed to solve traffic jams at Grand Canyon To remedy the traffic congestion at the park's South Rim and on State Route 64, the Grand Canyon's tourist railroad has proposed a $186 million high-speed train. The rail service would begin in 2005 and run from Williams, reducing vehicle traffic on the South Rim by 50 percent, according to Grand Canyon Railway's proposal...Cattle Grazers Welcome New Grazing Rules Livestock interests in the West are welcoming the Interior Department's proposed new federal rules for grazing on public lands, though they could cause some short-term harm to the environment. Olson called the proposed grazing rules a positive step, showing the government is willing to work with ranchers, and the rules could benefit both rancher and range. "If I lease BLM land, I'm supposed to have enough private land to support those cattle when they're not on BLM land. That's one of the reasons we say this helps ranchers prevent urban sprawl," she said. "Because if they don't have the rangeland to run on in the summer, there's a possibility of them selling it for subdivisions."...BLM: No significant impact from methane drilling The U.S. Bureau of Land Management says no significant environmental effects will result from drilling for coal-bed methane near Baggs. The Brown Cow Pod is one of nine pods with up to 200 wells proposed as part of the Atlantic Rim coal-bed methane project...Protecting Utah's open spaces How do we measure 20 years of work by the Utah Nature Conservancy? Do we count the increasing number of conservancy members, volunteers and conservation projects? Do we total the number of acres forever protected? Or evaluate the attitudes toward open space forever changed? Or do we measure whether our civilization is indeed growing to match this state's spectacular scenery? It's a little bit of all of those things, say the people who have watched the organization grow during the past two decades...Cowpuncher brothers' late-life pastime corrals fans of rustic furniture Tom and Jack Musser are bent and bowlegged. Tom's 81-year-old back is permanently out-of-kilter. Jack's 84-year-old joints are a tad awry. These two lifelong cowpunchers are a little too rickety to ride the range or bust broncs anymore. So they have turned to making furniture. It looks a lot like them - rustic and all akimbo, with legs that jut in arthritic angles, arms that crook and backs and tops not even remotely in plum. None of their furniture is like anything anyone would learn to make in a how-to class at Home Depot or buy at the local Furniture Mart. And that's what has caught the eye of ritzy mountain mansion owners and appreciative cabin dwellers, who snap up the Musser brothers' one-of-a-kind pieces almost as fast as they make them. To buyers, the Mussers' creations are folk art - treasured Americana...On The Edge Of Common Sense - Baxterizing: Misinterpreting something obvious Once these changes were made, then we could redistribute the amount of federal lands equally across the 48 states. Which, according to Statistical Abstract, would be 28 percent per state. In Ohio, for instance, under the Federal Lands Equality Act, eminent domain would be inflicted on everything north of Lima. Displaced residents would have six months to leave, then gray wolves, grizzly bears, Florida panthers, spotted owls, condors and snail darter minnows would be reintroduced. In Massachusetts, all the land west of Boston would be reclaimed and turned into a Buffalo Commons. Nevada, which before the new gerrymandering was 83 percent federally owned, would open up private land for homesteaders from states unaccustomed to living under the thumb of the federal government...
Permalink
Private help comes to public land The U.S. Forest Service once managed and paid the bills for everything concerning the national forests, from timber sales to firefighting to campground and trail maintenance. But increasingly, nonprofit, community-based forestry groups are stepping forward to provide some of those services, using federal dollars from grant programs and private money from foundations and individuals to hire independent contractors. During the past decade, the community-based groups have sprouted in Oregon and throughout the West. They've filled a gap caused by Forest Service budget cuts that followed a decline in timber revenue after logging on national forests was sharply curtailed in the 1990s...Conflict looms over timber It's a new year and new battles are on the horizon between environmentalists and the Bush administration over federal forests in the Pacific Northwest -- but the theme is continuing conflict. Central to the clash are changes the Bush administration is making this year in the Northwest Forest Plan, the document hammered out under President Clinton in 1994 to end the standoff over logging federal old-growth forests. Government officials are expected this month and next to finalize rule changes that will make it easier to carry out timber sales without explicitly protecting salmon, and without extensive surveys to discover whether logging would endanger more than 300 hard-to-find slugs, snails, lichens and other species. Later in the year, officials are expected to finalize reviews of whether the spotted owl and another rare bird, the marbled murrelet, should continue to be protected under the Endangered Species Act...Forest plan a regulatory war There is one thing Colorado's two giant ski resort competitors agree on: the revised White River Forest Plan adopted in 2002 has some provisions that need to be changed. That new plan restricts both the acreage available for ski area expansion and imposes stricter clean water standards for ski areas. Both provisions are being appealed by Vail Resorts, Intrawest and Colorado Ski Country USA, an industry advocacy group... Oil rigs help biologists unlock mystery of ocean life From his office in downtown New Orleans, Dan Allen can see to the bottom of the ocean. Allen, a marine biologist with Chevron Texaco, studies the ocean's depths using images from the remote-controlled vehicles that fix oil pipelines and wells on the sea floor as well as the eyes of hundreds of workers manning offshore platforms. "We just recently discovered a very large shark in the Gulf of Mexico in about 10,000 feet of water. It was the first ever observed in the Gulf," Allen said. "We want to get feedback from people offshore as to what they are seeing when and where." For land-bound academics and the hardcore biologists working for major corporations, oil exploration has become a surrogate for scientific research unlike ever before...Soar subject The 3-month-old bald eaglets huddled like two scared kids while a gaggle of photographers surrounded them at the Barr Lake gazebo. Division of Wildlife raptor expert Jerry Craig had snatched them out of their nest at the edge of the lake and boated to the gazebo so spectators could watch as he weighed the eaglets, drew blood from them and crimped bands on their legs...Bear advocate an enigma in death Timothy Treadwell's death came just the way he had predicted. Treadwell and his girlfriend were mauled by a 1,000-pound grizzly bear last October in a remote section of Alaskan wilderness that Treadwell knew well after years of living among its bear population. He had started an environmental group and received donations from celebrities such as actor Leonardo DiCaprio, in part by saying the bears he loved were in jeopardy. He spun colorful stories about his adventures for the Discovery Channel, David Letterman's late-night audience and the Walt Disney Co. What few knew about Treadwell was that much of his life was an invention...Salton Sea's mud delays dike plan Scientists have uncovered a distressing secret about the lakebed of the Salton Sea: Portions of it are covered with a 50-foot-thick layer of silt the consistency of peanut butter. That revelation is particularly troubling for California's largest lake, a place of promise and despair that has endured three decades of scientific study and political haggling. The latest findings place in jeopardy a proposal by state and federal agencies to build an 81/2-mile dike across the desolate and smelly lake to stave off ecological disaster. Salton Sea Authority officials say the costs of that plan could increase 200 percent, to $3 billion...Lockheed sells rocket test site near Beaumont as preserve Behind a padlocked gate sits thousands of acres filled with stands of cottonwoods and willows, a gentle stream, big granite boulders and abundant wildlife, including deer, bobcat and quail. It's also a spot where aerospace giant Lockheed tested rocket engines for America's space program at the height of the Cold War. On Friday, government agencies and environmentalists announced a $25.5 million land deal for about 9,100 acres that will create a huge nature preserve in southern Beaumont. Outdoor lovers will hike, ride horses and bird watch when it opens in several years... 2 Missing Condors Might Have Perished in October's Piru Blaze Two California condors that were seen in the vicinity of the 64,000-acre Piru fire in October have not been spotted again by wildlife officials, who fear they may have perished. The birds were among the 39 living in a number of wild regions in California, where the species nearly died out in the mid-1980s...Train being proposed to solve traffic jams at Grand Canyon To remedy the traffic congestion at the park's South Rim and on State Route 64, the Grand Canyon's tourist railroad has proposed a $186 million high-speed train. The rail service would begin in 2005 and run from Williams, reducing vehicle traffic on the South Rim by 50 percent, according to Grand Canyon Railway's proposal...Cattle Grazers Welcome New Grazing Rules Livestock interests in the West are welcoming the Interior Department's proposed new federal rules for grazing on public lands, though they could cause some short-term harm to the environment. Olson called the proposed grazing rules a positive step, showing the government is willing to work with ranchers, and the rules could benefit both rancher and range. "If I lease BLM land, I'm supposed to have enough private land to support those cattle when they're not on BLM land. That's one of the reasons we say this helps ranchers prevent urban sprawl," she said. "Because if they don't have the rangeland to run on in the summer, there's a possibility of them selling it for subdivisions."...BLM: No significant impact from methane drilling The U.S. Bureau of Land Management says no significant environmental effects will result from drilling for coal-bed methane near Baggs. The Brown Cow Pod is one of nine pods with up to 200 wells proposed as part of the Atlantic Rim coal-bed methane project...Protecting Utah's open spaces How do we measure 20 years of work by the Utah Nature Conservancy? Do we count the increasing number of conservancy members, volunteers and conservation projects? Do we total the number of acres forever protected? Or evaluate the attitudes toward open space forever changed? Or do we measure whether our civilization is indeed growing to match this state's spectacular scenery? It's a little bit of all of those things, say the people who have watched the organization grow during the past two decades...Cowpuncher brothers' late-life pastime corrals fans of rustic furniture Tom and Jack Musser are bent and bowlegged. Tom's 81-year-old back is permanently out-of-kilter. Jack's 84-year-old joints are a tad awry. These two lifelong cowpunchers are a little too rickety to ride the range or bust broncs anymore. So they have turned to making furniture. It looks a lot like them - rustic and all akimbo, with legs that jut in arthritic angles, arms that crook and backs and tops not even remotely in plum. None of their furniture is like anything anyone would learn to make in a how-to class at Home Depot or buy at the local Furniture Mart. And that's what has caught the eye of ritzy mountain mansion owners and appreciative cabin dwellers, who snap up the Musser brothers' one-of-a-kind pieces almost as fast as they make them. To buyers, the Mussers' creations are folk art - treasured Americana...On The Edge Of Common Sense - Baxterizing: Misinterpreting something obvious Once these changes were made, then we could redistribute the amount of federal lands equally across the 48 states. Which, according to Statistical Abstract, would be 28 percent per state. In Ohio, for instance, under the Federal Lands Equality Act, eminent domain would be inflicted on everything north of Lima. Displaced residents would have six months to leave, then gray wolves, grizzly bears, Florida panthers, spotted owls, condors and snail darter minnows would be reintroduced. In Massachusetts, all the land west of Boston would be reclaimed and turned into a Buffalo Commons. Nevada, which before the new gerrymandering was 83 percent federally owned, would open up private land for homesteaders from states unaccustomed to living under the thumb of the federal government...
Permalink
MAD COW NEWS
One-Fourth Of Americans Doubt Beef's Safety A new poll finds the mad cow scare has one out of four Americans doubting the safety of the nation's beef supply. But two-thirds say they think the beef supply is safe, according to the CNN-Time poll. And three-fourths think the beef they buy at their local stores is safe. Sixty-three percent said they eat the same amount of red meat as always. About a fourth in the poll said they had quit eating red meat or reduced their consumption of it because of the mad cow case. Nine percent said they didn't eat red meat before the announcement and don't eat it now. Exporters worry beef will spoil during ban U.S. beef exporters say the clock is ticking. Bans on U.S. beef imports have stalled some container traffic at West Coast ports and threatened delivery of millions of dollars of Asia-bound beef. The U.S. Meat Export Federation, a nonprofit trade association based in Denver, estimates that as many as 2,000 containers filled with $200 million worth of banned beef are either en route or held up at customs facilities in foreign ports. The containers are refrigerated, keeping the beef either fresh-chilled or frozen. The cold temperatures eliminate the threat of immediate spoilage, but a prolonged ban could mean the loss of tons of meat and millions of dollars...Experts: Don't blame mad cow on trade The dairy cow in Washington state found to have BSE, or mad cow disease, should not be blamed on expanded trade between Canada and the United States, dairy industry officials say. The Washington state cow is believed by investigators to have been born in Canada. About 50,000 head of dairy animals enter the United States from Canada each year. Total cattle imports from Canada had reached 1.7 million head before trade was stopped in May after an Alberta cow was found to have the disease, said Don Ault, a St. Paul-based dairy economist for Sparks Cos. Of Canadian dairy cattle, several thousand animals represent high-quality breeding stock from top-flight dairy and breeding farms that are not likely to be a health risk to any American herds, said Ed Jesse, dairy economist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. And even lesser-quality animals, which might include the Holstein dairy cow most recently diagnosed with BSE, are more an accident of government dairy policies than trade measures involving beef or other industries, said a spokesman for the National Milk Producers Federation in Washington, D.C. "Canada has milk production quotas," said Chris Galen, the dairy group's vice president of communications. "Cows and heifers that can't be used on Canadian farms are sold, and some come here."...Jumble of Tests May Slow Mad Cow Solution he nation's first case of mad cow disease has led to urgent calls for more and better tests to screen animals at the slaughterhouse door. But the universe of testing for this elusive disease is murky. The extent and nature of testing varies from country to country. The tests are not foolproof, and there are many to choose from in a heated international competition. The leading test manufacturers are Bio-Rad based in France, Prionics AG in Switzerland and U.S. Abbott Laboratories, which recently acquired rights to a test developed in Ireland. But in addition, at least 54 other companies are vying for position in the lucrative world testing market...Attention Shoppers: Sale On Beef Low-carb dieters may find cause to rejoice in the mad cow scare. The industry expects beef prices to drop 15 percent in the coming weeks because almost every country in the world now refuses to buy U.S. meat. Exports were nearly 10 percent of the market--about 2.7 billion pounds of red meat annually--all of which will now be swelling supplies headed for American supermarkets and restaurants. Prices could plummet further if U.S. consumers begin to turn up their noses at beef. But so far, Americans appear to be maintaining their renewed love affair with steaks and burgers. Although no figures are yet available, fast-food chains, upscale restaurants, and grocery stores all report no falloff in beef sales, which amount to $70 billion annually...Livestock sale postponed, partly because of mad cow fallout A large cattle sale planned Tuesday at Montana's largest livestock auction has been postponed, partly because of market uncertainty following discovery of a Washington state dairy cow infected with mad cow disease. The sale of an estimated 2,000 head of stock cows and bred heifers at the Public Auction Yards here will be rescheduled later this month, said sale manager Bob Cook. He said there also were factors other than mad cow: A number of consignors were snowed in and the number of stock cows sold nationally in December, before the mad cow disclosure just before Christmas Day, was higher than usual...Protestors Mad About Mad Cow Disease An animal rights group is urging Kentuckians to become vegetarians following the nation's first case of mad cow disease. Members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals plan to pass out free vegetarian starter kits SAturday afternoon outside Horseshoe Saloon and Steakhouse on North Broadway in Lexington. The kits include a pamphlet of recipes and advice for changing one's diet. The event is part of the group's national ad campaign...Border reopening hopes dashed Hopes that the American border would reopen soon to Canadian cattle dimmed Friday when U.S. officials signalled the recent confirmation of a first mad cow case south of the border could delay resumption of trade. The revelation further blackened the mood for the Canadian cattle industry, transforming optimism for a buoyant market next week into another anxious game of wait-and-see...Stores with tainted beef won't be identified, federal officials say Federal officials said Friday they will not tell consumers which California stores sold beef from a cow infected with mad cow disease. The U.S. Department of Agriculture had announced some of the beef, which officials say poses little human risk, had been shipped from the Pacific Northwest to California. Officials have not said what part of the state received the meat, or which stores sold it...Mad Cow Variant That Hits Humans Is a Puzzle Charlene is the only person in the United States confirmed to have the human form of mad cow disease, in which a misshapen infectious protein inexorably erodes the brain. She is believed to have contracted the insidious disease by eating infected beef during her first 13 years of life, when her family was living in Britain. Charlene's story is the kind of tragedy that the United States is desperately trying to avoid after the discovery of the first U.S. cow carrying the infection. "I'm terrified that this is going to happen again. It's like being in the U.K. again, watching this all over again," Patrick said. "I'm worried that people may be eating beef that is contaminated and that down the road people are going to start to die from this disease."...Despite case, U.S. could claim mad cow-free status Despite discovery of its first case of mad cow disease, the United States could still claim to be free of the ailment, experts say -- an approach that a consumer group says would be a mistake. The designation would hinge on whether the infected cow was imported, as early evidence suggests. Scientists are expected to report early next week if the infected Holstein milk cow in Washington state was born in Canada, based on two separate DNA tests. "We have the opportunity to preserve our export market," said Michael Stumo of the Organization for Competitive Markets, a group that supports small farmers. It wants the Bush administration to declare the United States "provisionally free" of mad cow, also called bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Standards set by the World Organization for Animal Health say a nation can be classified as provisionally free of mad cow when the disease is found in imported cattle and authorities are diligent in rooting it out and in maintaining safeguards...Australia to Slaughter 350 Cows From U.S. The Australian government plans to ask ranchers to slaughter 350 cows imported from the United States to prevent the spread of mad cow disease, a newspaper reported Saturday. Animal Health Australia, a government-affiliated agency, said owners of the cattle would be compensated for turning over the cows for slaughter, the Sydney Morning Herald reported...Cattle futures going up Cattle futures in Chicago rose for the first time since the U.S. reported its first case of mad cow disease amid signs that Americans aren't eating less beef following the disclosure. U.S. beef sales weren't affected much in the first several days after the Dec. 23 mad cow report, according to Cattle-Fax, a national market research firm based near Denver. Cattle futures plunged 19 percent in the first five sessions after the announcement as beef exports stopped. Cattle for February delivery rose 0.275 cent, or 0.4 percent, to 73.8 cents a pound on the Chicago Mer cantile Exchange. Prices on Wednesday fell less than the market limit for the first time in five sessions. There was no trading yesterday because of the New Year's holiday...Pet food ingredients under scrutiny in wake of mad cow After the discovery of the nation's first case of mad cow disease, Suzanne Tibbetts is looking at the pet food labels in her cupboard a little more closely. She wants to know exactly what "meat byproducts" are, and what risks, if any, they pose for her cats -- animals susceptible to a form of the fatal brain-wasting illness...Hide industry hit by mad cow scare All the ripple effects from mad cow disease haven't hit hard yet, but everyone from New York leather wholesalers to Seattle shippers is worrying that it may tenderize their profits. Containers of domestically produced cattle hides that would normally be made into leather coats, pants and shoes are gathering dust at Pacific Northwest ports. The situation heightens concern as each day passes. "I know it's devastating to the beef and hide industry, and it affects us as well," said Dianne Gunn, national logistics manager for Hyundai Merchant Marine, based in Dallas. Hyundai ships several hundred containers of beef hides a week to Korea through the ports of Tacoma and Long Beach, Calif. Containers that arrived on Korean docks are being held until government officials rule on their fate, she said. Another 30 containers that haven't left U.S. ports are being held at Hyundai's terminals. Gunn said five of those are at the Port of Tacoma. And Hyundai isn't the only company holding up hides...Cow disease hinders Tyson Foods Until late last month, it appeared that the $2.8 billion bet Tyson Foods Inc. made on beef was paying off in spades. The longtime chicken purveyor had perfectly timed America's renewed love affair with beef by acquiring IBP Inc., the biggest meatpacker, in 2001. Profits from those cattle-slaughtering plants were rolling into Tyson coffers. But in the wake of the discovery of the first U.S. case of mad-cow disease, that gamble suddenly looks risky. The single case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, in a Holstein that U.S. investigators believe originated in Canada already has shut down crucial foreign markets for Tyson beef. Very likely the discovery will increase Tyson's cost of doing business. No American company has more at stake in the mad-cow calamity than Tyson, which controls 27 percent of the domestic beef market. Tyson recently began slapping its famous name on hundreds of beef products after an expensive two-year effort to replicate its value-added strategy for chicken items...Medical procedures could spread mad cow disease, expert warns: Blood transfusions, surgical instruments could transmit the disease It's too soon to rule out a new wave of mad cow disease in humans, echoing the 1990s British epidemic, but this time transmitted by medical procedures instead of bad meat, says one of Canada's top mad cow experts. As officials scramble to confirm whether an Alberta farm is the source of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease, Britain continues to investigate the death of a patient who died from the human form of the fatal brain infection after receiving blood from an infected donor...Mad cow testing questioned by disease experts Testing more cattle for mad cow disease may not necessarily weed out more infected animals, two leading experts on animal brain diseases say. Beth Williams, a University of Wyoming professor and chronic wasting disease expert, said additional testing is also not an effective use of public health resources. Williams said she believes that the U.S. Department of Agriculture already appropriately tests for mad cow disease, using targeted surveillance to draw blood from cattle that show signs of the disease such as poor coordination, fever and weakness. "If you want to find something that's pretty rare in the cow population, you look for the animals that are most likely to have that disease," she said. Another leading veterinarian agreed that more testing may not find more mad cow disease but said it could improve public perception of the U.S. meat supply both domestically and abroad...Technology, BSE alter ranchers' thinking Cattle ranching is becoming a brave new world. It's not unusual to see a Montana cattleman recording herd notes in a digital Palm Pilot, instead of a spiral-bound notebook. About 20,000 livestock animals here already wear electronic ear tags, and ranchers are beginning to debate the merits of embedding microchip identification tags into their animals. "Life is changing out there," said Steve Pilcher, executive vice president of the Montana Stockgrowers Association. "Modern technology is slow to come to our industry, but it is making itself known." Modern times - and Montana's recent mad cow scare - are finding the state's industry leaders in surprising support of an electronic, national cattle identification system...Beef scare has folks boning up on bison Buffalo . . . it's what's for dinner? Some consumers with a hankering for red meat are looking for alternatives to beef after the recent report of the nation's first case of mad cow disease. Many are turning to buffalo...U.S. meat for Yukon Quest sled dogs banned by Canada due to mad cow U.S. beef, pork and chicken products destined for dogs in an international sled-dog race will not be allowed across the Canadian border because of fears about mad cow disease. Organizers of the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race this week notified mushers Canada will not allow dog food containing the meat products to cross the border because of health concerns. The notice came as many mushers were working to meet a Jan. 23 deadline for having food ready to be delivered to drop points along the 1,600-kilometre course from Fairbanks to Whitehorse...
Permalink
One-Fourth Of Americans Doubt Beef's Safety A new poll finds the mad cow scare has one out of four Americans doubting the safety of the nation's beef supply. But two-thirds say they think the beef supply is safe, according to the CNN-Time poll. And three-fourths think the beef they buy at their local stores is safe. Sixty-three percent said they eat the same amount of red meat as always. About a fourth in the poll said they had quit eating red meat or reduced their consumption of it because of the mad cow case. Nine percent said they didn't eat red meat before the announcement and don't eat it now. Exporters worry beef will spoil during ban U.S. beef exporters say the clock is ticking. Bans on U.S. beef imports have stalled some container traffic at West Coast ports and threatened delivery of millions of dollars of Asia-bound beef. The U.S. Meat Export Federation, a nonprofit trade association based in Denver, estimates that as many as 2,000 containers filled with $200 million worth of banned beef are either en route or held up at customs facilities in foreign ports. The containers are refrigerated, keeping the beef either fresh-chilled or frozen. The cold temperatures eliminate the threat of immediate spoilage, but a prolonged ban could mean the loss of tons of meat and millions of dollars...Experts: Don't blame mad cow on trade The dairy cow in Washington state found to have BSE, or mad cow disease, should not be blamed on expanded trade between Canada and the United States, dairy industry officials say. The Washington state cow is believed by investigators to have been born in Canada. About 50,000 head of dairy animals enter the United States from Canada each year. Total cattle imports from Canada had reached 1.7 million head before trade was stopped in May after an Alberta cow was found to have the disease, said Don Ault, a St. Paul-based dairy economist for Sparks Cos. Of Canadian dairy cattle, several thousand animals represent high-quality breeding stock from top-flight dairy and breeding farms that are not likely to be a health risk to any American herds, said Ed Jesse, dairy economist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. And even lesser-quality animals, which might include the Holstein dairy cow most recently diagnosed with BSE, are more an accident of government dairy policies than trade measures involving beef or other industries, said a spokesman for the National Milk Producers Federation in Washington, D.C. "Canada has milk production quotas," said Chris Galen, the dairy group's vice president of communications. "Cows and heifers that can't be used on Canadian farms are sold, and some come here."...Jumble of Tests May Slow Mad Cow Solution he nation's first case of mad cow disease has led to urgent calls for more and better tests to screen animals at the slaughterhouse door. But the universe of testing for this elusive disease is murky. The extent and nature of testing varies from country to country. The tests are not foolproof, and there are many to choose from in a heated international competition. The leading test manufacturers are Bio-Rad based in France, Prionics AG in Switzerland and U.S. Abbott Laboratories, which recently acquired rights to a test developed in Ireland. But in addition, at least 54 other companies are vying for position in the lucrative world testing market...Attention Shoppers: Sale On Beef Low-carb dieters may find cause to rejoice in the mad cow scare. The industry expects beef prices to drop 15 percent in the coming weeks because almost every country in the world now refuses to buy U.S. meat. Exports were nearly 10 percent of the market--about 2.7 billion pounds of red meat annually--all of which will now be swelling supplies headed for American supermarkets and restaurants. Prices could plummet further if U.S. consumers begin to turn up their noses at beef. But so far, Americans appear to be maintaining their renewed love affair with steaks and burgers. Although no figures are yet available, fast-food chains, upscale restaurants, and grocery stores all report no falloff in beef sales, which amount to $70 billion annually...Livestock sale postponed, partly because of mad cow fallout A large cattle sale planned Tuesday at Montana's largest livestock auction has been postponed, partly because of market uncertainty following discovery of a Washington state dairy cow infected with mad cow disease. The sale of an estimated 2,000 head of stock cows and bred heifers at the Public Auction Yards here will be rescheduled later this month, said sale manager Bob Cook. He said there also were factors other than mad cow: A number of consignors were snowed in and the number of stock cows sold nationally in December, before the mad cow disclosure just before Christmas Day, was higher than usual...Protestors Mad About Mad Cow Disease An animal rights group is urging Kentuckians to become vegetarians following the nation's first case of mad cow disease. Members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals plan to pass out free vegetarian starter kits SAturday afternoon outside Horseshoe Saloon and Steakhouse on North Broadway in Lexington. The kits include a pamphlet of recipes and advice for changing one's diet. The event is part of the group's national ad campaign...Border reopening hopes dashed Hopes that the American border would reopen soon to Canadian cattle dimmed Friday when U.S. officials signalled the recent confirmation of a first mad cow case south of the border could delay resumption of trade. The revelation further blackened the mood for the Canadian cattle industry, transforming optimism for a buoyant market next week into another anxious game of wait-and-see...Stores with tainted beef won't be identified, federal officials say Federal officials said Friday they will not tell consumers which California stores sold beef from a cow infected with mad cow disease. The U.S. Department of Agriculture had announced some of the beef, which officials say poses little human risk, had been shipped from the Pacific Northwest to California. Officials have not said what part of the state received the meat, or which stores sold it...Mad Cow Variant That Hits Humans Is a Puzzle Charlene is the only person in the United States confirmed to have the human form of mad cow disease, in which a misshapen infectious protein inexorably erodes the brain. She is believed to have contracted the insidious disease by eating infected beef during her first 13 years of life, when her family was living in Britain. Charlene's story is the kind of tragedy that the United States is desperately trying to avoid after the discovery of the first U.S. cow carrying the infection. "I'm terrified that this is going to happen again. It's like being in the U.K. again, watching this all over again," Patrick said. "I'm worried that people may be eating beef that is contaminated and that down the road people are going to start to die from this disease."...Despite case, U.S. could claim mad cow-free status Despite discovery of its first case of mad cow disease, the United States could still claim to be free of the ailment, experts say -- an approach that a consumer group says would be a mistake. The designation would hinge on whether the infected cow was imported, as early evidence suggests. Scientists are expected to report early next week if the infected Holstein milk cow in Washington state was born in Canada, based on two separate DNA tests. "We have the opportunity to preserve our export market," said Michael Stumo of the Organization for Competitive Markets, a group that supports small farmers. It wants the Bush administration to declare the United States "provisionally free" of mad cow, also called bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Standards set by the World Organization for Animal Health say a nation can be classified as provisionally free of mad cow when the disease is found in imported cattle and authorities are diligent in rooting it out and in maintaining safeguards...Australia to Slaughter 350 Cows From U.S. The Australian government plans to ask ranchers to slaughter 350 cows imported from the United States to prevent the spread of mad cow disease, a newspaper reported Saturday. Animal Health Australia, a government-affiliated agency, said owners of the cattle would be compensated for turning over the cows for slaughter, the Sydney Morning Herald reported...Cattle futures going up Cattle futures in Chicago rose for the first time since the U.S. reported its first case of mad cow disease amid signs that Americans aren't eating less beef following the disclosure. U.S. beef sales weren't affected much in the first several days after the Dec. 23 mad cow report, according to Cattle-Fax, a national market research firm based near Denver. Cattle futures plunged 19 percent in the first five sessions after the announcement as beef exports stopped. Cattle for February delivery rose 0.275 cent, or 0.4 percent, to 73.8 cents a pound on the Chicago Mer cantile Exchange. Prices on Wednesday fell less than the market limit for the first time in five sessions. There was no trading yesterday because of the New Year's holiday...Pet food ingredients under scrutiny in wake of mad cow After the discovery of the nation's first case of mad cow disease, Suzanne Tibbetts is looking at the pet food labels in her cupboard a little more closely. She wants to know exactly what "meat byproducts" are, and what risks, if any, they pose for her cats -- animals susceptible to a form of the fatal brain-wasting illness...Hide industry hit by mad cow scare All the ripple effects from mad cow disease haven't hit hard yet, but everyone from New York leather wholesalers to Seattle shippers is worrying that it may tenderize their profits. Containers of domestically produced cattle hides that would normally be made into leather coats, pants and shoes are gathering dust at Pacific Northwest ports. The situation heightens concern as each day passes. "I know it's devastating to the beef and hide industry, and it affects us as well," said Dianne Gunn, national logistics manager for Hyundai Merchant Marine, based in Dallas. Hyundai ships several hundred containers of beef hides a week to Korea through the ports of Tacoma and Long Beach, Calif. Containers that arrived on Korean docks are being held until government officials rule on their fate, she said. Another 30 containers that haven't left U.S. ports are being held at Hyundai's terminals. Gunn said five of those are at the Port of Tacoma. And Hyundai isn't the only company holding up hides...Cow disease hinders Tyson Foods Until late last month, it appeared that the $2.8 billion bet Tyson Foods Inc. made on beef was paying off in spades. The longtime chicken purveyor had perfectly timed America's renewed love affair with beef by acquiring IBP Inc., the biggest meatpacker, in 2001. Profits from those cattle-slaughtering plants were rolling into Tyson coffers. But in the wake of the discovery of the first U.S. case of mad-cow disease, that gamble suddenly looks risky. The single case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, in a Holstein that U.S. investigators believe originated in Canada already has shut down crucial foreign markets for Tyson beef. Very likely the discovery will increase Tyson's cost of doing business. No American company has more at stake in the mad-cow calamity than Tyson, which controls 27 percent of the domestic beef market. Tyson recently began slapping its famous name on hundreds of beef products after an expensive two-year effort to replicate its value-added strategy for chicken items...Medical procedures could spread mad cow disease, expert warns: Blood transfusions, surgical instruments could transmit the disease It's too soon to rule out a new wave of mad cow disease in humans, echoing the 1990s British epidemic, but this time transmitted by medical procedures instead of bad meat, says one of Canada's top mad cow experts. As officials scramble to confirm whether an Alberta farm is the source of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease, Britain continues to investigate the death of a patient who died from the human form of the fatal brain infection after receiving blood from an infected donor...Mad cow testing questioned by disease experts Testing more cattle for mad cow disease may not necessarily weed out more infected animals, two leading experts on animal brain diseases say. Beth Williams, a University of Wyoming professor and chronic wasting disease expert, said additional testing is also not an effective use of public health resources. Williams said she believes that the U.S. Department of Agriculture already appropriately tests for mad cow disease, using targeted surveillance to draw blood from cattle that show signs of the disease such as poor coordination, fever and weakness. "If you want to find something that's pretty rare in the cow population, you look for the animals that are most likely to have that disease," she said. Another leading veterinarian agreed that more testing may not find more mad cow disease but said it could improve public perception of the U.S. meat supply both domestically and abroad...Technology, BSE alter ranchers' thinking Cattle ranching is becoming a brave new world. It's not unusual to see a Montana cattleman recording herd notes in a digital Palm Pilot, instead of a spiral-bound notebook. About 20,000 livestock animals here already wear electronic ear tags, and ranchers are beginning to debate the merits of embedding microchip identification tags into their animals. "Life is changing out there," said Steve Pilcher, executive vice president of the Montana Stockgrowers Association. "Modern technology is slow to come to our industry, but it is making itself known." Modern times - and Montana's recent mad cow scare - are finding the state's industry leaders in surprising support of an electronic, national cattle identification system...Beef scare has folks boning up on bison Buffalo . . . it's what's for dinner? Some consumers with a hankering for red meat are looking for alternatives to beef after the recent report of the nation's first case of mad cow disease. Many are turning to buffalo...U.S. meat for Yukon Quest sled dogs banned by Canada due to mad cow U.S. beef, pork and chicken products destined for dogs in an international sled-dog race will not be allowed across the Canadian border because of fears about mad cow disease. Organizers of the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race this week notified mushers Canada will not allow dog food containing the meat products to cross the border because of health concerns. The notice came as many mushers were working to meet a Jan. 23 deadline for having food ready to be delivered to drop points along the 1,600-kilometre course from Fairbanks to Whitehorse...
Permalink
Friday, January 02, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Environmental hazards of cattle vex the industry Despite all the current worries about mad cow disease, California's cattle industry faces other problems that may turn out to be far more vexing in the long run than exotic infections and trade embargoes. Long-standing questions about the environmental hazards associated with cattle husbandry are far more likely to linger, industry experts say. And while the prospects for mad cow disease seem frightening enough, the real flashpoints for years to come are apt to revolve around more mundane matters, such as the effects of beef cattle on rangeland and dairy cattle on waterways...Pushing the boundaries: Ski industry officials could face fewer environmental restrictions The ski industry is taking advantage of a pro-business, anti-regulatory climate in Washington, D.C. by asking the U.S. Forest Service to consider establishing new categorical exclusions for certain on-mountain activities. Additionally, the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) and some select resorts will have a seat at the table when the federal Council on Environmental Quality meets to discuss reforms to the way the National Environmental Policy Act is administered. In effect, said some environmental watchdogs, the ski industry is trying to rewrite the rules under which its activities on public lands are governed. And that doesn't sit well with some activists, who charge that private interests have already achieved an unprecedented level of influence in the public domain...The fight for the rights: USFS, ski industry wrangle over water rights The U.S. Forest Service and the ski industry may soon resolve a long-standing dispute over water rights, an issue that became one of the most contentious elements of the White River National Forest plan revision process. Under the special use permits governing the lease and operation of ski areas on public land, resorts are currently required to transfer new water rights to the federal government or apply for those rights in the name of the United States, according to Geraldine Link, policy director for the National Ski Areas Association. But over the course of many years, the ski industry has raised the issue of unlawful takings, says Ken Karkula, Washington, D.C.-based winter sports program manager for the Forest Service. "The Forest Service is working with the appropriate legal folks -- just trying to find the right words to put in the permit," Karkula says. There would be no public input process for the change, since it only involves rewriting the wording of the permits in question, according to Karkula...Condor release runs into a torrent of bad luck Efforts to release six California condors at Pinnacles National Monument in San Benito County have run into a torrent of bad luck, most of it caused by relentless rain. Four of the endangered birds either won't, or can't, leave their pen because of the bad weather. One that flew free on Dec. 20 was recaptured by scientists when it spent too much time near the ground, putting it at risk from attack by a coyote or another predator. The sixth has flown away from the 24,000-acre national park, was lost for several days, and is now sitting in a tree on a private ranch...Federal court bans fish hatchery in wilderness area A federal appeals court has ordered a halt to a long-running salmon stocking program on the Kenai Peninsula, calling it an improper commercial activity inside a wilderness area. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned two earlier decisions Tuesday, ruling that the project at Tustumena Lake to help commercial fishing is barred inside wilderness areas of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. "There is no exception given for commercial enterprise in wilderness when it has benign purpose and minimally intrusive impact," the court ruled...Earthjustice Sues BLM over Illegal Meetings with Industry Representatives in New Mexico Earthjustice filed a lawsuit in New Mexico federal court today challenging a secret meeting of an advisory committee to the Bureau of Land Management made up of gas and oil industry representatives scheduled for January 8, 2004. The advisory committee was explicitly asked to provide advice to the BLM by the New Mexico State Director. The committee has not made these meetings open to public participation as required by Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA)...DOI: New Grazing Rules Good for Long Term The Bureau of Land Management said in its draft environmental impact statement that some rangeland health might suffer initially during the transition to new rules. This could happen because the agency would have two years instead of one to make decisions and some of the changes would be phased in over five years, the bureau said. But in the long-term, BLM said, "better and more sustainable grazing decisions would be the outcome ... and result in long-term positive effects on rangeland."...For more details, click here to view the BLM press release...Study: Residents oppose wilderness designations The results of a land use study indicate the majority of Moffat County residents favor multiple uses of federal land, and agree that federal land should not receive wilderness designations. The study -- conducted by Donald McLeod, associate professor of agriculture and applied economics at the University of Wyoming, and written by Andrew Seidl, associate professor of agriculture and resource economics at Colorado State University -- was based on a questionnaire sent to 2,800 individuals who either own land or live in Moffat County...E.P.A. to Study Use of Waste From Sewage as Fertilizer he Environmental Protection Agency will sponsor a series of scientific and public health studies on the safety of using sewage sludge as fertilizer, including nationwide chemical tests and building a human health complaint database. The studies, in combination with the agency's announcement on Wednesday that it will more closely regulate 15 chemicals found in sewage sludge fertilizer, are part of the agency's efforts to address public concerns about an agricultural practice that has grown rapidly around the country over the last decade. The announcements also reflect the agency's shifting public stance toward the practice. Currently, 54 percent of the six million tons of sewage sludge generated every year is processed, rechristened as biosolids and used as fertilizer -- more sludge than is disposed of through incineration and landfill combined...Arsenic ban to hit homeowners' wallets Arsenic kept fungus and termites off decks, docks and playground sets for five decades. Now a ban on wood treated with the chemical soon will cost those Tim Allen-types a bit more green. Starting this year, the timber industry will stop making lumber treated with an arsenic-based compound for most uses around the house. As a result, homeowners will pay another 10 percent to 30 percent for wood to build decks, picnic tables, gazebos, fences, patios, walkways and playground sets...Water users' fish die-off reports to be used in trial Upper Klamath Basin irrigators have made public a pair of reports that they believe shed new light on a fish die-off in the lower Klamath River last year. The reports offer evidence that releasing more water from the Upper Klamath Basin would not have prevented the die-off that claimed an estimated 34,000 fish, including mostly chinook salmon. The Klamath Water Users Association, which funded a study by fishery biologist David Vogel, hopes his reports will play a key role in an upcoming court trial aimed at determining the cause of the fish kill that occurred in September 2002...State toughens farm trespass laws Animal rights activists are sneaking into barns to snap photos of penned-up pigs, freeing chickens from cages and vandalizing farm equipment. In response, farm groups and rural law enforcement agencies launched a massive lobbying effort this year to push a bill through the Legislature to strengthen trespassing laws on farms and ranches. They did it in the name of homeland security...Western Music Awakening The spacious, posh confines of the new Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts held a capacity crowd as Michael Martin Murphey's Cowboy Songs cut loose, an innovative and stylish stage production of modern dance routines backed by classic cowboy tunes performed by Murphey and his band. Earning rave reviews, Cowboy Songs received accolades as something "exuberant," "rousing," and "saucy." "Cowboy Songs did the cowboy culture proud with a bang-up show that left you cryin' for more," observed the Dallas Morning News. "You knew it was good when the shrieks and whistles poured forth. The excitement was not just for the dancers. They were fabulous, but so was the music by guest artist Michael Martin Murphey and the Rio Grande Band." Murphey himself seemed elated afterwards as he signed autographs in the lobby. He has performed the program in a handful of venues, including the magnificent Bass Hall in Fort Worth. But Murphey's latest coup is just one of a growing number of breakthroughs in a field "Western music "that shows signs of taking off. Red Steagall's Cowboy Gathering, held annually in Fort Worth, attracted huge crowds in October. Other shows report upswings in attendance. And on the music front there is a crop of fresh faces who are making people stop and listen...
Permalink
Environmental hazards of cattle vex the industry Despite all the current worries about mad cow disease, California's cattle industry faces other problems that may turn out to be far more vexing in the long run than exotic infections and trade embargoes. Long-standing questions about the environmental hazards associated with cattle husbandry are far more likely to linger, industry experts say. And while the prospects for mad cow disease seem frightening enough, the real flashpoints for years to come are apt to revolve around more mundane matters, such as the effects of beef cattle on rangeland and dairy cattle on waterways...Pushing the boundaries: Ski industry officials could face fewer environmental restrictions The ski industry is taking advantage of a pro-business, anti-regulatory climate in Washington, D.C. by asking the U.S. Forest Service to consider establishing new categorical exclusions for certain on-mountain activities. Additionally, the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) and some select resorts will have a seat at the table when the federal Council on Environmental Quality meets to discuss reforms to the way the National Environmental Policy Act is administered. In effect, said some environmental watchdogs, the ski industry is trying to rewrite the rules under which its activities on public lands are governed. And that doesn't sit well with some activists, who charge that private interests have already achieved an unprecedented level of influence in the public domain...The fight for the rights: USFS, ski industry wrangle over water rights The U.S. Forest Service and the ski industry may soon resolve a long-standing dispute over water rights, an issue that became one of the most contentious elements of the White River National Forest plan revision process. Under the special use permits governing the lease and operation of ski areas on public land, resorts are currently required to transfer new water rights to the federal government or apply for those rights in the name of the United States, according to Geraldine Link, policy director for the National Ski Areas Association. But over the course of many years, the ski industry has raised the issue of unlawful takings, says Ken Karkula, Washington, D.C.-based winter sports program manager for the Forest Service. "The Forest Service is working with the appropriate legal folks -- just trying to find the right words to put in the permit," Karkula says. There would be no public input process for the change, since it only involves rewriting the wording of the permits in question, according to Karkula...Condor release runs into a torrent of bad luck Efforts to release six California condors at Pinnacles National Monument in San Benito County have run into a torrent of bad luck, most of it caused by relentless rain. Four of the endangered birds either won't, or can't, leave their pen because of the bad weather. One that flew free on Dec. 20 was recaptured by scientists when it spent too much time near the ground, putting it at risk from attack by a coyote or another predator. The sixth has flown away from the 24,000-acre national park, was lost for several days, and is now sitting in a tree on a private ranch...Federal court bans fish hatchery in wilderness area A federal appeals court has ordered a halt to a long-running salmon stocking program on the Kenai Peninsula, calling it an improper commercial activity inside a wilderness area. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned two earlier decisions Tuesday, ruling that the project at Tustumena Lake to help commercial fishing is barred inside wilderness areas of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. "There is no exception given for commercial enterprise in wilderness when it has benign purpose and minimally intrusive impact," the court ruled...Earthjustice Sues BLM over Illegal Meetings with Industry Representatives in New Mexico Earthjustice filed a lawsuit in New Mexico federal court today challenging a secret meeting of an advisory committee to the Bureau of Land Management made up of gas and oil industry representatives scheduled for January 8, 2004. The advisory committee was explicitly asked to provide advice to the BLM by the New Mexico State Director. The committee has not made these meetings open to public participation as required by Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA)...DOI: New Grazing Rules Good for Long Term The Bureau of Land Management said in its draft environmental impact statement that some rangeland health might suffer initially during the transition to new rules. This could happen because the agency would have two years instead of one to make decisions and some of the changes would be phased in over five years, the bureau said. But in the long-term, BLM said, "better and more sustainable grazing decisions would be the outcome ... and result in long-term positive effects on rangeland."...For more details, click here to view the BLM press release...Study: Residents oppose wilderness designations The results of a land use study indicate the majority of Moffat County residents favor multiple uses of federal land, and agree that federal land should not receive wilderness designations. The study -- conducted by Donald McLeod, associate professor of agriculture and applied economics at the University of Wyoming, and written by Andrew Seidl, associate professor of agriculture and resource economics at Colorado State University -- was based on a questionnaire sent to 2,800 individuals who either own land or live in Moffat County...E.P.A. to Study Use of Waste From Sewage as Fertilizer he Environmental Protection Agency will sponsor a series of scientific and public health studies on the safety of using sewage sludge as fertilizer, including nationwide chemical tests and building a human health complaint database. The studies, in combination with the agency's announcement on Wednesday that it will more closely regulate 15 chemicals found in sewage sludge fertilizer, are part of the agency's efforts to address public concerns about an agricultural practice that has grown rapidly around the country over the last decade. The announcements also reflect the agency's shifting public stance toward the practice. Currently, 54 percent of the six million tons of sewage sludge generated every year is processed, rechristened as biosolids and used as fertilizer -- more sludge than is disposed of through incineration and landfill combined...Arsenic ban to hit homeowners' wallets Arsenic kept fungus and termites off decks, docks and playground sets for five decades. Now a ban on wood treated with the chemical soon will cost those Tim Allen-types a bit more green. Starting this year, the timber industry will stop making lumber treated with an arsenic-based compound for most uses around the house. As a result, homeowners will pay another 10 percent to 30 percent for wood to build decks, picnic tables, gazebos, fences, patios, walkways and playground sets...Water users' fish die-off reports to be used in trial Upper Klamath Basin irrigators have made public a pair of reports that they believe shed new light on a fish die-off in the lower Klamath River last year. The reports offer evidence that releasing more water from the Upper Klamath Basin would not have prevented the die-off that claimed an estimated 34,000 fish, including mostly chinook salmon. The Klamath Water Users Association, which funded a study by fishery biologist David Vogel, hopes his reports will play a key role in an upcoming court trial aimed at determining the cause of the fish kill that occurred in September 2002...State toughens farm trespass laws Animal rights activists are sneaking into barns to snap photos of penned-up pigs, freeing chickens from cages and vandalizing farm equipment. In response, farm groups and rural law enforcement agencies launched a massive lobbying effort this year to push a bill through the Legislature to strengthen trespassing laws on farms and ranches. They did it in the name of homeland security...Western Music Awakening The spacious, posh confines of the new Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts held a capacity crowd as Michael Martin Murphey's Cowboy Songs cut loose, an innovative and stylish stage production of modern dance routines backed by classic cowboy tunes performed by Murphey and his band. Earning rave reviews, Cowboy Songs received accolades as something "exuberant," "rousing," and "saucy." "Cowboy Songs did the cowboy culture proud with a bang-up show that left you cryin' for more," observed the Dallas Morning News. "You knew it was good when the shrieks and whistles poured forth. The excitement was not just for the dancers. They were fabulous, but so was the music by guest artist Michael Martin Murphey and the Rio Grande Band." Murphey himself seemed elated afterwards as he signed autographs in the lobby. He has performed the program in a handful of venues, including the magnificent Bass Hall in Fort Worth. But Murphey's latest coup is just one of a growing number of breakthroughs in a field "Western music "that shows signs of taking off. Red Steagall's Cowboy Gathering, held annually in Fort Worth, attracted huge crowds in October. Other shows report upswings in attendance. And on the music front there is a crop of fresh faces who are making people stop and listen...
Permalink
MAD COW NEWS
Technical Briefing and Webcast with U.S. Government Officials on BSE Situation
January 2, 2004
MR. ED CURLETT: I'd like to welcome everybody to the BSE situation update for today. Today we'll have Dr. Ron DeHaven, the chief veterinary officer for USDA, making a statement. We also have with us, from the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Stephen Sundlof, to answer questions as needed. And we also have with us Dr. Daniel Engeljohn with the Food Safety and Inspection Service. Again, because of the number of people on the call, particularly the audio bridge, we ask that you keep your questions just to one. And with that, I'll turn it over to Dr. DeHaven.
Thank you, sir.
DR. RON DEHAVEN (USDA): Thank you, Ed. And happy New Year to all of you, and thanks again for joining us.
Well, we did take the day off yesterday from media briefings. Our epidemiological work, of course, did continue. I'm going to provide you the latest information on that as well as some more information about how we are modifying our surveillance program.
First as to the epidemiological investigation, we have now confirmed that 81 of the 82 animals listed on the Canadian health certificate--and that would include the positive animal--entered the United States through the Oroville, Washington port on September 4, 2001. One of those 82 has now been confirmed on the ground at a Mattawa dairy facility operation which is now under state hold order. An inventory of that facility to look for possible additional Canadian animals is continuing, though we don't necessarily expect to find any. And in fact that has been delayed because of bad weather conditions in Mattawa today.
Just to recap where we are in tracing those 82 animals, we now have 11 of them definitively accounted for. One is the indexed positive cow; 9 are those known to be in the indexed herd; one is the animal that I mentioned on the Mattawa dairy operation. But we believe that one may still be in Canada. The whereabouts of the remaining 70 animals is still yet to be confirmed but, again, we have good leads on those, and we will keep you posted on that information as we gather it.
I want to reiterate that our interest in finding these cows is not because BSE can spread from cow to cow but because it's possible that they may have shared a common feed source when they were young, and therefore potentially would have had a common exposure. I think it's important to note, however, that even at the height of the outbreak of the disease in the United Kingdom it was uncommon to have more than just one or two animals in a herd found to be positive.
Also to clarify, we currently have three facilities under state hold orders, as our epidemiological investigation continues. The first is the index herd, that herd from which the positive cow departed immediately before slaughter. The second being a nearby facility that has the indexed cow recently born bull calf, and the third being that dairy operation in Mattawa.
We expect to have our DNA results from the indexed cow by sometime next week, and certainly we will share that information with you after we receive it and have an opportunity to analyze it.
Of course the Canadian laboratory is also running the DNA tests in their laboratory, and we are continuing to work very closely as we work--do our epidemiological work. Indeed, two Canadian epidemiologists are on the ground with us in the United States, and likewise USDA epidemiologists are in Canada.
This work would not be going nearly as well as it has been if we didn't have that close cooperation and partnership. So, again, our many thanks to our Canadian colleagues.
With regard to our surveillance program, given the secretary's announcement to prohibit nonambulatory or downer animals from going into slaughter establishments, a number of you have asked what the means will be in terms of capturing that population in terms of our surveillance program.
As we have discussed previously, we have tested 20,000 animals a year for the past two years, and approximately three-fourths of those animals were nonambulatory animals at slaughter.
Because this particular population of animals will no longer be coming to slaughter plants and no longer be going into the human food chain, we are working with industry representatives to reposition our efforts to collect those samples on the farm, at rendering facilities, and the so-called ‘three-D’--downed, dead, diseased animals--and those plants where those meat products are harvested for animal food and other nonedible purposes.
Of course, some number of those animals will arrive at slaughter and will become nonambulatory at slaughter. We'll continue to work to focus some of our efforts at collecting samples from those animals.
We are certainly committed, and the industry has shown a shared commitment to ensuring that we continue to have a very robust surveillance program for BSE in the United States. We will be working very closely with the rendering and other animal disposal industries as well as other government agencies in the days and weeks to come to ensure that we continue to have access to this particular population of animals which we consider to be those at the highest risk for BSE.
Indeed, on Wednesday of this week we had separate meetings with representatives from the dairy, the feed, and the rendering industries. Today we are hosting an interagency meeting--all-day meeting--at our facility in Riverdale, Maryland. And on Monday there will be an interagency and industry representative meeting to continue to develop our surveillance program.
As we talk about surveillance, and indeed a lot of emphasis is going on modifying our surveillance system to be consistent with the Secretary's announcements, I want to point out that testing in and of itself does not make food any safer. Rather, surveillance testing tells us if, number one, a disease is present and, if it is, what is the prevalence of the disease. The most important food safety measures, the ones that make our U.S. beef safe as it relates to BSE, is removal of the specified risk materials from human food and the AMR requirements. And those are exactly the announcements the Secretary made earlier this week.
Even those actions were taken out of an abundance of caution knowing that we do have, if at all, a very low prevalence of the disease in North America or in the U.S.
With that, since my colleagues from FSIS and FDA have no update announcement to give, let's go to the questions.
And Ed, we can start with the telephone bridge? Okay. So, Operator, the first question from the telephone bridge, please...
.Followed by Q&A with reporters.
Third Cattle Herd Quarantined in Washington The U.S. Agriculture Department has quarantined a third cattle herd in Washington state after finding another cow that came from Canada in a shipment that contained the animal recently found to have the nation's first known case of mad cow disease. W. Ron DeHaven, the USDA's deputy administrator and chief veterinary officer, told reporters today that the dairy farm in Mattawa was quarantined earlier this week when the cow was found. With the discovery of that animal, he said, the government now has located 10 of the 82 cows in the herd that was shipped into Washington in September 2001 and has good leads on many of the others...USDA to keep ban on Canada cattle in place for now The U.S. Agriculture Department said on Friday it would not decide whether to reopen U.S. borders to some Canadian cattle until after the investigation into the first U.S. case of mad cow disease is complete. The United States banned imports of Canadian cattle and beef after a single case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), was found in an Alberta cow last May. But in October, the USDA proposed to resume imports of Canadian cattle under 30 months old. Canadian officials had hoped the United States would reopen its border early in 2004. However, last week's discovery of mad cow disease in a Washington state dairy cow has prompted the USDA to delay work on its proposal. The USDA said the Monday deadline for submitting comments on the proposal would not be extended at this time...U.S. keeping options open on importing Canadian cattle, official says U.S. officials are keeping their options open on banning Canadian cattle from crossing the border following America's first mad cow case. A public comment period on allowing Canadian imports of cattle under 30 months of age was due to close Monday and ranchers have had high hopes for renewed trade. But Dr. Ron DeHaven, U.S. chief veterinarian, said Friday that deadline could be extended or an entirely new rule proposed after a Washington state cow that may have been born in Canada tested positive for the disease last week. "There are several options that . . . are under consideration," DeHaven told a news conference. "We would not make any determination in terms of a final rule without giving all due consideration to the new situation." Canadian Agriculture Minister Bob Speller said this week there's no reason to delay the resumption of trade in live cattle. And Canadian industry leaders played down the significance of DeHaven's statement Friday. Dennis Laycraft of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association said an extension of the ban until the investigation into the American BSE case is complete wouldn't be a surprise...U.S. May Pay Farmers to Test for Mad Cow The U.S. government said on Friday it might pay American farmers to bring in sick or crippled cattle to be tested for mad cow disease, as part of retooling safeguards against the deadly disease. The discovery of mad cow disease in a dairy cow in Mabton, Washington, has halted American beef exports worth an annual $3.2 billion and slashed cattle prices. However, restaurant and grocery chains say U.S. consumer demand for beef has not wavered in the 10 days since the disease was found...Consumer Groups Point to Holes in Cattle Feed Rules U.S. food safety regulators should widen a 1997 ban on feeding cattle parts to other cattle to include blood, gelatin and other exempted materials which could spread mad cow disease, consumer groups said on Friday. The discovery of mad cow disease in a Holstein dairy cow in Washington state has focused new attention on how cattle are raised and slaughtered. Since the Dec. 23 diagnosis of the nation's first case, officials have repeatedly touted the fact that the infected cow was born in April 1997, about four months before the Food and Drug Administration banned the use of cattle remains as an ingredient in feed for other cows. However, in industry guidance documents issued in 1997, the FDA exempted from the ban cattle blood, blood products and gelatin, derived from cattle hoofs. The exemptions thus allow some cattle byproducts to be fed back to cattle. For example, some farms collect the blood of slaughtered cattle and feed it to calves in dehydrated form, said Ronnie Cummins, director of the Organic Consumers Association. This is a cheaper source of protein for calves than milk, he said. The existing feed ban is "not only inadequate but is actually a public health risk," Cummins said...Cattle edge up, grains soar U.S. cattle futures rose for the first time in six sessions Friday after falling about 20 percent on news last week of the first case of the deadly mad cow disease in the United States. At the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, live cattle for February delivery rose 0.275 cent a pound on Friday to 73.800. That contract had closed at 90.675 cents on Dec. 23, before the U.S. Agriculture Department announced that a single Holstein dairy cow in Washington state had mad cow disease. The news has rocked the $27 billion cattle industry, the single largest sector of U.S. agriculture. More than two dozen nations have halted U.S. beef imports, which account for about 10 percent of annual production and $3.2 billion in sales. That backwash of supplies now hangs over the U.S. market. "I think it's going be volatile. I wouldn't say that this is the turn and we are going higher. I think this is more reflecting the volatility," said Jim Robb, economist with the Denver-based Livestock Marketing Information Center...Shippers 'in a tailspin' after ban on U.S. beef Pancost Trucking had been profitably hauling about eight refrigerated containers full of beef each week from Colorado to West Coast ports until the mad cow scare led dozens of countries to ban American beef. Now the Sterling, Colo.-based company is "in a tailspin" because two of its biggest customers, Tyson Foods and Excel, a division of Cargill, have all but halted exports, leaving owner Gerry Schaefer scrambling to find other work for his 20 drivers. "We've been having to run over to Nebraska to get potatoes," Schaefer said. "And we're hauling more pork out of Kansas." Though 90 percent of U.S. beef is sold at home, the overnight collapse of the export business has given companies that transport feed, cattle and beef, as well as some meat processors, plenty to worry about. Shippers and meat industry officials said it is too early to accurately assess the financial impact but that some economic hardship is already trickling down: the cattle trade between barns and feed lots has slowed, the value of slaughter-ready animals has declined and some meat processors have scaled back production enough to necessitate furloughs. Moreover, some $200 million worth of meat and meat products remains in limbo, either at sea, at port or in refrigerated facilities here and abroad, according to industry officials...Column: Why the disease scare may be great for the U.S. food industry and consumers In fact, mad cow disease in the United States may be the best thing to happen to the U.S. food industry and consumers since the invention of refrigeration. It's entirely possible that as a result of the current panic, in 10 years we'll not only look back and find next to no cases of mad cow in humans, but also look around at a better, healthier food supply. Perhaps we'll even have whittled down that appalling deaths-from-bad-food figure. (The obesity epidemic will still be taking a dire heath toll, but that's another story.) Here's why:...Milk group backs national ID program, USDA policy on downer cows The National Milk Producers Federation has announced its support for the additional BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease) risk reduction strategies USDA announced on Tuesday. In particular, NMPF says it believes the rapid deployment of a national animal identification program is essential to providing government regulators and those in the food production sector, with the means of tracing livestock...Dean Criticized in Vermont Mad Cow Case Democratic presidential front-runner Howard Dean blasted President Bush last week for not protecting the U.S. from mad cow disease, saying the report of a single infected cow "raises serious concerns about the ability of this administration to protect the safety of our nation's food supply." But the former Vermont governor was himself accused of dropping the ball on mad cow disease three years ago, when a flock of Vermont sheep was suspected of contracting the deadly affliction. In July 2000, one-time gubernatorial candidate Ruth Ann Dwyer slammed Dean for "not stepping in so far and allowing" the Vermont Health Department to issue a "warning against consuming cheese made from the milk of the sheep."...Mad Cow Meets Bad Bureaucrats On Jan. 25, 2002, the General Accounting Office published a prophetic and scathing report on the FDA's mad-cow performance record. Here are some telling excerpts from the report, entitled, "Mad Cow Disease—Improvements in the Animal Feed Ban and Other Regulatory Areas Would Strengthen U.S. Prevention Efforts."(pdf) While BSE [Mad Cow Disease] has not been found in the United States, federal actions do not sufficiently ensure that all BSE-infected animals or products are kept out or that if BSE were found, it would be detected promptly and not spread to other cattle through animal feed or enter the human food supply. . . .According to FDA 's October 2001 quarterly update that summarized results of feed ban inspections, 364 [animal-feed-manufacturing] firms were out of compliance. In addition, FDA believes that not all firms that should be subject to the ban have been identified and inspected, at least 1,200 or more based on industry estimates. However, we could not verify these data because we found significant flaws in FDA's database, which we discuss later in this report. FDA did not take prompt enforcement action to compel firms to comply with the feed ban. When we began this study, in April 2001, the only enforcement action FDA had taken was to issue two warning letters in 1999...
Permalink
Technical Briefing and Webcast with U.S. Government Officials on BSE Situation
January 2, 2004
MR. ED CURLETT: I'd like to welcome everybody to the BSE situation update for today. Today we'll have Dr. Ron DeHaven, the chief veterinary officer for USDA, making a statement. We also have with us, from the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Stephen Sundlof, to answer questions as needed. And we also have with us Dr. Daniel Engeljohn with the Food Safety and Inspection Service. Again, because of the number of people on the call, particularly the audio bridge, we ask that you keep your questions just to one. And with that, I'll turn it over to Dr. DeHaven.
Thank you, sir.
DR. RON DEHAVEN (USDA): Thank you, Ed. And happy New Year to all of you, and thanks again for joining us.
Well, we did take the day off yesterday from media briefings. Our epidemiological work, of course, did continue. I'm going to provide you the latest information on that as well as some more information about how we are modifying our surveillance program.
First as to the epidemiological investigation, we have now confirmed that 81 of the 82 animals listed on the Canadian health certificate--and that would include the positive animal--entered the United States through the Oroville, Washington port on September 4, 2001. One of those 82 has now been confirmed on the ground at a Mattawa dairy facility operation which is now under state hold order. An inventory of that facility to look for possible additional Canadian animals is continuing, though we don't necessarily expect to find any. And in fact that has been delayed because of bad weather conditions in Mattawa today.
Just to recap where we are in tracing those 82 animals, we now have 11 of them definitively accounted for. One is the indexed positive cow; 9 are those known to be in the indexed herd; one is the animal that I mentioned on the Mattawa dairy operation. But we believe that one may still be in Canada. The whereabouts of the remaining 70 animals is still yet to be confirmed but, again, we have good leads on those, and we will keep you posted on that information as we gather it.
I want to reiterate that our interest in finding these cows is not because BSE can spread from cow to cow but because it's possible that they may have shared a common feed source when they were young, and therefore potentially would have had a common exposure. I think it's important to note, however, that even at the height of the outbreak of the disease in the United Kingdom it was uncommon to have more than just one or two animals in a herd found to be positive.
Also to clarify, we currently have three facilities under state hold orders, as our epidemiological investigation continues. The first is the index herd, that herd from which the positive cow departed immediately before slaughter. The second being a nearby facility that has the indexed cow recently born bull calf, and the third being that dairy operation in Mattawa.
We expect to have our DNA results from the indexed cow by sometime next week, and certainly we will share that information with you after we receive it and have an opportunity to analyze it.
Of course the Canadian laboratory is also running the DNA tests in their laboratory, and we are continuing to work very closely as we work--do our epidemiological work. Indeed, two Canadian epidemiologists are on the ground with us in the United States, and likewise USDA epidemiologists are in Canada.
This work would not be going nearly as well as it has been if we didn't have that close cooperation and partnership. So, again, our many thanks to our Canadian colleagues.
With regard to our surveillance program, given the secretary's announcement to prohibit nonambulatory or downer animals from going into slaughter establishments, a number of you have asked what the means will be in terms of capturing that population in terms of our surveillance program.
As we have discussed previously, we have tested 20,000 animals a year for the past two years, and approximately three-fourths of those animals were nonambulatory animals at slaughter.
Because this particular population of animals will no longer be coming to slaughter plants and no longer be going into the human food chain, we are working with industry representatives to reposition our efforts to collect those samples on the farm, at rendering facilities, and the so-called ‘three-D’--downed, dead, diseased animals--and those plants where those meat products are harvested for animal food and other nonedible purposes.
Of course, some number of those animals will arrive at slaughter and will become nonambulatory at slaughter. We'll continue to work to focus some of our efforts at collecting samples from those animals.
We are certainly committed, and the industry has shown a shared commitment to ensuring that we continue to have a very robust surveillance program for BSE in the United States. We will be working very closely with the rendering and other animal disposal industries as well as other government agencies in the days and weeks to come to ensure that we continue to have access to this particular population of animals which we consider to be those at the highest risk for BSE.
Indeed, on Wednesday of this week we had separate meetings with representatives from the dairy, the feed, and the rendering industries. Today we are hosting an interagency meeting--all-day meeting--at our facility in Riverdale, Maryland. And on Monday there will be an interagency and industry representative meeting to continue to develop our surveillance program.
As we talk about surveillance, and indeed a lot of emphasis is going on modifying our surveillance system to be consistent with the Secretary's announcements, I want to point out that testing in and of itself does not make food any safer. Rather, surveillance testing tells us if, number one, a disease is present and, if it is, what is the prevalence of the disease. The most important food safety measures, the ones that make our U.S. beef safe as it relates to BSE, is removal of the specified risk materials from human food and the AMR requirements. And those are exactly the announcements the Secretary made earlier this week.
Even those actions were taken out of an abundance of caution knowing that we do have, if at all, a very low prevalence of the disease in North America or in the U.S.
With that, since my colleagues from FSIS and FDA have no update announcement to give, let's go to the questions.
And Ed, we can start with the telephone bridge? Okay. So, Operator, the first question from the telephone bridge, please...
.Followed by Q&A with reporters.
Third Cattle Herd Quarantined in Washington The U.S. Agriculture Department has quarantined a third cattle herd in Washington state after finding another cow that came from Canada in a shipment that contained the animal recently found to have the nation's first known case of mad cow disease. W. Ron DeHaven, the USDA's deputy administrator and chief veterinary officer, told reporters today that the dairy farm in Mattawa was quarantined earlier this week when the cow was found. With the discovery of that animal, he said, the government now has located 10 of the 82 cows in the herd that was shipped into Washington in September 2001 and has good leads on many of the others...USDA to keep ban on Canada cattle in place for now The U.S. Agriculture Department said on Friday it would not decide whether to reopen U.S. borders to some Canadian cattle until after the investigation into the first U.S. case of mad cow disease is complete. The United States banned imports of Canadian cattle and beef after a single case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), was found in an Alberta cow last May. But in October, the USDA proposed to resume imports of Canadian cattle under 30 months old. Canadian officials had hoped the United States would reopen its border early in 2004. However, last week's discovery of mad cow disease in a Washington state dairy cow has prompted the USDA to delay work on its proposal. The USDA said the Monday deadline for submitting comments on the proposal would not be extended at this time...U.S. keeping options open on importing Canadian cattle, official says U.S. officials are keeping their options open on banning Canadian cattle from crossing the border following America's first mad cow case. A public comment period on allowing Canadian imports of cattle under 30 months of age was due to close Monday and ranchers have had high hopes for renewed trade. But Dr. Ron DeHaven, U.S. chief veterinarian, said Friday that deadline could be extended or an entirely new rule proposed after a Washington state cow that may have been born in Canada tested positive for the disease last week. "There are several options that . . . are under consideration," DeHaven told a news conference. "We would not make any determination in terms of a final rule without giving all due consideration to the new situation." Canadian Agriculture Minister Bob Speller said this week there's no reason to delay the resumption of trade in live cattle. And Canadian industry leaders played down the significance of DeHaven's statement Friday. Dennis Laycraft of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association said an extension of the ban until the investigation into the American BSE case is complete wouldn't be a surprise...U.S. May Pay Farmers to Test for Mad Cow The U.S. government said on Friday it might pay American farmers to bring in sick or crippled cattle to be tested for mad cow disease, as part of retooling safeguards against the deadly disease. The discovery of mad cow disease in a dairy cow in Mabton, Washington, has halted American beef exports worth an annual $3.2 billion and slashed cattle prices. However, restaurant and grocery chains say U.S. consumer demand for beef has not wavered in the 10 days since the disease was found...Consumer Groups Point to Holes in Cattle Feed Rules U.S. food safety regulators should widen a 1997 ban on feeding cattle parts to other cattle to include blood, gelatin and other exempted materials which could spread mad cow disease, consumer groups said on Friday. The discovery of mad cow disease in a Holstein dairy cow in Washington state has focused new attention on how cattle are raised and slaughtered. Since the Dec. 23 diagnosis of the nation's first case, officials have repeatedly touted the fact that the infected cow was born in April 1997, about four months before the Food and Drug Administration banned the use of cattle remains as an ingredient in feed for other cows. However, in industry guidance documents issued in 1997, the FDA exempted from the ban cattle blood, blood products and gelatin, derived from cattle hoofs. The exemptions thus allow some cattle byproducts to be fed back to cattle. For example, some farms collect the blood of slaughtered cattle and feed it to calves in dehydrated form, said Ronnie Cummins, director of the Organic Consumers Association. This is a cheaper source of protein for calves than milk, he said. The existing feed ban is "not only inadequate but is actually a public health risk," Cummins said...Cattle edge up, grains soar U.S. cattle futures rose for the first time in six sessions Friday after falling about 20 percent on news last week of the first case of the deadly mad cow disease in the United States. At the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, live cattle for February delivery rose 0.275 cent a pound on Friday to 73.800. That contract had closed at 90.675 cents on Dec. 23, before the U.S. Agriculture Department announced that a single Holstein dairy cow in Washington state had mad cow disease. The news has rocked the $27 billion cattle industry, the single largest sector of U.S. agriculture. More than two dozen nations have halted U.S. beef imports, which account for about 10 percent of annual production and $3.2 billion in sales. That backwash of supplies now hangs over the U.S. market. "I think it's going be volatile. I wouldn't say that this is the turn and we are going higher. I think this is more reflecting the volatility," said Jim Robb, economist with the Denver-based Livestock Marketing Information Center...Shippers 'in a tailspin' after ban on U.S. beef Pancost Trucking had been profitably hauling about eight refrigerated containers full of beef each week from Colorado to West Coast ports until the mad cow scare led dozens of countries to ban American beef. Now the Sterling, Colo.-based company is "in a tailspin" because two of its biggest customers, Tyson Foods and Excel, a division of Cargill, have all but halted exports, leaving owner Gerry Schaefer scrambling to find other work for his 20 drivers. "We've been having to run over to Nebraska to get potatoes," Schaefer said. "And we're hauling more pork out of Kansas." Though 90 percent of U.S. beef is sold at home, the overnight collapse of the export business has given companies that transport feed, cattle and beef, as well as some meat processors, plenty to worry about. Shippers and meat industry officials said it is too early to accurately assess the financial impact but that some economic hardship is already trickling down: the cattle trade between barns and feed lots has slowed, the value of slaughter-ready animals has declined and some meat processors have scaled back production enough to necessitate furloughs. Moreover, some $200 million worth of meat and meat products remains in limbo, either at sea, at port or in refrigerated facilities here and abroad, according to industry officials...Column: Why the disease scare may be great for the U.S. food industry and consumers In fact, mad cow disease in the United States may be the best thing to happen to the U.S. food industry and consumers since the invention of refrigeration. It's entirely possible that as a result of the current panic, in 10 years we'll not only look back and find next to no cases of mad cow in humans, but also look around at a better, healthier food supply. Perhaps we'll even have whittled down that appalling deaths-from-bad-food figure. (The obesity epidemic will still be taking a dire heath toll, but that's another story.) Here's why:...Milk group backs national ID program, USDA policy on downer cows The National Milk Producers Federation has announced its support for the additional BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease) risk reduction strategies USDA announced on Tuesday. In particular, NMPF says it believes the rapid deployment of a national animal identification program is essential to providing government regulators and those in the food production sector, with the means of tracing livestock...Dean Criticized in Vermont Mad Cow Case Democratic presidential front-runner Howard Dean blasted President Bush last week for not protecting the U.S. from mad cow disease, saying the report of a single infected cow "raises serious concerns about the ability of this administration to protect the safety of our nation's food supply." But the former Vermont governor was himself accused of dropping the ball on mad cow disease three years ago, when a flock of Vermont sheep was suspected of contracting the deadly affliction. In July 2000, one-time gubernatorial candidate Ruth Ann Dwyer slammed Dean for "not stepping in so far and allowing" the Vermont Health Department to issue a "warning against consuming cheese made from the milk of the sheep."...Mad Cow Meets Bad Bureaucrats On Jan. 25, 2002, the General Accounting Office published a prophetic and scathing report on the FDA's mad-cow performance record. Here are some telling excerpts from the report, entitled, "Mad Cow Disease—Improvements in the Animal Feed Ban and Other Regulatory Areas Would Strengthen U.S. Prevention Efforts."(pdf) While BSE [Mad Cow Disease] has not been found in the United States, federal actions do not sufficiently ensure that all BSE-infected animals or products are kept out or that if BSE were found, it would be detected promptly and not spread to other cattle through animal feed or enter the human food supply. . . .According to FDA 's October 2001 quarterly update that summarized results of feed ban inspections, 364 [animal-feed-manufacturing] firms were out of compliance. In addition, FDA believes that not all firms that should be subject to the ban have been identified and inspected, at least 1,200 or more based on industry estimates. However, we could not verify these data because we found significant flaws in FDA's database, which we discuss later in this report. FDA did not take prompt enforcement action to compel firms to comply with the feed ban. When we began this study, in April 2001, the only enforcement action FDA had taken was to issue two warning letters in 1999...
Permalink
MAD COW NEWS
Meat inspectors seize huge haul of US beef China has confiscated 186 tons of American beef products in Beijing amid fears the meat could be contaminated with mad cow disease, state media reported on Friday. The Beijing Youth Daily said the beef, seized Thursday, will be disposed off after being examined on advice from the ministry of agriculture...Bush tells Americans to keep eating beef U.S. President George W. Bush shot quail on a hunting trip yesterday but ate beef and encouraged Americans to do the same despite concern over mad cow disease. The president said Americans should feel comfortable eating beef while Agriculture Department officials try to prevent any mad cow outbreak in the wake of the discovery of an infected Holstein in Washington state...Two countries, one market for cattle trade Free trade has made cattle, beef products and livestock feed almost indistinguishable in Canada and the United States, never mind the finger-pointing in this latest mad-cow scare. That's the message Canadian cattle producers, politicians and investigators issued after a case of mad-cow disease was discovered last week in a Washington State animal with ties to an Alberta dairy farm. In May, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better known as BSE or mad-cow disease, was diagnosed in a slaughtered cow in Alberta...Variety meats niche hit hard by beef ban Oregon cattleman Mike Partlow built a business selling beef products that Americans don’t eat, from hooves to femur bones to stomach lining, all prized by Asian chefs. Korean cooks slice steamed hooves into wafers for a meaty, gelatinous soup. Bits of large intestine go on the grill in Japan. After the discovery of mad cow disease in an American cow last week, this $600 million market — and Partlow’s business selling so-called variety meats — has vanished, and will not return until export markets reopen...Electronic tag system for cattle on fast track Use of electronic ear tags could have made short work of the intense hunt for the rest of the herd that entered the United States in 2001 along with the Washington dairy cow infected with mad-cow disease. Such tags, which an industry expert says would cost $5 to $15 apiece, are part of a proposed national animal-identification system that was put on the fast track Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The beef industry had opposed the national tracking system on grounds it could expose farmers and ranchers to lawsuits over tainted food...Beef tallow in fries raises fears among foreign buyers Fallout from the mad-cow scare in Washington state has hit the potato industry, with more than $500,000 worth of frozen French fries — prefried in beef tallow — held in limbo at ports. The delay raises concerns that other exports containing beef products could be affected by the bans countries have imposed on U.S. beef because of mad-cow disease...Chick-fil-A plans to corral bovines for now Chick-fil-A is postponing its latest advertising featuring those iconic bovines to avoid appearing insensitive to concerns about the first U.S. case of mad cow disease. The Atlanta-based restaurant chain had planned to unveil a new round of in-store and direct-mail advertising this month. In addition to shelving that campaign, the company will examine existing advertising, including a billboard in which a cow -- its eyes in a vertigo swirl -- tries to hypnotize motorists to eat chicken...Cattlemen closely monitor feed Feedlot operator Buck Peddicord knows his success depends on the health of the beef cattle being fattened in his pens. Peddicord and other cattle producers say they never would consider violating a 1997 Food and Drug Administration ban on feeding cattle parts back to cattle, a ban enacted to guard against the possible spread of mad cow disease. Feedlot operators submit to random inspections, and many sign affidavits required by buyers that none of their animals was fed beef bone meal. Doing otherwise, they say, would risk disaster... Editorial: Bans on U.S. beef shouldn't last for long The list of countries that have banned U.S. beef because of a case of mad cow disease in a Washington state cow has grown to 36. It's disheartening to say the least to U.S. cattle producers who produce the best beef in the world. Those export markets are important in expanding demand and raising the price for their product. The bans, however, should be put in perspective. These countries are only reacting in the same way the U.S. has in the past. It was just last year that Canadian beef was banned from the U.S. because of a mad cow case there. Furthermore, these prohibitions aren't likely to last long. As long as this case remains isolated, the world again will be convinced of the safety of American beef. This will be further re-enforced as the U.S. takes more steps to protect its meat supply...Mad cow case not creating vegetarian rush Droves of Britons gave up meat during England's mad cow outbreak in the 1980s, but since the discovery of an infected cow in Washington state American vegetarians mostly have trod carefully, trying not to take advantage of a situation that could cost lives and cripple a $40 billion industry... Ex-Cattleman's Warning Was No Bum Steer There's a stereotype about vegans. That they're zealots, loud-mouthed people who throw blood on meat-fattened CEOs, who ridicule people who wear leather shoelaces, who corner you at parties and assault you with diatribes about cruelty. Howard Lyman, 65, is not like that. For 40 years, he raised cattle on his family ranch in Montana, where steak and hamburger were regular courses. Then one day he quit. A tumor in his spinal column helped him make the decision. Meat, he was convinced, was killing him. And beyond that, he began to believe that meat, as it is produced today, is snuffing out small farms and possibly even opening the door to strange and terrifying diseases...Ban on 'downers' could change way cattle are raised The government's ban on the use of so-called downer cattle in the nation's food supply may force changes in the way cattle — especially dairy cows — are treated, animal experts say. Chandler Keys of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association says the 150,000 to 200,000 downers a year are a fraction of the 35 million U.S. cattle slaughtered each year. But animal experts say the ban will force changes in the industry. Temple Grandin, professor of animal science at Colorado State University, believes 90% of downer cases are preventable...Where the Cows Come Home Farm Sanctuary, which runs Web sites like SentientBeings.org, NoDowners.org, NoVeal.org, BanCruelFarms.org and AdoptATurkey.org, has been pressuring the government since 1998 to halt the use of sick and injured cows as food, arguing that they are "adulterated" and therefore illegal in interstate commerce under the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act. Until Tuesday, the Department of Agriculture had disagreed, arguing that not all meat from a sick cow is adulterated and that approving such cattle was long-established practice. It denied Farm Sanctuary's petition in 1999 and fought its subsequent lawsuit...Column: The Cow Jumped Over the U.S.D.A. Alisa Harrison has worked tirelessly the last two weeks to spread the message that bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, is not a risk to American consumers. As spokeswoman for Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman, Ms. Harrison has helped guide news coverage of the mad cow crisis, issuing statements, managing press conferences and reassuring the world that American beef is safe. For her, it's a familiar message. Before joining the department, Ms. Harrison was director of public relations for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the beef industry's largest trade group, where she battled government food safety efforts, criticized Oprah Winfrey for raising health questions about American hamburgers, and sent out press releases with titles like "Mad Cow Disease Not a Problem in the U.S." Ms. Harrison may well be a decent and sincere person who feels she has the public's best interest at heart. Nonetheless, her effortless transition from the cattlemen's lobby to the Agriculture Department is a fine symbol of all that is wrong with America's food safety system. Right now you'd have a hard time finding a federal agency more completely dominated by the industry it was created to regulate. Dale Moore, Ms. Veneman's chief of staff, was previously the chief lobbyist for the cattlemen's association. Other veterans of that group have high-ranking jobs at the department, as do former meat-packing executives and a former president of the National Pork Producers Council...Officials Destroying Calves, Including That of Sick Cow As federal investigators search for cows that were imported from Canada with the cow that was found to have the nation's first known case of mad cow disease, Washington State officials have begun a process that will kill the offspring of the sick cow. The cow, which was sent from a dairy farm in Mabton, Wash., and slaughtered on Dec. 9, gave birth to a bull calf shortly before slaughter. That calf was sent to a feedlot in Sunnyside, about 10 miles north of the Mabton ranch, but because officials cannot pinpoint the calf, they plan to kill all bull calves in the feedlot herd of 464 that are under 30 days old, the same age as the sick cow's offspring, said Linda Waring, a spokeswoman for the state's Department of Agriculture...Mad cow's brain-wasting course inspires fear No longer can experts reassure us with absolute certainty that American beef won't expose people to the human version of mad cow disease, now that an infected cow has turned up here. While odds remain remote - only 153 people in Europe have contracted the disease since it appeared in 1995 - it is not the numbers that terrify people but the harrowing trajectory of the disease, the way it eats away at the brain...Animal rights group demonstrates They weren't the two most popular people standing along Lincolnway on Wednesday, but they didn't seem to mind. Two workers for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) stood outside the Hitching Post Inn, home of the Cheyenne Cattle Company restaurant, during the lunch hour to protest practices of the meat industry. While Ravi Chand answered people's questions and distributed "vegetarian starter kit" brochures, Katy Fritts had a less labor-intensive job. Fritts, wearing a cow costume, stood on the side of the road for an hour holding a sign that read, "It's Mad to Eat Meat: Go Veg!"...Sebelius enlists other governors in pro-beef campaign Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is soliciting help from other states' chief executives for a public campaign to reassure consumers that beef is safe to eat, notwithstanding the first-ever American case of mad cow disease. Sebelius said Wednesday governors, or their representatives, in Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas have agreed to participate...Edmonton plant may have provided contaminated feed to U-S mad cow The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says media reports linking a Canadian rendering plant to the first U-S case of mad cow disease are "premature." In a statement, the agency says it's examining feed purchasing, production and distribution records. But officials add that many feed mills draw material from the same plants. The Edmonton Journal reports Canadian food safety investigators have established a tentative link between Northern Alberta Processing and the infected Holstein found on a Washington state farm. The plant may have provided contaminated materials for the Alberta farm where officials believe the cow was born...B.C.-owned feed plant probed for link to mad cow A Vancouver-owned rendering plant located in Edmonton and suspected of being linked to North America's two cases of mad cow disease was criticized in 2003 by Canadian inspectors for not labelling its animal feed properly, according to documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun...Senator sees hope for meat labeling The case of mad cow disease in Washington state might prompt congressional opponents of country-of-origin labeling to rethink their position when Congress resumes work on Jan. 20, said Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., a leading proponent of the labeling requirement. The mad cow scare, which has resulted in the shutdown of nearly all U.S. beef exports, should reverse opposition to mandatory labeling, Johnson said Wednesday. ''But whether it does or not, of course, remains to be seen,'' he said...
Permalink
Meat inspectors seize huge haul of US beef China has confiscated 186 tons of American beef products in Beijing amid fears the meat could be contaminated with mad cow disease, state media reported on Friday. The Beijing Youth Daily said the beef, seized Thursday, will be disposed off after being examined on advice from the ministry of agriculture...Bush tells Americans to keep eating beef U.S. President George W. Bush shot quail on a hunting trip yesterday but ate beef and encouraged Americans to do the same despite concern over mad cow disease. The president said Americans should feel comfortable eating beef while Agriculture Department officials try to prevent any mad cow outbreak in the wake of the discovery of an infected Holstein in Washington state...Two countries, one market for cattle trade Free trade has made cattle, beef products and livestock feed almost indistinguishable in Canada and the United States, never mind the finger-pointing in this latest mad-cow scare. That's the message Canadian cattle producers, politicians and investigators issued after a case of mad-cow disease was discovered last week in a Washington State animal with ties to an Alberta dairy farm. In May, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better known as BSE or mad-cow disease, was diagnosed in a slaughtered cow in Alberta...Variety meats niche hit hard by beef ban Oregon cattleman Mike Partlow built a business selling beef products that Americans don’t eat, from hooves to femur bones to stomach lining, all prized by Asian chefs. Korean cooks slice steamed hooves into wafers for a meaty, gelatinous soup. Bits of large intestine go on the grill in Japan. After the discovery of mad cow disease in an American cow last week, this $600 million market — and Partlow’s business selling so-called variety meats — has vanished, and will not return until export markets reopen...Electronic tag system for cattle on fast track Use of electronic ear tags could have made short work of the intense hunt for the rest of the herd that entered the United States in 2001 along with the Washington dairy cow infected with mad-cow disease. Such tags, which an industry expert says would cost $5 to $15 apiece, are part of a proposed national animal-identification system that was put on the fast track Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The beef industry had opposed the national tracking system on grounds it could expose farmers and ranchers to lawsuits over tainted food...Beef tallow in fries raises fears among foreign buyers Fallout from the mad-cow scare in Washington state has hit the potato industry, with more than $500,000 worth of frozen French fries — prefried in beef tallow — held in limbo at ports. The delay raises concerns that other exports containing beef products could be affected by the bans countries have imposed on U.S. beef because of mad-cow disease...Chick-fil-A plans to corral bovines for now Chick-fil-A is postponing its latest advertising featuring those iconic bovines to avoid appearing insensitive to concerns about the first U.S. case of mad cow disease. The Atlanta-based restaurant chain had planned to unveil a new round of in-store and direct-mail advertising this month. In addition to shelving that campaign, the company will examine existing advertising, including a billboard in which a cow -- its eyes in a vertigo swirl -- tries to hypnotize motorists to eat chicken...Cattlemen closely monitor feed Feedlot operator Buck Peddicord knows his success depends on the health of the beef cattle being fattened in his pens. Peddicord and other cattle producers say they never would consider violating a 1997 Food and Drug Administration ban on feeding cattle parts back to cattle, a ban enacted to guard against the possible spread of mad cow disease. Feedlot operators submit to random inspections, and many sign affidavits required by buyers that none of their animals was fed beef bone meal. Doing otherwise, they say, would risk disaster... Editorial: Bans on U.S. beef shouldn't last for long The list of countries that have banned U.S. beef because of a case of mad cow disease in a Washington state cow has grown to 36. It's disheartening to say the least to U.S. cattle producers who produce the best beef in the world. Those export markets are important in expanding demand and raising the price for their product. The bans, however, should be put in perspective. These countries are only reacting in the same way the U.S. has in the past. It was just last year that Canadian beef was banned from the U.S. because of a mad cow case there. Furthermore, these prohibitions aren't likely to last long. As long as this case remains isolated, the world again will be convinced of the safety of American beef. This will be further re-enforced as the U.S. takes more steps to protect its meat supply...Mad cow case not creating vegetarian rush Droves of Britons gave up meat during England's mad cow outbreak in the 1980s, but since the discovery of an infected cow in Washington state American vegetarians mostly have trod carefully, trying not to take advantage of a situation that could cost lives and cripple a $40 billion industry... Ex-Cattleman's Warning Was No Bum Steer There's a stereotype about vegans. That they're zealots, loud-mouthed people who throw blood on meat-fattened CEOs, who ridicule people who wear leather shoelaces, who corner you at parties and assault you with diatribes about cruelty. Howard Lyman, 65, is not like that. For 40 years, he raised cattle on his family ranch in Montana, where steak and hamburger were regular courses. Then one day he quit. A tumor in his spinal column helped him make the decision. Meat, he was convinced, was killing him. And beyond that, he began to believe that meat, as it is produced today, is snuffing out small farms and possibly even opening the door to strange and terrifying diseases...Ban on 'downers' could change way cattle are raised The government's ban on the use of so-called downer cattle in the nation's food supply may force changes in the way cattle — especially dairy cows — are treated, animal experts say. Chandler Keys of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association says the 150,000 to 200,000 downers a year are a fraction of the 35 million U.S. cattle slaughtered each year. But animal experts say the ban will force changes in the industry. Temple Grandin, professor of animal science at Colorado State University, believes 90% of downer cases are preventable...Where the Cows Come Home Farm Sanctuary, which runs Web sites like SentientBeings.org, NoDowners.org, NoVeal.org, BanCruelFarms.org and AdoptATurkey.org, has been pressuring the government since 1998 to halt the use of sick and injured cows as food, arguing that they are "adulterated" and therefore illegal in interstate commerce under the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act. Until Tuesday, the Department of Agriculture had disagreed, arguing that not all meat from a sick cow is adulterated and that approving such cattle was long-established practice. It denied Farm Sanctuary's petition in 1999 and fought its subsequent lawsuit...Column: The Cow Jumped Over the U.S.D.A. Alisa Harrison has worked tirelessly the last two weeks to spread the message that bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, is not a risk to American consumers. As spokeswoman for Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman, Ms. Harrison has helped guide news coverage of the mad cow crisis, issuing statements, managing press conferences and reassuring the world that American beef is safe. For her, it's a familiar message. Before joining the department, Ms. Harrison was director of public relations for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the beef industry's largest trade group, where she battled government food safety efforts, criticized Oprah Winfrey for raising health questions about American hamburgers, and sent out press releases with titles like "Mad Cow Disease Not a Problem in the U.S." Ms. Harrison may well be a decent and sincere person who feels she has the public's best interest at heart. Nonetheless, her effortless transition from the cattlemen's lobby to the Agriculture Department is a fine symbol of all that is wrong with America's food safety system. Right now you'd have a hard time finding a federal agency more completely dominated by the industry it was created to regulate. Dale Moore, Ms. Veneman's chief of staff, was previously the chief lobbyist for the cattlemen's association. Other veterans of that group have high-ranking jobs at the department, as do former meat-packing executives and a former president of the National Pork Producers Council...Officials Destroying Calves, Including That of Sick Cow As federal investigators search for cows that were imported from Canada with the cow that was found to have the nation's first known case of mad cow disease, Washington State officials have begun a process that will kill the offspring of the sick cow. The cow, which was sent from a dairy farm in Mabton, Wash., and slaughtered on Dec. 9, gave birth to a bull calf shortly before slaughter. That calf was sent to a feedlot in Sunnyside, about 10 miles north of the Mabton ranch, but because officials cannot pinpoint the calf, they plan to kill all bull calves in the feedlot herd of 464 that are under 30 days old, the same age as the sick cow's offspring, said Linda Waring, a spokeswoman for the state's Department of Agriculture...Mad cow's brain-wasting course inspires fear No longer can experts reassure us with absolute certainty that American beef won't expose people to the human version of mad cow disease, now that an infected cow has turned up here. While odds remain remote - only 153 people in Europe have contracted the disease since it appeared in 1995 - it is not the numbers that terrify people but the harrowing trajectory of the disease, the way it eats away at the brain...Animal rights group demonstrates They weren't the two most popular people standing along Lincolnway on Wednesday, but they didn't seem to mind. Two workers for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) stood outside the Hitching Post Inn, home of the Cheyenne Cattle Company restaurant, during the lunch hour to protest practices of the meat industry. While Ravi Chand answered people's questions and distributed "vegetarian starter kit" brochures, Katy Fritts had a less labor-intensive job. Fritts, wearing a cow costume, stood on the side of the road for an hour holding a sign that read, "It's Mad to Eat Meat: Go Veg!"...Sebelius enlists other governors in pro-beef campaign Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is soliciting help from other states' chief executives for a public campaign to reassure consumers that beef is safe to eat, notwithstanding the first-ever American case of mad cow disease. Sebelius said Wednesday governors, or their representatives, in Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas have agreed to participate...Edmonton plant may have provided contaminated feed to U-S mad cow The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says media reports linking a Canadian rendering plant to the first U-S case of mad cow disease are "premature." In a statement, the agency says it's examining feed purchasing, production and distribution records. But officials add that many feed mills draw material from the same plants. The Edmonton Journal reports Canadian food safety investigators have established a tentative link between Northern Alberta Processing and the infected Holstein found on a Washington state farm. The plant may have provided contaminated materials for the Alberta farm where officials believe the cow was born...B.C.-owned feed plant probed for link to mad cow A Vancouver-owned rendering plant located in Edmonton and suspected of being linked to North America's two cases of mad cow disease was criticized in 2003 by Canadian inspectors for not labelling its animal feed properly, according to documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun...Senator sees hope for meat labeling The case of mad cow disease in Washington state might prompt congressional opponents of country-of-origin labeling to rethink their position when Congress resumes work on Jan. 20, said Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., a leading proponent of the labeling requirement. The mad cow scare, which has resulted in the shutdown of nearly all U.S. beef exports, should reverse opposition to mandatory labeling, Johnson said Wednesday. ''But whether it does or not, of course, remains to be seen,'' he said...
Permalink
NEWS ROUNDUP
Forest Service taking the heat For setting a "prescribed fire" that went awry in September, the U.S. Forest Service is in hot water with the state. Rick Sprott, director of the Utah Division of Air Quality, has issued the Forest Service a "notice of violation" in connection with the Cascade Springs II fire, which burned 7,800 acres and poured smoke into the Wasatch Front for a week. The notice accuses the Forest Service of polluting the air in Utah's population center and of failing to submit a proper plan to the division before igniting the fire. It does not call for a fine, although the notice points out the state reserves the right to levy fines in the amount of $10,000 per day of violation...Developer sues over Lone Peak deed Developer Tim Blixseth has filed suit against the U.S. Forest Service in a dispute over ownership of a patch of ice and rock atop Lone Peak. The Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest deeded a 20-acre parcel, including the peak, to Moonlight Basin, a new ski resort. "It's our property," said Moonlight Basin co-owner Lee Poole said Tuesday. "We own it right now." But Blixseth claims the land belongs to him as part of the Big Sky Lumber land swaps, authorized by two acts of Congress, the latest in 1998. He said the disputed land, which may be less than an acre, could support a ski lift, making it worth a fortune to whoever owns it...Book, movie capture spirit of wildlife agent In more than 30 years as a federal wildlife agent, Terry Grosz did everything from busting commercial duck shooters in California to overseeing one of the largest poaching stings in Colorado history. The burly Grosz's escapades with scofflaws of the hook-and-bullet set have provided the grist for five books, including "Wildlife Wars," which won the National Outdoor Book Award in 2000. On Tuesday, Animal Planet will air a movie, "Wildlife Wars," based on his career...Loud noise collars may keep wolves at bay Loudspeakers blaring out the recorded sound of gunfire or other loud noises or dog shock collars could resolve problems with wolves before ranchers resort to a rifle bullet, researchers believe. Shivik, Adrian Treves with the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York and Peggy Callahan of the Wildlife Science Center in Forest Lake, Minn., reported on those alternatives in the December issue of Conservation Biology. They researched whether devices -- called RAG or radio-activated guard boxes -- would scare off wolves. The RAG boxes have cassette players that are activated to broadcast loud noises when wolves with radio collars come too close...Ranchers hope bird listing won't fly The federal government is expected to announce early next week whether it will take the first step toward listing the greater sage grouse as an endangered species, a move that could prevent the bird's extinction but also may significantly reduce livestock grazing on public lands. "This could be one more low blow for us," said Wes Quinton, Utah Farm Bureau Federation vice president. "It's at the top of our worry list, with drought and BSE [bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease], because it could potentially shut down a large segment of the Western ranching industry."...Endangered Species Act turns 30 years old Now at the ripe old age of 30, the Endangered Species Act is still a vigorous source of debate, although there are signs that the government and environmentalists are beginning to agree that its future lies in cooperation instead of confrontation. Instead of relying on a federal regulatory hammer, both sides are shifting toward incentives for landowners who participate in protection programs. "I think 30 years hence, it's going to be the standard way of operating," said Crain Manson, assistant interior secretary for wildlife. William Robert Irvin, of the World Wildlife Fund, said there is a shared interest in promoting incentives. "I think it is the future," Irvin said. "You can get a lot farther with carrots than sticks." ...Column:Shoot, Shovel, and Shut Up Although environmentalists try to suggest that saving endangered species protects humanity, too, the fact is that species preservation is really important only on aesthetic and moral grounds. See, for example, a review article, "Prospects for Biodiversity" in the November 14 issue of Science. The article notes, "In truth, ecologists and conservationists have struggled to demonstrate the increased material benefits to humans of 'intact' wild systems over largely anthropogenic ones [like farms]... Where increased benefits of natural systems have been shown, they are usually marginal and local." The Science article relentlessly continues, "Nowhere is this more starkly revealed than in the extinction of species." Humanity, after all, has been responsible for the extinction in many parts of the world "of all or most of the larger terrestrial animal species... This means that the 'natural' systems we currently think of in these parts of the world (North and South America, Australasia, and virtually all oceanic islands) are nothing of the sort, and yet they still function at least according to our perceptions and over time scales we are currently capable of measuring." In other words, we don't need a lot of species to insure our own species' comfortable existence...Wolves set to huff, puff, blow into state To the north, to the west and to the south, wolves are at Colorado's door. No one knows exactly when they'll return to the state, but most experts expect they will be back within the next five to 10 years. Wolves could return to Colorado from any of three sources:...Zoo-bred wolves are sent packing Five Mexican wolves were captured from 1977 to 1980 in Mexico and taken to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, where they became the Genesis pack for today's recovery efforts in New Mexico and Arizona. As the numbers expanded, zoos in the United States and Mexico started breeding programs, and now there are 29 U.S. zoos and 10 in Mexico raising wolves. There are about 200 wolves in those zoos, in addition to at least 34 released in the wild...Who let the dogs out? Don't tell Catherine Miller prairie dogs are cute. Swarms of the rodents, migrants from the city's enormous greenbelt, have turned her 10-acre farm into Swiss cheese. "It's these huge holes - and nothing around the holes," Miller said of her land east of town, where she grows hay. Heeding concerns of animal-rights activists, Boulder has been relocating prairie dogs to the greenbelt for years to protect them from extermination. Now the city that took the lead in controlling human population growth is bursting with prairie dogs...Snowmobile ruling hits home Each of the past 29 winters, Pahaska Tepee lodge has opened for snowmobilers eager to take a ride into Yellowstone National Park. But in the two weeks since a federal judge ruled against the Bush administration's new snowmobile plan and imposed a Clinton-era phaseout, lodge owner Bob Coe has had second thoughts about keeping his business open through the winter. "It's just put a chill on the entire business,'' he said Wednesday. Profit margins in the winter have always been tight, he said, but the restrictions this season have made it especially hard for his business near the east entrance to stay open and break even, much less carve a profit. "Business is down 65 to 75 percent,'' he said, adding that a decision will be made Monday whether to keep the lodge open for the rest of the winter...Black Beauty Ranch Welcomes Burros from Southern California Parks The Fund for Animals' world- famous Black Beauty Ranch animal sanctuary has welcomed the first of several groups of burros from Death Valley and Mojave National Parks in southern California, in a cooperative effort with the federal government to find homes for the unwanted animals. Working with the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, The Fund for Animals has already received 40 burros and has agreed to accept up to 100 per year...Arctic dig unearths prehistoric settlement Russian archaeologists have discovered the remains of the world's oldest known Arctic settlement - a Siberian riverfront site that they say could help determine when humans first arrived in the Americas. The 30,000-year-old site - twice as old as any previous Arctic dig - includes a rhinoceros bone shaped into a spear that shows a "striking resemblance" to spear points found by archaeologists in Clovis, N.M. The findings by the Russia Academy of Sciences may prompt a re-examination of popular theories about when humans first came to the Americas... Scandal-tainted worker was BLM teacher Some Bureau of Land Management employees attending a training seminar on negotiating land exchanges this month were surprised their instructor was a BLM staffer disciplined for her role in the scandal-plagued San Rafael Swell land swap. Terry Catlin, a BLM lands specialist at the agency's Salt Lake City state headquarters, served as one of the instructors of a weeklong course on land exchanges for BLM professionals Dec. 8-12 in Asheville, N.C. In August, the Interior Department's inspector general determined that Catlin and three other federal employees had negotiated a land exchange with the state of Utah that would have shortchanged taxpayers at least $100 million because of an unusually lopsided oil-shale royalty split that was never clearly revealed to members of Congress and Interior decision-makers...Oregon Trail segments in peril Just a few steps from an unmarked parking lot in Boise, a remnant of American history remains. Ruts of the Oregon Trail mark the journeys of settlers who followed the path by foot and wagon more than 150 years ago. But sections of the trail, which are listed in the National Register of Historic Places, have been torn up by four-wheelers and other vehicles. A home has been built on one portion of the trail...Reweaving a historic bond Beneath towering Table Mesa in the vast northeastern corner of the Navajo Reservation is a tiny ramshackle pen filled with about 35 sheep. The scruffy-looking animals, with their short horns and long brown and black wool, are Navajo-Churro, a living symbol of the resilience of the Navajo people. The sheep were nearly wiped out during the tribe's forced relocation in the 1860s and again in the stock reductions of the 1930s. But they are making a comeback...Don't kill the coyote, just confuse him a little Traps. Fences. Poison. Ranchers have tried everything to keep predators from their livestock. But guard llamas? At Thirteen Mile Ranch near Belgrade, Mont., llamas have kept watch over the sheep for a decade. The result: No losses from coyotes - the bane of sheep ranchers. "Our llamas have developed some kind of an understanding with a local and fairly stable coyote pack," says Becky Weed, who runs the ranch with her partner, David Tyler. "They know the ropes, and we know the ropes, and I think they understand that we don't bother them. We like to have them around because they hunt gophers." Increasingly, ranchers in the US and abroad are turning to such natural methods - from aggressive donkeys to strategic herd movement - to safeguard livestock. Those methods mean ranchers seldom have to kill predators. True, the predators they save aren't particularly endangered. And the products they market as "predator friendly" sometimes fetch a premium. But the impetus behind the wild-farming movement seems to run deeper than that. Its message: Ranchers, livestock, and large predators can coexist...The American West, Through German Eyes Professor McClain adds that there are also cowboy hobby towns all over Germany where people can come on the weekends to dress up and play act like cowboys and Indians. "They're bonding with their families in a way that they can afford to do," she says. "They're getting free of the bureaucracy. We Americans cannot understand the feeling of being closed in that Germans have - not only geographically, but they are [a] highly bureaucratized culture."...Mortensen earned his 6th title the old-fashioned way There were no whoops or hollers. No fists thrown in the air. No raising the roof. He was too tired - mentally and physically - to jump up and down in celebration. Dan Mortensen won his sixth world saddle bronc title the old-fashioned way: He earned it. Mortensen's achievement - tying him with the legendary Casey Tibbs - was a testament to the focus and a nose-to-the-grindstone approach that earned the Billings cowboy five previous world championships...Down-to-earth roper rises to join idols While most everyone was focusing on the battle Cody Ohl and Fred Whitfield were waging for the world tie-down roping championship, Mike Johnson quietly won the aggregate title at the recent Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. It was the first time Johnson, who has qualified for 18 NFRs, had accomplished that feat. "I've had lot of disappointments out here," said the 39-year-old cowboy who roped and tied 10 calves in 86.4 seconds. "It was a dream come true for me. I've been competing against those guys for 20 years. I watched them grow from pups to world class athletes...
Permalink
Forest Service taking the heat For setting a "prescribed fire" that went awry in September, the U.S. Forest Service is in hot water with the state. Rick Sprott, director of the Utah Division of Air Quality, has issued the Forest Service a "notice of violation" in connection with the Cascade Springs II fire, which burned 7,800 acres and poured smoke into the Wasatch Front for a week. The notice accuses the Forest Service of polluting the air in Utah's population center and of failing to submit a proper plan to the division before igniting the fire. It does not call for a fine, although the notice points out the state reserves the right to levy fines in the amount of $10,000 per day of violation...Developer sues over Lone Peak deed Developer Tim Blixseth has filed suit against the U.S. Forest Service in a dispute over ownership of a patch of ice and rock atop Lone Peak. The Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest deeded a 20-acre parcel, including the peak, to Moonlight Basin, a new ski resort. "It's our property," said Moonlight Basin co-owner Lee Poole said Tuesday. "We own it right now." But Blixseth claims the land belongs to him as part of the Big Sky Lumber land swaps, authorized by two acts of Congress, the latest in 1998. He said the disputed land, which may be less than an acre, could support a ski lift, making it worth a fortune to whoever owns it...Book, movie capture spirit of wildlife agent In more than 30 years as a federal wildlife agent, Terry Grosz did everything from busting commercial duck shooters in California to overseeing one of the largest poaching stings in Colorado history. The burly Grosz's escapades with scofflaws of the hook-and-bullet set have provided the grist for five books, including "Wildlife Wars," which won the National Outdoor Book Award in 2000. On Tuesday, Animal Planet will air a movie, "Wildlife Wars," based on his career...Loud noise collars may keep wolves at bay Loudspeakers blaring out the recorded sound of gunfire or other loud noises or dog shock collars could resolve problems with wolves before ranchers resort to a rifle bullet, researchers believe. Shivik, Adrian Treves with the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York and Peggy Callahan of the Wildlife Science Center in Forest Lake, Minn., reported on those alternatives in the December issue of Conservation Biology. They researched whether devices -- called RAG or radio-activated guard boxes -- would scare off wolves. The RAG boxes have cassette players that are activated to broadcast loud noises when wolves with radio collars come too close...Ranchers hope bird listing won't fly The federal government is expected to announce early next week whether it will take the first step toward listing the greater sage grouse as an endangered species, a move that could prevent the bird's extinction but also may significantly reduce livestock grazing on public lands. "This could be one more low blow for us," said Wes Quinton, Utah Farm Bureau Federation vice president. "It's at the top of our worry list, with drought and BSE [bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease], because it could potentially shut down a large segment of the Western ranching industry."...Endangered Species Act turns 30 years old Now at the ripe old age of 30, the Endangered Species Act is still a vigorous source of debate, although there are signs that the government and environmentalists are beginning to agree that its future lies in cooperation instead of confrontation. Instead of relying on a federal regulatory hammer, both sides are shifting toward incentives for landowners who participate in protection programs. "I think 30 years hence, it's going to be the standard way of operating," said Crain Manson, assistant interior secretary for wildlife. William Robert Irvin, of the World Wildlife Fund, said there is a shared interest in promoting incentives. "I think it is the future," Irvin said. "You can get a lot farther with carrots than sticks." ...Column:Shoot, Shovel, and Shut Up Although environmentalists try to suggest that saving endangered species protects humanity, too, the fact is that species preservation is really important only on aesthetic and moral grounds. See, for example, a review article, "Prospects for Biodiversity" in the November 14 issue of Science. The article notes, "In truth, ecologists and conservationists have struggled to demonstrate the increased material benefits to humans of 'intact' wild systems over largely anthropogenic ones [like farms]... Where increased benefits of natural systems have been shown, they are usually marginal and local." The Science article relentlessly continues, "Nowhere is this more starkly revealed than in the extinction of species." Humanity, after all, has been responsible for the extinction in many parts of the world "of all or most of the larger terrestrial animal species... This means that the 'natural' systems we currently think of in these parts of the world (North and South America, Australasia, and virtually all oceanic islands) are nothing of the sort, and yet they still function at least according to our perceptions and over time scales we are currently capable of measuring." In other words, we don't need a lot of species to insure our own species' comfortable existence...Wolves set to huff, puff, blow into state To the north, to the west and to the south, wolves are at Colorado's door. No one knows exactly when they'll return to the state, but most experts expect they will be back within the next five to 10 years. Wolves could return to Colorado from any of three sources:...Zoo-bred wolves are sent packing Five Mexican wolves were captured from 1977 to 1980 in Mexico and taken to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, where they became the Genesis pack for today's recovery efforts in New Mexico and Arizona. As the numbers expanded, zoos in the United States and Mexico started breeding programs, and now there are 29 U.S. zoos and 10 in Mexico raising wolves. There are about 200 wolves in those zoos, in addition to at least 34 released in the wild...Who let the dogs out? Don't tell Catherine Miller prairie dogs are cute. Swarms of the rodents, migrants from the city's enormous greenbelt, have turned her 10-acre farm into Swiss cheese. "It's these huge holes - and nothing around the holes," Miller said of her land east of town, where she grows hay. Heeding concerns of animal-rights activists, Boulder has been relocating prairie dogs to the greenbelt for years to protect them from extermination. Now the city that took the lead in controlling human population growth is bursting with prairie dogs...Snowmobile ruling hits home Each of the past 29 winters, Pahaska Tepee lodge has opened for snowmobilers eager to take a ride into Yellowstone National Park. But in the two weeks since a federal judge ruled against the Bush administration's new snowmobile plan and imposed a Clinton-era phaseout, lodge owner Bob Coe has had second thoughts about keeping his business open through the winter. "It's just put a chill on the entire business,'' he said Wednesday. Profit margins in the winter have always been tight, he said, but the restrictions this season have made it especially hard for his business near the east entrance to stay open and break even, much less carve a profit. "Business is down 65 to 75 percent,'' he said, adding that a decision will be made Monday whether to keep the lodge open for the rest of the winter...Black Beauty Ranch Welcomes Burros from Southern California Parks The Fund for Animals' world- famous Black Beauty Ranch animal sanctuary has welcomed the first of several groups of burros from Death Valley and Mojave National Parks in southern California, in a cooperative effort with the federal government to find homes for the unwanted animals. Working with the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, The Fund for Animals has already received 40 burros and has agreed to accept up to 100 per year...Arctic dig unearths prehistoric settlement Russian archaeologists have discovered the remains of the world's oldest known Arctic settlement - a Siberian riverfront site that they say could help determine when humans first arrived in the Americas. The 30,000-year-old site - twice as old as any previous Arctic dig - includes a rhinoceros bone shaped into a spear that shows a "striking resemblance" to spear points found by archaeologists in Clovis, N.M. The findings by the Russia Academy of Sciences may prompt a re-examination of popular theories about when humans first came to the Americas... Scandal-tainted worker was BLM teacher Some Bureau of Land Management employees attending a training seminar on negotiating land exchanges this month were surprised their instructor was a BLM staffer disciplined for her role in the scandal-plagued San Rafael Swell land swap. Terry Catlin, a BLM lands specialist at the agency's Salt Lake City state headquarters, served as one of the instructors of a weeklong course on land exchanges for BLM professionals Dec. 8-12 in Asheville, N.C. In August, the Interior Department's inspector general determined that Catlin and three other federal employees had negotiated a land exchange with the state of Utah that would have shortchanged taxpayers at least $100 million because of an unusually lopsided oil-shale royalty split that was never clearly revealed to members of Congress and Interior decision-makers...Oregon Trail segments in peril Just a few steps from an unmarked parking lot in Boise, a remnant of American history remains. Ruts of the Oregon Trail mark the journeys of settlers who followed the path by foot and wagon more than 150 years ago. But sections of the trail, which are listed in the National Register of Historic Places, have been torn up by four-wheelers and other vehicles. A home has been built on one portion of the trail...Reweaving a historic bond Beneath towering Table Mesa in the vast northeastern corner of the Navajo Reservation is a tiny ramshackle pen filled with about 35 sheep. The scruffy-looking animals, with their short horns and long brown and black wool, are Navajo-Churro, a living symbol of the resilience of the Navajo people. The sheep were nearly wiped out during the tribe's forced relocation in the 1860s and again in the stock reductions of the 1930s. But they are making a comeback...Don't kill the coyote, just confuse him a little Traps. Fences. Poison. Ranchers have tried everything to keep predators from their livestock. But guard llamas? At Thirteen Mile Ranch near Belgrade, Mont., llamas have kept watch over the sheep for a decade. The result: No losses from coyotes - the bane of sheep ranchers. "Our llamas have developed some kind of an understanding with a local and fairly stable coyote pack," says Becky Weed, who runs the ranch with her partner, David Tyler. "They know the ropes, and we know the ropes, and I think they understand that we don't bother them. We like to have them around because they hunt gophers." Increasingly, ranchers in the US and abroad are turning to such natural methods - from aggressive donkeys to strategic herd movement - to safeguard livestock. Those methods mean ranchers seldom have to kill predators. True, the predators they save aren't particularly endangered. And the products they market as "predator friendly" sometimes fetch a premium. But the impetus behind the wild-farming movement seems to run deeper than that. Its message: Ranchers, livestock, and large predators can coexist...The American West, Through German Eyes Professor McClain adds that there are also cowboy hobby towns all over Germany where people can come on the weekends to dress up and play act like cowboys and Indians. "They're bonding with their families in a way that they can afford to do," she says. "They're getting free of the bureaucracy. We Americans cannot understand the feeling of being closed in that Germans have - not only geographically, but they are [a] highly bureaucratized culture."...Mortensen earned his 6th title the old-fashioned way There were no whoops or hollers. No fists thrown in the air. No raising the roof. He was too tired - mentally and physically - to jump up and down in celebration. Dan Mortensen won his sixth world saddle bronc title the old-fashioned way: He earned it. Mortensen's achievement - tying him with the legendary Casey Tibbs - was a testament to the focus and a nose-to-the-grindstone approach that earned the Billings cowboy five previous world championships...Down-to-earth roper rises to join idols While most everyone was focusing on the battle Cody Ohl and Fred Whitfield were waging for the world tie-down roping championship, Mike Johnson quietly won the aggregate title at the recent Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. It was the first time Johnson, who has qualified for 18 NFRs, had accomplished that feat. "I've had lot of disappointments out here," said the 39-year-old cowboy who roped and tied 10 calves in 86.4 seconds. "It was a dream come true for me. I've been competing against those guys for 20 years. I watched them grow from pups to world class athletes...
Permalink
Tuesday, December 30, 2003
NEWS ROUNDUP
Editorial: Deck stacked against wildlife When federal agencies are weighing whether to permit oil and gas drilling in sensitive areas, they depend on the Colorado Division of Wildlife to help them understand how the development will affect wild animals. It's crucial that the feds get accurate and objective data, even if the information shows that drilling in some places would be unwise. So it's distressing that Gov. Bill Owens' administration repeatedly has diluted and squelched comments from wildlife experts. As a result, Colorado has sent federal agencies one-sided, pro-development messages...Forest Service moving ahead with Ketchikan sale The U.S. Forest Service is moving ahead with a timber sale near Ketchikan that could lead to the first 10-year timber contract in the Tongass National Forest, the agency said Tuesday. The Forest Service denied an appeal from two environmental groups and will allow the Licking Creek sale to proceed...No quick, easy or inexpensive fixes for forest The San Bernardino National Forest is clinging to life. Besieged by drought and billions of tree-killing bark beetles, ravaged by historic wildfires and recently beset by flash floods and mudslides, half a million acres in the forest have seen an unprecedented environmental crisis in the past 12 months. But with the advent of 2004 comes hope among forest managers, scholars and lawmakers that the forest's woes - the culmination of a century of neglect and mismanagement - will finally be addressed... Eco-communes The mountain hut concept, developed in the 19th century, centers on communal rather than scattershot living. In the Alps, hundreds of structures dot the backcountry, providing access in areas otherwise off-limits to thousands of people. In North America such structures are relatively scarce, in part because backpackers here tend to seek out isolation. But the collective wear and tear of backcountry camping, along with the strain on wilderness from the rise in adventure travel, is driving a push for more huts. Serving as wilderness base camps, the huts also become a reservoir for important safety, weather and educational information...Sand dunes emerging as major environmental battleground A small, broom-like plant found only in the dunes of California's Imperial Valley has turned this vast and desolate landscape into one of the nation's unlikeliest environmental battlegrounds. The fight pits those trying to protect the fragile habitat of the Pierson's milkvetch against the huge crowds of off-roaders headed to the Algodones Dunes to ring in the New Year by driving and partying in the desert. The plant, which is protected by the powerful Endangered Species Act, is keeping dune riders out of an area 31/2 times the size of Manhattan. Off-roaders say the milkvetch is emblematic of what's wrong with the Endangered Species Act, which celebrated its 30th birthday Sunday. They contend it locks up huge areas of public land with what they call bad science about endangered species...Lots of time, money spent on wolves, grizzlies Wyoming Game and Fish Commissioners spent a lot of time, effort and money in 2003 managing two federally-listed endangered species -- the grizzly bear and the gray wolf. Both species are well on their way towards delisting, according to agency officials. Much of the commission's efforts in 2003 dealt with trying to speed up the process of removing the animals' listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), while at the same time searching for new funding sources to manage the animals... Endangered Species Act turns 30, faces challenges The imposing bald eagle and the tiny Southwestern willow flycatcher illustrate the debate swirling around the Endangered Species Act as it turns 30. The eagle has been pulled back from the brink of extinction thanks to protections provided by the federal law. Because of its revered status as a symbol of U.S. freedom, few grumble about the changes forced on human activities that have allowed the eagle to rebuild its numbers. But the flycatcher, benefiting from similar protections, mined a deep vein of dissatisfaction when its appearance at Roosevelt Lake threatened to force water releases during Arizona's drought. The prospect of saving a bird by draining water that serves thousands of Valley residents was cited as a classic case of how the federal law appears to value animal and plant life over humans. The water releases did not happen, but it cost the Salt River Project $17 million to create an alternate plan for the flycatcher...Plan to save Northwest salmon falls short, report says The plan to save the wild salmon of the Snake and Columbia rivers without disabling dams is not working as well as planned, the Bush administration has admitted. In a report issued Christmas Eve, the National Marine Fisheries Service acknowledged that "delays represent a significant concern" but nevertheless judged federal efforts to carry out the plan "adequate." Federal agencies are behind on "key actions" to save Columbia and Snake river salmon stocks from an extinction spiral, the agency said. That's worrisome, although it could be remedied, the report said...Wilderness Act anniversary celebration delayed until after election A federally sponsored conference to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Wilderness Act has collapsed after the U.S. Forest Service told conservationists it had to be postponed until after the 2004 election. Informed that the National Wilderness Summit and Expo scheduled for Oct. 1-7 in Denver could not be held before the Nov. 2 election, conservation groups jointly planning the event dropped out, feeling they were no longer full partners in the event. "What is frustrating to me is we have leadership at the Department of Interior and the Department of Agriculture talking about partnerships on public lands," said Don Hunger, director of national program development for the Student Conservation Association, who served as co-chairman of the conference planning committee. "It pretty much turns that relationship on its head, and says we're not a partnership."...BLM may reopen road in Gravelly Mountains wilderness study area The Bureau of Land Management is considering reopening a road through a wilderness study area in the Gravelly Mountains that has been closed for more than a decade. Madison County commissioners asked the BLM to reopen a route in that area after people in Virginia City asked for a way to reach the Gravellies. The choice of the road known as the "stock driveway" was a compromise, said Rick Waldrup, outdoor recreation planner for BLM's Dillon office. BLM is beginning an environmental assessment of the proposal and will accept public comments until Jan. 30...TPL's 2003 Conservation Achievements Today, the Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national nonprofit conservation organization, has announced its conservation achievements for the year 2003. Across the country, TPL protected more than 292,000 acres in 31 states during 2003, with a fair-market value of $236 million. In addition, TPL and its affiliate, the Conservation Campaign helped 19 communities nationwide pass measures that will generate more than $1.2 billion in new funding for parks and open space. Since it was founded in 1972, TPL has protected more than 1.6 million acres of land, from the inner city to the wilderness, in 46 states...NSA hit for secrecy by environmentalists The National Security Agency (NSA) has been reluctant to share information about environmental conditions on its property, much to the frustration of environmental groups and government regulators, activists complain. "No one's asking them for state secrets," said Zoe Draughon, chairman of the Restoration Advisory Board, a group of activists and regulators overseeing the environmental cleanup of Fort Meade, where the NSA has its headquarters. Miss Draughon said her group will not let the spy agency "wrap themselves up in paranoia and patriotism and say they have classified dirt."...Wyoming to consider brucellosis test plan All Wyoming cattle sold for breeding would have to be tested for brucellosis under a proposal that will be discussed by state officials next week. The idea comes in the wake of Monday's report confirming that a Sublette County herd is infected with brucellosis. Thirty-one of 391 cattle in the herd tested positive for the disease. So far, other tested herds that may have come in contact with the infected cattle have not shown signs of the disease. The Wyoming State Livestock Board will meet Tuesday to consider mandatory testing for brucellosis of cattle sold for breeding herds...New West Nile Virus Equine Recombinant DNA Vaccine Anticipated A new West Nile virus (WNV) equine recombinant canarypox vaccine awaits USDA approval; once available, it could pave the way for a new generation of equine vaccines in the United States. Merial has been developing this Recombitek equine WNV technology for three years. The company assembled a group of researchers, clinicians, and private practitioners in New Orleans, La., on Nov. 19, 2003, to review WNV and the research behind the technology. Recombitek would be the first recombinant canarypox DNA vaccine to be approved for use in horses in the United States, and it would provide another WNV vaccination option...Seabiscuit Movie Makes $80 Million in First Week Riding the crest of the holiday shopping season, Seabiscuit burst out of the gate with more than $80 million in DVD and VHS sales in its first week, making it the year's best-selling drama released on DVD and VHS. Released Dec. 16, the title sold five million units in its first six days...Perhaps it's just my age This year instead of assigning myself a whole bunch of do-better tasks, I'm making Griping Declarations. I'm going to hang on to my personal preferences and prejudices. I'm sticking resolutely with what I don't like, can't stand, don't want, and refuse to deal with. In other words, I'm keeping my gripes. I'm used to them. They're old friends. I can use them as conversation starters when I'm stuck for something to say at boring meetings. At my age, I can do that...The sharpest men carried pocketknives To help realize the change from the old days to modern times, we need only to recall memories of the pocketknife. Since the beginnings of man, a sharp edge on a rock, flint or metal often meant the difference between survival and death. Whether using a blade for protection or to help provide subsistence, the knife was indispensable...
Permalink
Editorial: Deck stacked against wildlife When federal agencies are weighing whether to permit oil and gas drilling in sensitive areas, they depend on the Colorado Division of Wildlife to help them understand how the development will affect wild animals. It's crucial that the feds get accurate and objective data, even if the information shows that drilling in some places would be unwise. So it's distressing that Gov. Bill Owens' administration repeatedly has diluted and squelched comments from wildlife experts. As a result, Colorado has sent federal agencies one-sided, pro-development messages...Forest Service moving ahead with Ketchikan sale The U.S. Forest Service is moving ahead with a timber sale near Ketchikan that could lead to the first 10-year timber contract in the Tongass National Forest, the agency said Tuesday. The Forest Service denied an appeal from two environmental groups and will allow the Licking Creek sale to proceed...No quick, easy or inexpensive fixes for forest The San Bernardino National Forest is clinging to life. Besieged by drought and billions of tree-killing bark beetles, ravaged by historic wildfires and recently beset by flash floods and mudslides, half a million acres in the forest have seen an unprecedented environmental crisis in the past 12 months. But with the advent of 2004 comes hope among forest managers, scholars and lawmakers that the forest's woes - the culmination of a century of neglect and mismanagement - will finally be addressed... Eco-communes The mountain hut concept, developed in the 19th century, centers on communal rather than scattershot living. In the Alps, hundreds of structures dot the backcountry, providing access in areas otherwise off-limits to thousands of people. In North America such structures are relatively scarce, in part because backpackers here tend to seek out isolation. But the collective wear and tear of backcountry camping, along with the strain on wilderness from the rise in adventure travel, is driving a push for more huts. Serving as wilderness base camps, the huts also become a reservoir for important safety, weather and educational information...Sand dunes emerging as major environmental battleground A small, broom-like plant found only in the dunes of California's Imperial Valley has turned this vast and desolate landscape into one of the nation's unlikeliest environmental battlegrounds. The fight pits those trying to protect the fragile habitat of the Pierson's milkvetch against the huge crowds of off-roaders headed to the Algodones Dunes to ring in the New Year by driving and partying in the desert. The plant, which is protected by the powerful Endangered Species Act, is keeping dune riders out of an area 31/2 times the size of Manhattan. Off-roaders say the milkvetch is emblematic of what's wrong with the Endangered Species Act, which celebrated its 30th birthday Sunday. They contend it locks up huge areas of public land with what they call bad science about endangered species...Lots of time, money spent on wolves, grizzlies Wyoming Game and Fish Commissioners spent a lot of time, effort and money in 2003 managing two federally-listed endangered species -- the grizzly bear and the gray wolf. Both species are well on their way towards delisting, according to agency officials. Much of the commission's efforts in 2003 dealt with trying to speed up the process of removing the animals' listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), while at the same time searching for new funding sources to manage the animals... Endangered Species Act turns 30, faces challenges The imposing bald eagle and the tiny Southwestern willow flycatcher illustrate the debate swirling around the Endangered Species Act as it turns 30. The eagle has been pulled back from the brink of extinction thanks to protections provided by the federal law. Because of its revered status as a symbol of U.S. freedom, few grumble about the changes forced on human activities that have allowed the eagle to rebuild its numbers. But the flycatcher, benefiting from similar protections, mined a deep vein of dissatisfaction when its appearance at Roosevelt Lake threatened to force water releases during Arizona's drought. The prospect of saving a bird by draining water that serves thousands of Valley residents was cited as a classic case of how the federal law appears to value animal and plant life over humans. The water releases did not happen, but it cost the Salt River Project $17 million to create an alternate plan for the flycatcher...Plan to save Northwest salmon falls short, report says The plan to save the wild salmon of the Snake and Columbia rivers without disabling dams is not working as well as planned, the Bush administration has admitted. In a report issued Christmas Eve, the National Marine Fisheries Service acknowledged that "delays represent a significant concern" but nevertheless judged federal efforts to carry out the plan "adequate." Federal agencies are behind on "key actions" to save Columbia and Snake river salmon stocks from an extinction spiral, the agency said. That's worrisome, although it could be remedied, the report said...Wilderness Act anniversary celebration delayed until after election A federally sponsored conference to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Wilderness Act has collapsed after the U.S. Forest Service told conservationists it had to be postponed until after the 2004 election. Informed that the National Wilderness Summit and Expo scheduled for Oct. 1-7 in Denver could not be held before the Nov. 2 election, conservation groups jointly planning the event dropped out, feeling they were no longer full partners in the event. "What is frustrating to me is we have leadership at the Department of Interior and the Department of Agriculture talking about partnerships on public lands," said Don Hunger, director of national program development for the Student Conservation Association, who served as co-chairman of the conference planning committee. "It pretty much turns that relationship on its head, and says we're not a partnership."...BLM may reopen road in Gravelly Mountains wilderness study area The Bureau of Land Management is considering reopening a road through a wilderness study area in the Gravelly Mountains that has been closed for more than a decade. Madison County commissioners asked the BLM to reopen a route in that area after people in Virginia City asked for a way to reach the Gravellies. The choice of the road known as the "stock driveway" was a compromise, said Rick Waldrup, outdoor recreation planner for BLM's Dillon office. BLM is beginning an environmental assessment of the proposal and will accept public comments until Jan. 30...TPL's 2003 Conservation Achievements Today, the Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national nonprofit conservation organization, has announced its conservation achievements for the year 2003. Across the country, TPL protected more than 292,000 acres in 31 states during 2003, with a fair-market value of $236 million. In addition, TPL and its affiliate, the Conservation Campaign helped 19 communities nationwide pass measures that will generate more than $1.2 billion in new funding for parks and open space. Since it was founded in 1972, TPL has protected more than 1.6 million acres of land, from the inner city to the wilderness, in 46 states...NSA hit for secrecy by environmentalists The National Security Agency (NSA) has been reluctant to share information about environmental conditions on its property, much to the frustration of environmental groups and government regulators, activists complain. "No one's asking them for state secrets," said Zoe Draughon, chairman of the Restoration Advisory Board, a group of activists and regulators overseeing the environmental cleanup of Fort Meade, where the NSA has its headquarters. Miss Draughon said her group will not let the spy agency "wrap themselves up in paranoia and patriotism and say they have classified dirt."...Wyoming to consider brucellosis test plan All Wyoming cattle sold for breeding would have to be tested for brucellosis under a proposal that will be discussed by state officials next week. The idea comes in the wake of Monday's report confirming that a Sublette County herd is infected with brucellosis. Thirty-one of 391 cattle in the herd tested positive for the disease. So far, other tested herds that may have come in contact with the infected cattle have not shown signs of the disease. The Wyoming State Livestock Board will meet Tuesday to consider mandatory testing for brucellosis of cattle sold for breeding herds...New West Nile Virus Equine Recombinant DNA Vaccine Anticipated A new West Nile virus (WNV) equine recombinant canarypox vaccine awaits USDA approval; once available, it could pave the way for a new generation of equine vaccines in the United States. Merial has been developing this Recombitek equine WNV technology for three years. The company assembled a group of researchers, clinicians, and private practitioners in New Orleans, La., on Nov. 19, 2003, to review WNV and the research behind the technology. Recombitek would be the first recombinant canarypox DNA vaccine to be approved for use in horses in the United States, and it would provide another WNV vaccination option...Seabiscuit Movie Makes $80 Million in First Week Riding the crest of the holiday shopping season, Seabiscuit burst out of the gate with more than $80 million in DVD and VHS sales in its first week, making it the year's best-selling drama released on DVD and VHS. Released Dec. 16, the title sold five million units in its first six days...Perhaps it's just my age This year instead of assigning myself a whole bunch of do-better tasks, I'm making Griping Declarations. I'm going to hang on to my personal preferences and prejudices. I'm sticking resolutely with what I don't like, can't stand, don't want, and refuse to deal with. In other words, I'm keeping my gripes. I'm used to them. They're old friends. I can use them as conversation starters when I'm stuck for something to say at boring meetings. At my age, I can do that...The sharpest men carried pocketknives To help realize the change from the old days to modern times, we need only to recall memories of the pocketknife. Since the beginnings of man, a sharp edge on a rock, flint or metal often meant the difference between survival and death. Whether using a blade for protection or to help provide subsistence, the knife was indispensable...
Permalink
MAD COW NEWS
VENEMAN ANNOUNCES ADDITIONAL PROTECTION MEASURES TO GUARD AGAINST BSE
WASHINGTON, Dec. 30, 2003—Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman today announced additional safeguards to bolster the U.S. protection systems against Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or BSE, and further protect public health.
“For more than a decade, the United States has had in place an aggressive surveillance, detection and response program for BSE,” said Veneman. “While we are confident that the United States has safeguards and firewalls needed to protect public health, these additional actions will further strengthen our protection systems.”
Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman announced additional safeguards to bolster the U.S. protection systems against Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or BSE, and further protect public health.
Veneman said the policies announced today have been under consideration for many months, especially since the finding of a case of BSE in Canada in May 2003. The policies will further strengthen protections against BSE by removing certain animals and specified risk material and tissues from the human food chain; requiring additional process controls for establishments using advanced meat recovery (AMR); holding meat from cattle that have been tested for BSE until the test has confirmed negative; and prohibiting the air-injection stunning of cattle.
While many cattle in the United States can be identified through a variety of systems, the Secretary also announced that USDA will begin immediate implementation of a verifiable system of national animal identification. The development of such a system has been underway for more than a year and a half to achieve uniformity, consistency and efficiency across this national system.
“USDA has worked with partners at the federal and state levels and in industry for the past year and a half on the adoption of standards for a verifiable nationwide animal identification system to help enhance the speed and accuracy of our response to disease outbreaks across many different animal species,” Veneman said. “I have asked USDA’s Chief Information Officer to expedite the development of the technology architecture to implement this system.
Additional Information Additional BSE Information and Resources
“These are initial steps that USDA will take to enhance our protection system,” Veneman said. “I am appointing an international panel of scientific experts to provide an objective review of our response actions and identify areas for potential additional enhancements.”
Specifically, USDA will take the following actions:
Downer Animals. Effectively immediately, USDA will ban all downer cattle from the human food chain. USDA will continue its BSE surveillance program.
Product Holding. USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service inspectors will no longer mark cattle tested for BSE as “inspected and passed” until confirmation is received that the animals have, in fact, tested negative for BSE. This new policy will be in the form of an interpretive rule that will be published in the Federal Register.
To prevent the entry into commerce of meat and meat food products that are adulterated, FSIS inspection program personnel perform ante- and post-mortem inspection of cattle that are slaughtered in the United States. As part of the ante-mortem inspection, FSIS personnel look for signs of disease, including signs of central nervous system impairment. Animals showing signs of systemic disease, including those exhibiting signs of neurologic impairment, are condemned. Meat from all condemned animals has never been permitted for use as human food.
Specified Risk Material. Effective immediately upon publication in the Federal Register, USDA will enhance its regulations by declaring as specified risk materials skull, brain, trigeminal ganglia, eyes, vertebral column, spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia of cattle over 30 months of age and the small intestine of cattle of all ages, thus prohibiting their use in the human food supply. Tonsils from all cattle are already considered inedible and therefore do not enter the food supply. These enhancements are consistent with the actions taken by Canada after the discovery of BSE in May.
In an interim final rule, FSIS will require federally inspected establishments that slaughter cattle to develop, implement, and maintain procedures to remove, segregate, and dispose of these specified risk materials so that they cannot possibly enter the food chain. Plants must also make that information readily available for review by FSIS inspection personnel. FSIS has also developed procedures for verifying the approximate age of cattle that are slaughtered in official establishments. State inspected plants must have equivalent procedures in place.
Advanced Meat Recovery. AMR is an industrial technology that removes muscle tissue from the bone of beef carcasses under high pressure without incorporating bone material when operated properly. AMR product can be labeled as “meat.” FSIS has previously had regulations in place that prohibit spinal cord from being included in products labeled as “meat.” The regulation, effective upon publication in the Federal Register, expands that prohibition to include dorsal root ganglia, clusters of nerve cells connected to the spinal cord along the vertebrae column, in addition to spinal cord tissue. Like spinal cord, the dorsal root ganglia may also contain BSE infectivity if the animal is infected. In addition, because the vertebral column and skull in cattle 30 months and older will be considered inedible, it cannot be used for AMR.
In March 2003, FSIS began a routine regulatory sampling program for beef produced from AMR systems to ensure that spinal cord tissue is not present in this product. In a new interim final rule announced today, establishments have to ensure process control through verification testing to ensure that neither spinal cord nor dorsal root ganglia is present in the product.
Air-Injection Stunning. To ensure that portions of the brain are not dislocated into the tissues of the carcass as a consequence of humanely stunning cattle during the slaughter process, FSIS is issuing a regulation to ban the practice of air-injection stunning.
Mechanically Separated Meat. USDA will prohibit use of mechanically separated meat in human food.
On Dec. 23, Veneman reported that a cow in Washington State has tested positive for BSE. A swift and comprehensive investigation is ongoing to trace the animal to a herd of origin, which is believed to be located in Alberta, Canada, as well as track additional animals that have entered the United States. (For the latest update on the investigation, visit www.usda.gov.)
For more than a decade, the United States has had in place an aggressive surveillance, detection and response program for BSE. The United States has tested over 20,000 head of cattle for BSE in each of the past two years, 47 times the recommended international standard.
Since 1989, USDA has banned imports of live ruminants and most ruminant products from the United Kingdom and other countries having BSE.
In 1997, the FDA prohibited the use of most mammalian protein, the main pathway to spread the disease should it be in the United States, in the manufacture of animal feed intended for cattle and other ruminants.
An independent analysis by Harvard in 2001 and again in 2003 shows that the risk of BSE spreading in the United States is low and any possible spread would have been reversed by the controls we have already put in place.
Technical Briefing and Webcast with U.S. Government Officials On BSE Case
Tuesday, Dec. 30
Welcome to today's technical briefing on the BSE situation. Today we are going to start off with an update by Dr. Ron DeHaven. He's the chief veterinary officer for USDA. We'll have a statement by Dr. Daniel Engeljohn, executive associate for policy from Food Safety Inspection Service. And then we'll have a statement by Dr. Lester M. Crawford. He's the deputy commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration.
I just want to point out a couple of things. Because of the number of people on this call, we would ask that you ask one question, no follow-ups. Also at the table here is Dr. Kenneth Petersen. He is the executive associate for regulatory operations at FSIS. He will be available as well to answer questions as needed. So the way it will work today is we'll let the statements go, and then we'll take three questions from the audio bridge; then we'll take three here, and then alternate. Dr. DeHaven will point you out. Wait for the mike to come to you. And then, with that, I think we're ready to begin. Dr. DeHaven?
DR. DEHAVEN: Thank you very much. Again, thank you all for being here. Ed mentioned that we will be making some statements. And, actually, I'm going to defer to my friend and colleague, Dr. Lester Crawford from Food and Drug Administration, and let him make the opening statement. Dr. Crawford?
DR. CRAWFORD: The Food and Drug Administration fully supports the safety policies announced today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which build on the principles and procedures that FDA and USDA have developed since 1997. These protective measures will add an additional layer of protection to the American public. In order to obtain these goals, FDA will evaluate the impacts of the new policies on the agency's resources, so that we can devise and implement the most effective and efficient additional layer of protection to the American public.
FDA will devote additional resources in order to do these increased responsibilities for protecting the safety of the food and feed supply. FDA will continue to rigorously enforce its measures to protect the public health against the BSE hazard. In the last six years, the agency has sponsored workshops, teleconferences and other outreach programs to stimulate cooperation of state, local and cross-border authorities in a vigilant surveillance for BSE. It has issued import alerts and bulletins to detain all products with processed animal protein from countries with BSE. It has requested blood centers to exclude blood donations by individuals who might be carriers of the BSE agent. And it has urged manufacturers of drugs, vaccines, medical devices and cosmetics to use only materials derived from cattle that are BSE free. The main focus of FDA's BSE prevention program has been regular inspections of all renderers and feed mills in the United States, more than 99 percent of whom have achieved full compliance with the 1997 FDA rule that prohibits the inclusion of most animal protein in feeds for cattle and other ruminants. The effectiveness of FDA's surveillance was most recently confirmed by the fact that all of the firms involved in the current BSE investigation were found to be in compliance with the FDA rule, and that the agency working with state and industry officials was able to halt the distribution of all of the meat and bone meal from the sick animal.
I cannot close without complimenting Secretary Veneman and the Department of Agriculture, who have been in complete communication with FDA. We have worked together and our agency applauds her leadership in this regard. We recognize that USDA is the lead agency. We want you to know that we feel like we are in complete communication, and we are working together on this, and in the end we will bring this to a satisfactory conclusion as fast as we possibly can.
Lastly, FDA has contained, as we have previously announced, all of the suspect rendered material. It is under our control, and it is being held at the present time.
DR. DEHAVEN: Dr. Crawford, thank you, and thank you for being here with us today.
Just a brief update on our investigation stemming from, again, a single positive cow slaughtered on December 9th, and she tested positive for BSE on December 23rd. Documentation is now available indicating that she was approximately six and a half years old at the time of slaughter, and our primary line of inquiry does lead to a farm in Alberta, Canada. The age of the animal is particularly important in that it does provide an explanation as to how she became infected, in that as a six-and-a-half-year-old with an approximate birth date of April 1997, she in fact would have been born before the feed ban went into place, either in Canada or the United States.
Multiple samples for DNA testing are in various stages of being submitted to two laboratories, one in Canada and one in the United States. We continue our trace-back and trace-forward investigations. We believe that the positive cow was one of 82 animals from the same Canadian herd that were permitted into the United States. We are conducting a painstaking records review to determine the transit, timing and current location of these 82 head of cattle. We do know that several are on the same premises where the positive cow was located immediately before she went to slaughter.
The positive cow we know had three calves while she was in the United States. The first animal, or first calf, was stillborn. The second is currently a yearling heifer, and is located on the index farm. And the third, a bull calf, is in a group of calves at another location, a calf feeding operation which is also under a state hold order.
I want to emphasize that these hold orders are not imposed because BSE is a contagious disease, or in any way to prevent the spread of this disease, since we know from the science that the disease is not spread by casual contact animal to animal. Rather, these hold orders are in place to ensure that we maintain the location of all animals that are of consequence and otherwise relevant to our ongoing investigation.
Just on a side note, if I could, I am hearing from my colleagues in the state of Washington that because of the incredible interest in this issue, there had been reports that reporters are visiting multiple dairy farms throughout the state. And while BSE cannot spread by this way, other diseases can be spread by people and equipment who move on and off the farm. So I would urge all farmers and visitors to take appropriate biosecurity precautions, and please let's respect the privacy and property of these individuals.
Finally, I just want to reiterate that the science supports our assertion that the meat is safe and nothing that we have announced today changes any of that. Over the last few days we have indicated that we are carefully considering appropriate changes to our system. Clearly that's a prudent thing to do given this new find in the United States, as well as the find in Canada in May of this year.
Today's announcement by the Secretary is clearly a result of that review. These actions do not in any way suggest that the meat produced in the current system is unsafe. For years we have had a feed ban in place. The high-risk materials from this positive cow were removed. And meat produced on the day that this positive cow was slaughtered is being recalled. Just like the meat recall, we are making these further enhancements to our system out of an abundance of caution.
I would again like to express my thanks to the owner of the index herd who has been extremely cooperative, as has the owner of the slaughter plant where this animal was slaughtered, the importers involved in the movement of these animals, and of course state officials in the state of Washington, and my friends and colleagues with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. All of them have provided tremendous assistance as we proceed with this investigation.
And, again, my thanks to the news media. We have been working hard, or you have been working hard, to ensure accurate reporting of this very complex and rapidly evolving situation.
With that, let me provide an opportunity for my colleague from the Food Safety Inspection Service, Dr. Dan Engeljohn, to make a statement.
DR. ENGELJOHN: Thank you, Dr. DeHaven. The Secretary of Agriculture has very broad authority to be able to swiftly and effectively take the policy actions that she announced earlier today. Here at the Department of Agriculture we have the Federal Meat Inspection Act, which the Food Safety Inspection Service administers. Through the Food Safety Inspection Service -- we are the public health regulatory agency here at USDA -- that ensures that the food supply -- in particular the meat, poultry and eggs -- are in fact safe, properly labeled and, importantly, that they are fit for human consumption.
With the policies that the Secretary announced today, we will put in place, or intend to put in place, regulatory policies that will ensure that the federally-inspected facilities will have written procedures that will document how they intend to segregate these high-risk tissues from those which present lower risk or no risk at all. As the Secretary mentioned, we are going to focus on tissues that contain the potential for high infectivity. And because healthy-appearing animals may in fact have infectivity in those tissues, we'll concentrate on those tissues even in healthy-appearing animals. As the Secretary mentioned, we'll look at the small intestine and the tonsils of all cattle. We intend to prohibit the use of the brain and spinal cord and the vertebral column in cattle of older age that may have higher infectivity because of their age.
With those actions, I'd like to turn the microphone back over to you, Dr. DeHaven.
DR. DEHAVEN: All right. We'll open it up for questions. And, as was first mentioned, we'll go to our telephone bridge for the first three questions. So, operator, if we could please have the first question...
Followed by Q&A with reporters.
Permalink
VENEMAN ANNOUNCES ADDITIONAL PROTECTION MEASURES TO GUARD AGAINST BSE
WASHINGTON, Dec. 30, 2003—Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman today announced additional safeguards to bolster the U.S. protection systems against Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or BSE, and further protect public health.
“For more than a decade, the United States has had in place an aggressive surveillance, detection and response program for BSE,” said Veneman. “While we are confident that the United States has safeguards and firewalls needed to protect public health, these additional actions will further strengthen our protection systems.”
Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman announced additional safeguards to bolster the U.S. protection systems against Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or BSE, and further protect public health.
Veneman said the policies announced today have been under consideration for many months, especially since the finding of a case of BSE in Canada in May 2003. The policies will further strengthen protections against BSE by removing certain animals and specified risk material and tissues from the human food chain; requiring additional process controls for establishments using advanced meat recovery (AMR); holding meat from cattle that have been tested for BSE until the test has confirmed negative; and prohibiting the air-injection stunning of cattle.
While many cattle in the United States can be identified through a variety of systems, the Secretary also announced that USDA will begin immediate implementation of a verifiable system of national animal identification. The development of such a system has been underway for more than a year and a half to achieve uniformity, consistency and efficiency across this national system.
“USDA has worked with partners at the federal and state levels and in industry for the past year and a half on the adoption of standards for a verifiable nationwide animal identification system to help enhance the speed and accuracy of our response to disease outbreaks across many different animal species,” Veneman said. “I have asked USDA’s Chief Information Officer to expedite the development of the technology architecture to implement this system.
Additional Information Additional BSE Information and Resources
“These are initial steps that USDA will take to enhance our protection system,” Veneman said. “I am appointing an international panel of scientific experts to provide an objective review of our response actions and identify areas for potential additional enhancements.”
Specifically, USDA will take the following actions:
Downer Animals. Effectively immediately, USDA will ban all downer cattle from the human food chain. USDA will continue its BSE surveillance program.
Product Holding. USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service inspectors will no longer mark cattle tested for BSE as “inspected and passed” until confirmation is received that the animals have, in fact, tested negative for BSE. This new policy will be in the form of an interpretive rule that will be published in the Federal Register.
To prevent the entry into commerce of meat and meat food products that are adulterated, FSIS inspection program personnel perform ante- and post-mortem inspection of cattle that are slaughtered in the United States. As part of the ante-mortem inspection, FSIS personnel look for signs of disease, including signs of central nervous system impairment. Animals showing signs of systemic disease, including those exhibiting signs of neurologic impairment, are condemned. Meat from all condemned animals has never been permitted for use as human food.
Specified Risk Material. Effective immediately upon publication in the Federal Register, USDA will enhance its regulations by declaring as specified risk materials skull, brain, trigeminal ganglia, eyes, vertebral column, spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia of cattle over 30 months of age and the small intestine of cattle of all ages, thus prohibiting their use in the human food supply. Tonsils from all cattle are already considered inedible and therefore do not enter the food supply. These enhancements are consistent with the actions taken by Canada after the discovery of BSE in May.
In an interim final rule, FSIS will require federally inspected establishments that slaughter cattle to develop, implement, and maintain procedures to remove, segregate, and dispose of these specified risk materials so that they cannot possibly enter the food chain. Plants must also make that information readily available for review by FSIS inspection personnel. FSIS has also developed procedures for verifying the approximate age of cattle that are slaughtered in official establishments. State inspected plants must have equivalent procedures in place.
Advanced Meat Recovery. AMR is an industrial technology that removes muscle tissue from the bone of beef carcasses under high pressure without incorporating bone material when operated properly. AMR product can be labeled as “meat.” FSIS has previously had regulations in place that prohibit spinal cord from being included in products labeled as “meat.” The regulation, effective upon publication in the Federal Register, expands that prohibition to include dorsal root ganglia, clusters of nerve cells connected to the spinal cord along the vertebrae column, in addition to spinal cord tissue. Like spinal cord, the dorsal root ganglia may also contain BSE infectivity if the animal is infected. In addition, because the vertebral column and skull in cattle 30 months and older will be considered inedible, it cannot be used for AMR.
In March 2003, FSIS began a routine regulatory sampling program for beef produced from AMR systems to ensure that spinal cord tissue is not present in this product. In a new interim final rule announced today, establishments have to ensure process control through verification testing to ensure that neither spinal cord nor dorsal root ganglia is present in the product.
Air-Injection Stunning. To ensure that portions of the brain are not dislocated into the tissues of the carcass as a consequence of humanely stunning cattle during the slaughter process, FSIS is issuing a regulation to ban the practice of air-injection stunning.
Mechanically Separated Meat. USDA will prohibit use of mechanically separated meat in human food.
On Dec. 23, Veneman reported that a cow in Washington State has tested positive for BSE. A swift and comprehensive investigation is ongoing to trace the animal to a herd of origin, which is believed to be located in Alberta, Canada, as well as track additional animals that have entered the United States. (For the latest update on the investigation, visit www.usda.gov.)
For more than a decade, the United States has had in place an aggressive surveillance, detection and response program for BSE. The United States has tested over 20,000 head of cattle for BSE in each of the past two years, 47 times the recommended international standard.
Since 1989, USDA has banned imports of live ruminants and most ruminant products from the United Kingdom and other countries having BSE.
In 1997, the FDA prohibited the use of most mammalian protein, the main pathway to spread the disease should it be in the United States, in the manufacture of animal feed intended for cattle and other ruminants.
An independent analysis by Harvard in 2001 and again in 2003 shows that the risk of BSE spreading in the United States is low and any possible spread would have been reversed by the controls we have already put in place.
Technical Briefing and Webcast with U.S. Government Officials On BSE Case
Tuesday, Dec. 30
Welcome to today's technical briefing on the BSE situation. Today we are going to start off with an update by Dr. Ron DeHaven. He's the chief veterinary officer for USDA. We'll have a statement by Dr. Daniel Engeljohn, executive associate for policy from Food Safety Inspection Service. And then we'll have a statement by Dr. Lester M. Crawford. He's the deputy commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration.
I just want to point out a couple of things. Because of the number of people on this call, we would ask that you ask one question, no follow-ups. Also at the table here is Dr. Kenneth Petersen. He is the executive associate for regulatory operations at FSIS. He will be available as well to answer questions as needed. So the way it will work today is we'll let the statements go, and then we'll take three questions from the audio bridge; then we'll take three here, and then alternate. Dr. DeHaven will point you out. Wait for the mike to come to you. And then, with that, I think we're ready to begin. Dr. DeHaven?
DR. DEHAVEN: Thank you very much. Again, thank you all for being here. Ed mentioned that we will be making some statements. And, actually, I'm going to defer to my friend and colleague, Dr. Lester Crawford from Food and Drug Administration, and let him make the opening statement. Dr. Crawford?
DR. CRAWFORD: The Food and Drug Administration fully supports the safety policies announced today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which build on the principles and procedures that FDA and USDA have developed since 1997. These protective measures will add an additional layer of protection to the American public. In order to obtain these goals, FDA will evaluate the impacts of the new policies on the agency's resources, so that we can devise and implement the most effective and efficient additional layer of protection to the American public.
FDA will devote additional resources in order to do these increased responsibilities for protecting the safety of the food and feed supply. FDA will continue to rigorously enforce its measures to protect the public health against the BSE hazard. In the last six years, the agency has sponsored workshops, teleconferences and other outreach programs to stimulate cooperation of state, local and cross-border authorities in a vigilant surveillance for BSE. It has issued import alerts and bulletins to detain all products with processed animal protein from countries with BSE. It has requested blood centers to exclude blood donations by individuals who might be carriers of the BSE agent. And it has urged manufacturers of drugs, vaccines, medical devices and cosmetics to use only materials derived from cattle that are BSE free. The main focus of FDA's BSE prevention program has been regular inspections of all renderers and feed mills in the United States, more than 99 percent of whom have achieved full compliance with the 1997 FDA rule that prohibits the inclusion of most animal protein in feeds for cattle and other ruminants. The effectiveness of FDA's surveillance was most recently confirmed by the fact that all of the firms involved in the current BSE investigation were found to be in compliance with the FDA rule, and that the agency working with state and industry officials was able to halt the distribution of all of the meat and bone meal from the sick animal.
I cannot close without complimenting Secretary Veneman and the Department of Agriculture, who have been in complete communication with FDA. We have worked together and our agency applauds her leadership in this regard. We recognize that USDA is the lead agency. We want you to know that we feel like we are in complete communication, and we are working together on this, and in the end we will bring this to a satisfactory conclusion as fast as we possibly can.
Lastly, FDA has contained, as we have previously announced, all of the suspect rendered material. It is under our control, and it is being held at the present time.
DR. DEHAVEN: Dr. Crawford, thank you, and thank you for being here with us today.
Just a brief update on our investigation stemming from, again, a single positive cow slaughtered on December 9th, and she tested positive for BSE on December 23rd. Documentation is now available indicating that she was approximately six and a half years old at the time of slaughter, and our primary line of inquiry does lead to a farm in Alberta, Canada. The age of the animal is particularly important in that it does provide an explanation as to how she became infected, in that as a six-and-a-half-year-old with an approximate birth date of April 1997, she in fact would have been born before the feed ban went into place, either in Canada or the United States.
Multiple samples for DNA testing are in various stages of being submitted to two laboratories, one in Canada and one in the United States. We continue our trace-back and trace-forward investigations. We believe that the positive cow was one of 82 animals from the same Canadian herd that were permitted into the United States. We are conducting a painstaking records review to determine the transit, timing and current location of these 82 head of cattle. We do know that several are on the same premises where the positive cow was located immediately before she went to slaughter.
The positive cow we know had three calves while she was in the United States. The first animal, or first calf, was stillborn. The second is currently a yearling heifer, and is located on the index farm. And the third, a bull calf, is in a group of calves at another location, a calf feeding operation which is also under a state hold order.
I want to emphasize that these hold orders are not imposed because BSE is a contagious disease, or in any way to prevent the spread of this disease, since we know from the science that the disease is not spread by casual contact animal to animal. Rather, these hold orders are in place to ensure that we maintain the location of all animals that are of consequence and otherwise relevant to our ongoing investigation.
Just on a side note, if I could, I am hearing from my colleagues in the state of Washington that because of the incredible interest in this issue, there had been reports that reporters are visiting multiple dairy farms throughout the state. And while BSE cannot spread by this way, other diseases can be spread by people and equipment who move on and off the farm. So I would urge all farmers and visitors to take appropriate biosecurity precautions, and please let's respect the privacy and property of these individuals.
Finally, I just want to reiterate that the science supports our assertion that the meat is safe and nothing that we have announced today changes any of that. Over the last few days we have indicated that we are carefully considering appropriate changes to our system. Clearly that's a prudent thing to do given this new find in the United States, as well as the find in Canada in May of this year.
Today's announcement by the Secretary is clearly a result of that review. These actions do not in any way suggest that the meat produced in the current system is unsafe. For years we have had a feed ban in place. The high-risk materials from this positive cow were removed. And meat produced on the day that this positive cow was slaughtered is being recalled. Just like the meat recall, we are making these further enhancements to our system out of an abundance of caution.
I would again like to express my thanks to the owner of the index herd who has been extremely cooperative, as has the owner of the slaughter plant where this animal was slaughtered, the importers involved in the movement of these animals, and of course state officials in the state of Washington, and my friends and colleagues with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. All of them have provided tremendous assistance as we proceed with this investigation.
And, again, my thanks to the news media. We have been working hard, or you have been working hard, to ensure accurate reporting of this very complex and rapidly evolving situation.
With that, let me provide an opportunity for my colleague from the Food Safety Inspection Service, Dr. Dan Engeljohn, to make a statement.
DR. ENGELJOHN: Thank you, Dr. DeHaven. The Secretary of Agriculture has very broad authority to be able to swiftly and effectively take the policy actions that she announced earlier today. Here at the Department of Agriculture we have the Federal Meat Inspection Act, which the Food Safety Inspection Service administers. Through the Food Safety Inspection Service -- we are the public health regulatory agency here at USDA -- that ensures that the food supply -- in particular the meat, poultry and eggs -- are in fact safe, properly labeled and, importantly, that they are fit for human consumption.
With the policies that the Secretary announced today, we will put in place, or intend to put in place, regulatory policies that will ensure that the federally-inspected facilities will have written procedures that will document how they intend to segregate these high-risk tissues from those which present lower risk or no risk at all. As the Secretary mentioned, we are going to focus on tissues that contain the potential for high infectivity. And because healthy-appearing animals may in fact have infectivity in those tissues, we'll concentrate on those tissues even in healthy-appearing animals. As the Secretary mentioned, we'll look at the small intestine and the tonsils of all cattle. We intend to prohibit the use of the brain and spinal cord and the vertebral column in cattle of older age that may have higher infectivity because of their age.
With those actions, I'd like to turn the microphone back over to you, Dr. DeHaven.
DR. DEHAVEN: All right. We'll open it up for questions. And, as was first mentioned, we'll go to our telephone bridge for the first three questions. So, operator, if we could please have the first question...
Followed by Q&A with reporters.
Permalink
MAD COW NEWS
U.S. bans meat from sick, injured cows To bolster confidence in U.S. beef, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman on Tuesday banned sick and injured cattle - those at the highest risk to have mad cow disease - from the nation's food supply. In a series of actions that even critics lauded, Veneman also moved to: --Prohibit human consumption of certain high-risk cow parts from older cattle, including the brain, eyes, spinal cord and small intestines --Tighten restrictions on controversial slaughterhouse techniques that heighten contamination risks --Require inspectors to hold potentially ill animals out of the food supply until tests confirm they are safe --Speed up plans for a comprehensive national system to track cattle...The offal truth: People enjoy calf brains You can boil it in salted water, drain and chop it into neat little chunks, and then scramble it with a dozen eggs and three tablespoons of butter -- or you could coat it in cream, cheese and spices and fry to a crispy golden brown. Mmmmmm, yummy, brains! With eggs or fried as fritters, they are just like grandma used to make but after the last few days, you may not want to eat them ever again...Other beef-exporting countries fear U.S. ban will harm markets Far from celebrating, cattle producers in countries that compete with American beef products fear the discovery of mad cow disease in the United States will cause havoc in their export markets. The reason: The United States buys more imported beef than any other country. With U.S. beef exports now banned in many countries, more American beef is likely to be sold at home at prices too low for foreign beef producers to match. For Australia and other major beef exporters, the loss of the U.S. market could offset any gains from increased sales in countries such as Japan and South Korea that now ban American beef...Livestock industry officials support move on downer cattle Montana livestock industry officials said Tuesday they support a decision by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to ban so-called "downer" cattle from the human food chain. The move was among the additional safeguards the USDA announced Tuesday that are meant to enhance systems guarding against mad cow disease and to further protect the public health. Steve Pilcher, executive vice president of the Montana Stockgrowers Association, said the group supports the "tough decision" that Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman made regarding downer cattle - those that, for whatever reason, cannot move on their own...Official: Mad cow case spotlights labeling requirement The discovery of mad cow disease in the United States may help federal officials realize the importance of country-of-origin meat labeling said Carrie Longwood, executive director of the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association. Longwood said South Dakota's congressional delegation supports country-of-origin labeling and that she hopes people in other states will encourage their congressmen to do likewise...Gov. Proposes Cattle Tracking System Gov. Bill Richardson has directed state agricultural officials to study the possibility of implementing a better tracking system for cattle in New Mexico. Richardson asked the state Agriculture Department to study the feasibility of requiring microchips to be implanted in all cattle in the state. He says the chips could provide a quick and sure way of identifying and tracking the animals...Cuba purchase of US cattle delayed over mad cow concerns Communist Cuba said Tuesday it will postpone planned purchases of American cattle after last week's announcement that a Holstein cow in Washington state tested positive for mad cow disease. Pedro Alvarez, head of the Cuban food import company Alimport, said earlier planned sales would go ahead only after authorities here are confident that the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, has been controlled...KF stores took beef off shelves Four chain supermarkets in Klamath Falls withdrew meat products following last week's announcement about a case of mad cow disease in Washington state. But store officials said there's no way to know where meat from the affected cow may have ended up, and that the withdrawal of meat from store counters was simply precautionary. Safeway opted to voluntarily withdraw all ground beef products from its stores in the Northwest until hearing more information from the U.S. Agriculture Department, said Bridget Flanagan, director of public affairs for 120 Safeway stores in Oregon and southwest Washington...US mad cow trade team to return to Washington A U.S. trade delegation that met with Japanese and South Korean officials to discuss their ban on American beef shipments will return to Washington on Wednesday, a U.S. Agriculture Department spokeswoman said on Tuesday. Some two dozen nations have halted U.S. beef shipments since the first case of mad cow disease was discovered in a Holstein dairy cow in Washington state. Last year, the United States exported about $3.2 billion worth of beef products. The USDA trade team visited Tokyo and Seoul this week but did not plan to visit any other countries at this time, the spokeswoman said...Food-borne diseases take heavy toll on public health In the week since mad cow disease was discovered in the United States, more than a million Americans were sickened by food they ate. About 6,000 became so ill they were hospitalized and nearly 100 died, according to federal health estimates. But mad cow disease wasn't the culprit. Indeed, not a single American is known to have contracted the human form of the disease from eating food in this country. Instead, salmonella, E. coli, listeria and other dangerous bacteria routinely take a huge toll on public health, yet get little of the attention that's now focused on the beef from one Washington state Holstein found infected with mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy...Scientist Says Anti-Mad Cow Measure Ignored A U.S. scientist said on Tuesday a simple treatment combining high pressure with heat could neutralize the proteins that cause mad cow disease, but federal officials had shown little interest in it. Dr. Paul Brown of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke said his process, developed with European researchers, would inactivate the prion proteins that cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy without damaging the meat. Normal cooking does not affect prions...Organic Consumers Association Launches 'Mad Cow USA - Stop the Madness' Petition Campaign for Tough New Mad Cow Regulations The Organic Consumers Association, a nationwide grassroots lobby, is launching today a nationwide petition campaign, called Mad Cow USA -- Stop the Madness. Its goal is to educate and mobilize a million Americans to force Congress to enact strict, European- like regulations to stop the spread of Mad Cow Disease in the United States...Beef Futures Remain in Free Fall Beef prices extended their steep decline Tuesday on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, with key contracts falling the exchange-allowed limit for a fourth consecutive session after early buying interest fizzled. The most-active February live cattle contract ended the trading day down 5 cents at 76.17 cents per pound despite virtually the first buying since mad cow disease emerged in a U.S. cow a week earlier. Buyers disappeared by late morning amid talk that beef previously headed for Japan and South Korea - which have been among the top three customers for U.S. beef - already was being shipped back to the United States despite American diplomacy to end a nearly worldwide ban...
Permalink
U.S. bans meat from sick, injured cows To bolster confidence in U.S. beef, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman on Tuesday banned sick and injured cattle - those at the highest risk to have mad cow disease - from the nation's food supply. In a series of actions that even critics lauded, Veneman also moved to: --Prohibit human consumption of certain high-risk cow parts from older cattle, including the brain, eyes, spinal cord and small intestines --Tighten restrictions on controversial slaughterhouse techniques that heighten contamination risks --Require inspectors to hold potentially ill animals out of the food supply until tests confirm they are safe --Speed up plans for a comprehensive national system to track cattle...The offal truth: People enjoy calf brains You can boil it in salted water, drain and chop it into neat little chunks, and then scramble it with a dozen eggs and three tablespoons of butter -- or you could coat it in cream, cheese and spices and fry to a crispy golden brown. Mmmmmm, yummy, brains! With eggs or fried as fritters, they are just like grandma used to make but after the last few days, you may not want to eat them ever again...Other beef-exporting countries fear U.S. ban will harm markets Far from celebrating, cattle producers in countries that compete with American beef products fear the discovery of mad cow disease in the United States will cause havoc in their export markets. The reason: The United States buys more imported beef than any other country. With U.S. beef exports now banned in many countries, more American beef is likely to be sold at home at prices too low for foreign beef producers to match. For Australia and other major beef exporters, the loss of the U.S. market could offset any gains from increased sales in countries such as Japan and South Korea that now ban American beef...Livestock industry officials support move on downer cattle Montana livestock industry officials said Tuesday they support a decision by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to ban so-called "downer" cattle from the human food chain. The move was among the additional safeguards the USDA announced Tuesday that are meant to enhance systems guarding against mad cow disease and to further protect the public health. Steve Pilcher, executive vice president of the Montana Stockgrowers Association, said the group supports the "tough decision" that Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman made regarding downer cattle - those that, for whatever reason, cannot move on their own...Official: Mad cow case spotlights labeling requirement The discovery of mad cow disease in the United States may help federal officials realize the importance of country-of-origin meat labeling said Carrie Longwood, executive director of the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association. Longwood said South Dakota's congressional delegation supports country-of-origin labeling and that she hopes people in other states will encourage their congressmen to do likewise...Gov. Proposes Cattle Tracking System Gov. Bill Richardson has directed state agricultural officials to study the possibility of implementing a better tracking system for cattle in New Mexico. Richardson asked the state Agriculture Department to study the feasibility of requiring microchips to be implanted in all cattle in the state. He says the chips could provide a quick and sure way of identifying and tracking the animals...Cuba purchase of US cattle delayed over mad cow concerns Communist Cuba said Tuesday it will postpone planned purchases of American cattle after last week's announcement that a Holstein cow in Washington state tested positive for mad cow disease. Pedro Alvarez, head of the Cuban food import company Alimport, said earlier planned sales would go ahead only after authorities here are confident that the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, has been controlled...KF stores took beef off shelves Four chain supermarkets in Klamath Falls withdrew meat products following last week's announcement about a case of mad cow disease in Washington state. But store officials said there's no way to know where meat from the affected cow may have ended up, and that the withdrawal of meat from store counters was simply precautionary. Safeway opted to voluntarily withdraw all ground beef products from its stores in the Northwest until hearing more information from the U.S. Agriculture Department, said Bridget Flanagan, director of public affairs for 120 Safeway stores in Oregon and southwest Washington...US mad cow trade team to return to Washington A U.S. trade delegation that met with Japanese and South Korean officials to discuss their ban on American beef shipments will return to Washington on Wednesday, a U.S. Agriculture Department spokeswoman said on Tuesday. Some two dozen nations have halted U.S. beef shipments since the first case of mad cow disease was discovered in a Holstein dairy cow in Washington state. Last year, the United States exported about $3.2 billion worth of beef products. The USDA trade team visited Tokyo and Seoul this week but did not plan to visit any other countries at this time, the spokeswoman said...Food-borne diseases take heavy toll on public health In the week since mad cow disease was discovered in the United States, more than a million Americans were sickened by food they ate. About 6,000 became so ill they were hospitalized and nearly 100 died, according to federal health estimates. But mad cow disease wasn't the culprit. Indeed, not a single American is known to have contracted the human form of the disease from eating food in this country. Instead, salmonella, E. coli, listeria and other dangerous bacteria routinely take a huge toll on public health, yet get little of the attention that's now focused on the beef from one Washington state Holstein found infected with mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy...Scientist Says Anti-Mad Cow Measure Ignored A U.S. scientist said on Tuesday a simple treatment combining high pressure with heat could neutralize the proteins that cause mad cow disease, but federal officials had shown little interest in it. Dr. Paul Brown of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke said his process, developed with European researchers, would inactivate the prion proteins that cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy without damaging the meat. Normal cooking does not affect prions...Organic Consumers Association Launches 'Mad Cow USA - Stop the Madness' Petition Campaign for Tough New Mad Cow Regulations The Organic Consumers Association, a nationwide grassroots lobby, is launching today a nationwide petition campaign, called Mad Cow USA -- Stop the Madness. Its goal is to educate and mobilize a million Americans to force Congress to enact strict, European- like regulations to stop the spread of Mad Cow Disease in the United States...Beef Futures Remain in Free Fall Beef prices extended their steep decline Tuesday on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, with key contracts falling the exchange-allowed limit for a fourth consecutive session after early buying interest fizzled. The most-active February live cattle contract ended the trading day down 5 cents at 76.17 cents per pound despite virtually the first buying since mad cow disease emerged in a U.S. cow a week earlier. Buyers disappeared by late morning amid talk that beef previously headed for Japan and South Korea - which have been among the top three customers for U.S. beef - already was being shipped back to the United States despite American diplomacy to end a nearly worldwide ban...
Permalink
Monday, December 29, 2003
NEWS ROUNDUP
Wildfires Reset Rock Clocks Wildfires are resetting the atomic clocks of some rocks, geologists say. The confirmation of the long-suspected wildfire effect could also give archeologists and fire historians a new way to date ancient fires. By heating up rocks and releasing helium that has been building up in the common mineral apatite ever since the rock first cooled, wildfires essentially erase the "cool-down" record within rocks, said Sara Mitchell of the University of Washington...Skiers again mapping out Nordic trail plan The White River National Forest is accepting comments on the West Elk Multi-Use Club application to mark and groom up to 20 miles of existing roads and trails for cross-country skiing near the Buford/New Castle Road northwest of New Castle. "Any approved marking and grooming would comply with Forest Service standards for winter trails," said a White River National Forest notice. If approved, the project would be implemented this winter...Column: The price of preservation: Does environmental value of land trusts justify big tax breaks? Between 1990 and 2000, the acreage of land protected by local, state and regional land trusts increased 226 percent to 6.2 million. When added to larger, national land trusts the acreage increases to more than 20 million acres -- more land than all of the national parks in the lower 48 states. But private land trusts, and particularly conservation easements, are facing increased scrutiny. Critics cite conflicts of interest on some trust boards and wealthy landowners trading land of questionable environmental value for big tax breaks as evidence of a system they say can be abused. The Washington Post published reports of a Florida golf course consultant who boasted online about an investor saving $4.8 million in taxes by agreeing not to build homes along fairways. In another published incident, luxury home builders in North Carolina reportedly paid $10 million for land only to receive a $20 million tax deduction for only building on a third of the tract. A developer in Pennsylvania was reported to have gotten a break for enacting building restrictions in portions of a subdivision that were unfit for building in the first place...Are U.S. Landowners Killing Rare Species to Avoid Regulation? Critics of the animal's protected status, including those representing farmers, ranchers, and developers, among others, have presented evidence that the mouse does not qualify as a threatened species. These landowners feared regulation of agriculture, development, and leisure activities on their land, all of which could have been curtailed as potentially damaging to the mouse's habitat. "The Endangered Species Act is one of the major tools in the U.S. to conserve species," said Amara Brook, psychologist and lead author behind the study. "But in some cases it may not be enough."...Arsenal nears milestone in transition to refuge Nearly one-third of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Superfund could become a wildlife refuge by the end of next year. The Environmental Protection Agency is expected in 2004 to recommend that 5,000 of the 17,000 acres within the arsenal are clean enough to be taken off the Superfund National Priority List. The arsenal outside Denver already is among the best places in North America to see trophy mule deer bucks...A paleontologist stalks a mass murderer The Gorgon was the top predator of its day, taking down strange beasts the size of a modern hippopotamus. The first man to find one called it Gorgonopsid, after the mythical Gorgon, a creature so horrible that all who gazed upon it were turned to stone. The animal stood 10 feet from tip to tail. Its head was tiger-like, with four-inch teeth designed for slashing prey. And yet it was eerily not like a tiger at all because the eyes were set at the sides of the head like those of a lizard, and the huge body was covered with scales. In a tale of science and discovery that reads like a whodunit, Peter Ward tracks the answer to the question: Who killed the Gorgon? It's an important question, because the Gorgon was snuffed in the largest mass-murder in history: the Permian extinction of 250 million years ago that killed 95 percent of the species on earth. It was so extraordinary that it makes the Cretaceous extinction - the one that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago - look like a decidedly second-rank disaster...Final Spending Bill Shortchanges Parks The Department of Interior's final 2004 spending bill, signed into law recently by President Bush, allowed the administration's process for privatizing park jobs to proceed and left parks and public lands vulnerable to harmful road construction. The final bill requires the Department of Interior to spend no more than $2.5 million on job outsourcing studies and related expenses this year and to extensively report back to Congress on how studies are going. The first privatization studies are expected to examine Park Service jobs at Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco, and more studies are expected next year...Massacre site given to tribes Cheyenne and Arapaho tribal leaders prayed when a Colorado casino owner handed over the deed to the Sand Creek Massacre site in southeastern Colorado. The ceremony, which took place at the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribal Headquarters in Concha, Okla., earlier this month, included the story of the slaughter: On Nov. 29, 1864, Col. John Chivington ordered 700 soldiers to attack a sleeping village of about 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho, mostly elderly people, women and children. Laird Cometsevah, president of the Southern Cheyenne Sand Creek Descendants, said that a white flag of surrender and a U.S. flag given to tribal leaders by Abraham Lincoln were flying over the camp that day...Energy Department wants land to build railroad to Yucca The Energy Department wants to reserve more than 482 square miles of public land to build a rail line stretching to a national nuclear waste dump in the Nevada desert. The Bureau of Land Management issued a public notice Monday on the Energy Department request to withdraw 308,600 acres of public land from surface entry and mining for the next 20 years. The department would study the land for construction, operation and maintenance of a rail line to Yucca Mountain... Precipitation deficits loom There are two kinds of drought, according to BLM soil scientist and plant ecologist Bill Volk - agricultural drought, which gets the most press, and hydrologic drought, which should get a little more. Agricultural drought can be resolved quickly with a little well-timed moisture, he said. Billings and much of Montana suffered extreme precipitation deficits in 2003, but adequate spring moisture and cooler spring temperatures gave Montana its first good grass, hay and winter wheat crops in years. It's the hydrologic drought that worries Volk. "Hydrologic drought is looming larger and larger every day and will take a long time to turn around,'' he said. More than a single reasonably wet spring will be needed replenish streams, springs, aquifers, sub-soils and reservoirs... Column: The Right to Be Wild It was a long list, though not as long as the dossier I find myself compiling about the current chief executive, also from the nether regions of Texas. I'm not going to cover the waterfront, won't tell you everything, but as a Texas native and ex-petroleum geologist who has some thoughts on the subject of wilderness, I'd rather try to posit why the Bush administration's death knell for wilderness is wrong in a fundamental way: It strips away or eradicates not just a cultural cornerstone, but yet another of our rights -- the biological and utterly democratic right to know a piece of wild country will always exist under its own awesome powers of grace and logic. With his public-lands antics, Bush is stealing both our history and our future. He started in Utah, in Orrin Hatch-land, where residents of that state had spent years using a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) tool known as the Wilderness Handbook to inventory areas of the state's incredibly remote federal lands that had never been identified as wilderness. They found 3.2 million acres' worth, and 22 million acres of noninventoried BLM lands nationwide that were in need of federal protection. But in April, the administration slashed back: Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced that her department would no longer consider any public lands -- in Utah or anywhere else -- for new wilderness protection. The administration further argued that although it would manage these lands for other values -- oil and gas production, coal extraction, irrigation and hydroelectricity, timber, grazing, etc. -- it no longer had the authority to designate any of the public's lands as wilderness...Sierra counties face air cleanup: Rural regions must join in effort of smoggier neighbors Mountain-county residents east of the murky San Joaquin Valley are upset over the news that their fresh air soon will be classified as dirty, but that's only part of their bad news. Amador, Calaveras, Tuolumne and Mariposa counties also will be pulled into the massive smog cleanup campaign for the Valley, the second-dirtiest air basin in the country. And the real downer: Their problem is not home-grown. The Valley is the biggest source of their pollution, sending smog to the mountains on prevailing summer breezes...A Free Trade Boom or an Environmental Bust? Metales y Derivados has become a symbol of what many environmentalists consider the failure of the North American Free Trade Agreement to adequately protect natural resources since it dismantled trade barriers among the United States, Mexico and Canada one decade ago on Jan. 1. "By increasing trade, NAFTA was supposed to create more resources to protect the environment," said Constance GarcÃa of the Border Environmental Justice Campaign, a San Diego-based group that is lobbying to clean up the Metales y Derivados site. "Ten years later, that promise hasn't been kept." NAFTA's defenders counter that Mexico's environmental record is better now than it was before the pact. They note that many factories created in Mexico under NAFTA pollute less than their older, U.S. counterparts do. What's more, a bi-national NAFTA bank and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have poured more than a half-billion dollars over the past decade into such projects as cleaning contaminated water and improving air quality in border areas that have grown under NAFTA...Plan in the works to unite Mexican, U.S. governors on Rio Grande water issues With that in mind, a plan is in the works to bring the governors of New Mexico, Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila and Tamaulipas together to draft a water agreement. The goal: to help future generations on both sides of the border manage the basin. "I'm very concerned by the lack of attention Mexico's federal government and the U.S. government are giving to water issues at the border," said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who is behind the effort. Richardson wants the five governors to draft an agreement that would cover water use, conservation and management of the river. He hopes to rally the leaders as chairman of the U.S.-Mexico Border Governors Conference. If successful, Richardson and others say the agreement would be a breakthrough for the border...An odd lizard lives in huge numbers nearby. Why? Only one kind of lizard lives on Santa Barbara Island, and that's plenty. As many as 1,300 occupy a single acre on the rocky outpost, the highest known density of any ground-dwelling lizard on Earth. Imagine lizards waiting nose to nose to snap up the next available fly. Jammed claw to claw under prickly-pear cactuses. Skittering over sleeping bags in the dark. But Schwemm, a Channel Islands National Park wildlife biologist, repeats the warning of experts: This is not an easy reptile to hunt. For decades, scientists have traveled 38 miles out to sea to study Xantusia riversiana, or the island night lizard, and each discovery is more peculiar than the last. Like a Lewis Carroll creation, this species is at once familiar and strange...Western author continues living life the cowboy way Max Evans apologized to director Sam Peckinpah for breaking the latter's ankle in a brawl. Max only intended to break his neck. When it comes to the cowboy way of life, authenticity is what Evans is about. He likes Western films and the myths they perpetrate just fine, but he's always prided himself on portraying the reality behind the West whether that reality deals with the land, the animals, the cowboys, the bartenders, the artists or the hookers...PBS Bucking Horse film nearly done The annual Miles City Bucking Horse Sale is being used to demonstrate the culture of Eastern Montana in a documentary film being prepared for public television. "We are using the Bucking Horse Sale as a state of affairs for small ranches. ... It's a more intimate look at what life is like in Eastern Montana," said Ian Kellett, co-producing the film with Jon Dodson. The annual three-day sale and rodeo in May usually brings 200 to 300 unbroken horses to be viewed in a rodeo setting by buyers from around the country...
Permalink
Wildfires Reset Rock Clocks Wildfires are resetting the atomic clocks of some rocks, geologists say. The confirmation of the long-suspected wildfire effect could also give archeologists and fire historians a new way to date ancient fires. By heating up rocks and releasing helium that has been building up in the common mineral apatite ever since the rock first cooled, wildfires essentially erase the "cool-down" record within rocks, said Sara Mitchell of the University of Washington...Skiers again mapping out Nordic trail plan The White River National Forest is accepting comments on the West Elk Multi-Use Club application to mark and groom up to 20 miles of existing roads and trails for cross-country skiing near the Buford/New Castle Road northwest of New Castle. "Any approved marking and grooming would comply with Forest Service standards for winter trails," said a White River National Forest notice. If approved, the project would be implemented this winter...Column: The price of preservation: Does environmental value of land trusts justify big tax breaks? Between 1990 and 2000, the acreage of land protected by local, state and regional land trusts increased 226 percent to 6.2 million. When added to larger, national land trusts the acreage increases to more than 20 million acres -- more land than all of the national parks in the lower 48 states. But private land trusts, and particularly conservation easements, are facing increased scrutiny. Critics cite conflicts of interest on some trust boards and wealthy landowners trading land of questionable environmental value for big tax breaks as evidence of a system they say can be abused. The Washington Post published reports of a Florida golf course consultant who boasted online about an investor saving $4.8 million in taxes by agreeing not to build homes along fairways. In another published incident, luxury home builders in North Carolina reportedly paid $10 million for land only to receive a $20 million tax deduction for only building on a third of the tract. A developer in Pennsylvania was reported to have gotten a break for enacting building restrictions in portions of a subdivision that were unfit for building in the first place...Are U.S. Landowners Killing Rare Species to Avoid Regulation? Critics of the animal's protected status, including those representing farmers, ranchers, and developers, among others, have presented evidence that the mouse does not qualify as a threatened species. These landowners feared regulation of agriculture, development, and leisure activities on their land, all of which could have been curtailed as potentially damaging to the mouse's habitat. "The Endangered Species Act is one of the major tools in the U.S. to conserve species," said Amara Brook, psychologist and lead author behind the study. "But in some cases it may not be enough."...Arsenal nears milestone in transition to refuge Nearly one-third of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Superfund could become a wildlife refuge by the end of next year. The Environmental Protection Agency is expected in 2004 to recommend that 5,000 of the 17,000 acres within the arsenal are clean enough to be taken off the Superfund National Priority List. The arsenal outside Denver already is among the best places in North America to see trophy mule deer bucks...A paleontologist stalks a mass murderer The Gorgon was the top predator of its day, taking down strange beasts the size of a modern hippopotamus. The first man to find one called it Gorgonopsid, after the mythical Gorgon, a creature so horrible that all who gazed upon it were turned to stone. The animal stood 10 feet from tip to tail. Its head was tiger-like, with four-inch teeth designed for slashing prey. And yet it was eerily not like a tiger at all because the eyes were set at the sides of the head like those of a lizard, and the huge body was covered with scales. In a tale of science and discovery that reads like a whodunit, Peter Ward tracks the answer to the question: Who killed the Gorgon? It's an important question, because the Gorgon was snuffed in the largest mass-murder in history: the Permian extinction of 250 million years ago that killed 95 percent of the species on earth. It was so extraordinary that it makes the Cretaceous extinction - the one that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago - look like a decidedly second-rank disaster...Final Spending Bill Shortchanges Parks The Department of Interior's final 2004 spending bill, signed into law recently by President Bush, allowed the administration's process for privatizing park jobs to proceed and left parks and public lands vulnerable to harmful road construction. The final bill requires the Department of Interior to spend no more than $2.5 million on job outsourcing studies and related expenses this year and to extensively report back to Congress on how studies are going. The first privatization studies are expected to examine Park Service jobs at Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco, and more studies are expected next year...Massacre site given to tribes Cheyenne and Arapaho tribal leaders prayed when a Colorado casino owner handed over the deed to the Sand Creek Massacre site in southeastern Colorado. The ceremony, which took place at the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribal Headquarters in Concha, Okla., earlier this month, included the story of the slaughter: On Nov. 29, 1864, Col. John Chivington ordered 700 soldiers to attack a sleeping village of about 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho, mostly elderly people, women and children. Laird Cometsevah, president of the Southern Cheyenne Sand Creek Descendants, said that a white flag of surrender and a U.S. flag given to tribal leaders by Abraham Lincoln were flying over the camp that day...Energy Department wants land to build railroad to Yucca The Energy Department wants to reserve more than 482 square miles of public land to build a rail line stretching to a national nuclear waste dump in the Nevada desert. The Bureau of Land Management issued a public notice Monday on the Energy Department request to withdraw 308,600 acres of public land from surface entry and mining for the next 20 years. The department would study the land for construction, operation and maintenance of a rail line to Yucca Mountain... Precipitation deficits loom There are two kinds of drought, according to BLM soil scientist and plant ecologist Bill Volk - agricultural drought, which gets the most press, and hydrologic drought, which should get a little more. Agricultural drought can be resolved quickly with a little well-timed moisture, he said. Billings and much of Montana suffered extreme precipitation deficits in 2003, but adequate spring moisture and cooler spring temperatures gave Montana its first good grass, hay and winter wheat crops in years. It's the hydrologic drought that worries Volk. "Hydrologic drought is looming larger and larger every day and will take a long time to turn around,'' he said. More than a single reasonably wet spring will be needed replenish streams, springs, aquifers, sub-soils and reservoirs... Column: The Right to Be Wild It was a long list, though not as long as the dossier I find myself compiling about the current chief executive, also from the nether regions of Texas. I'm not going to cover the waterfront, won't tell you everything, but as a Texas native and ex-petroleum geologist who has some thoughts on the subject of wilderness, I'd rather try to posit why the Bush administration's death knell for wilderness is wrong in a fundamental way: It strips away or eradicates not just a cultural cornerstone, but yet another of our rights -- the biological and utterly democratic right to know a piece of wild country will always exist under its own awesome powers of grace and logic. With his public-lands antics, Bush is stealing both our history and our future. He started in Utah, in Orrin Hatch-land, where residents of that state had spent years using a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) tool known as the Wilderness Handbook to inventory areas of the state's incredibly remote federal lands that had never been identified as wilderness. They found 3.2 million acres' worth, and 22 million acres of noninventoried BLM lands nationwide that were in need of federal protection. But in April, the administration slashed back: Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced that her department would no longer consider any public lands -- in Utah or anywhere else -- for new wilderness protection. The administration further argued that although it would manage these lands for other values -- oil and gas production, coal extraction, irrigation and hydroelectricity, timber, grazing, etc. -- it no longer had the authority to designate any of the public's lands as wilderness...Sierra counties face air cleanup: Rural regions must join in effort of smoggier neighbors Mountain-county residents east of the murky San Joaquin Valley are upset over the news that their fresh air soon will be classified as dirty, but that's only part of their bad news. Amador, Calaveras, Tuolumne and Mariposa counties also will be pulled into the massive smog cleanup campaign for the Valley, the second-dirtiest air basin in the country. And the real downer: Their problem is not home-grown. The Valley is the biggest source of their pollution, sending smog to the mountains on prevailing summer breezes...A Free Trade Boom or an Environmental Bust? Metales y Derivados has become a symbol of what many environmentalists consider the failure of the North American Free Trade Agreement to adequately protect natural resources since it dismantled trade barriers among the United States, Mexico and Canada one decade ago on Jan. 1. "By increasing trade, NAFTA was supposed to create more resources to protect the environment," said Constance GarcÃa of the Border Environmental Justice Campaign, a San Diego-based group that is lobbying to clean up the Metales y Derivados site. "Ten years later, that promise hasn't been kept." NAFTA's defenders counter that Mexico's environmental record is better now than it was before the pact. They note that many factories created in Mexico under NAFTA pollute less than their older, U.S. counterparts do. What's more, a bi-national NAFTA bank and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have poured more than a half-billion dollars over the past decade into such projects as cleaning contaminated water and improving air quality in border areas that have grown under NAFTA...Plan in the works to unite Mexican, U.S. governors on Rio Grande water issues With that in mind, a plan is in the works to bring the governors of New Mexico, Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila and Tamaulipas together to draft a water agreement. The goal: to help future generations on both sides of the border manage the basin. "I'm very concerned by the lack of attention Mexico's federal government and the U.S. government are giving to water issues at the border," said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who is behind the effort. Richardson wants the five governors to draft an agreement that would cover water use, conservation and management of the river. He hopes to rally the leaders as chairman of the U.S.-Mexico Border Governors Conference. If successful, Richardson and others say the agreement would be a breakthrough for the border...An odd lizard lives in huge numbers nearby. Why? Only one kind of lizard lives on Santa Barbara Island, and that's plenty. As many as 1,300 occupy a single acre on the rocky outpost, the highest known density of any ground-dwelling lizard on Earth. Imagine lizards waiting nose to nose to snap up the next available fly. Jammed claw to claw under prickly-pear cactuses. Skittering over sleeping bags in the dark. But Schwemm, a Channel Islands National Park wildlife biologist, repeats the warning of experts: This is not an easy reptile to hunt. For decades, scientists have traveled 38 miles out to sea to study Xantusia riversiana, or the island night lizard, and each discovery is more peculiar than the last. Like a Lewis Carroll creation, this species is at once familiar and strange...Western author continues living life the cowboy way Max Evans apologized to director Sam Peckinpah for breaking the latter's ankle in a brawl. Max only intended to break his neck. When it comes to the cowboy way of life, authenticity is what Evans is about. He likes Western films and the myths they perpetrate just fine, but he's always prided himself on portraying the reality behind the West whether that reality deals with the land, the animals, the cowboys, the bartenders, the artists or the hookers...PBS Bucking Horse film nearly done The annual Miles City Bucking Horse Sale is being used to demonstrate the culture of Eastern Montana in a documentary film being prepared for public television. "We are using the Bucking Horse Sale as a state of affairs for small ranches. ... It's a more intimate look at what life is like in Eastern Montana," said Ian Kellett, co-producing the film with Jon Dodson. The annual three-day sale and rodeo in May usually brings 200 to 300 unbroken horses to be viewed in a rodeo setting by buyers from around the country...
Permalink
Transcript of Technical Briefing and Webcast with U.S. Government Officials on BSE Case
Monday, December 29, 2003
DR. RON DEHAVEN: Let me speak first from an investigation standpoint. We are continuing to work with our Canadian colleagues to verify the trace-back of the indexed or positive animal.
One issue that has been of particular concern was the initial discrepancy in the age of the animal as reported by our records in the US versus those records that were available in Canada.
Yesterday I personally telephoned the owner of this herd where the positive animal was located primarily to thank him for his cooperation thus far in this effort. However, during that discussion he indicated that he has conducted an extensive search of his records and located original documents that would indicate that the cow in question, this positive animal, was indeed an older animal when he purchased her in 2001.
Those records are consistent with the Canadian records indicating that this animal was born in April of 1997, making her approximately 6 1/2 years old at the time of slaughter. So again I want to personally thank him and his employees for the extraordinary level of cooperation that they have shown to our investigators throughout what is no doubt a very difficult time for them.
The age of the animal is especially important in that it is a likely explanation as to how this animal would have become infected. She would have been born before feed bans were implemented in North America. As the feed bans in the US and Canada both went into effect in August of 1997, as I mentioned records would now indicate that this animal was born in April of 1997.
Again, those feed bans prohibit the inclusion of ruminant protein -- that would be material from animals such as cattle, sheep and goats -- from being fed back to other ruminants. Research evidence suggests that this is the primary, if not in fact the only, means by which BSE is spread from animal to animal. Obviously the more time goes by the fewer animals that are alive that would have been exposed to feed before this feed ban went into place, and so as time goes by the risk of more animals becoming infected decreases.
Even though we have now resolved or apparently resolved the earlier discrepancy regarding the actual age of this animal, only DNA testing will positively confirm her origin. Again, our primary line of inquiry goes to a farm in Alberta, Canada, and our Canadian counterparts are working hand-in-hand with us sharing information, records and samples that will enable us to perform this DNA testing to hopefully confirm the actual herd of origin for this particular animal.
We are continuing the trace-back of the other 73 head of cattle that came into the United States in the same shipment as the infected cow but do not have any new data to report in that regard at this point. However, while reviewing records we have also determined that an additional eight animals from the same herd in Canada were also shipped to the United States, so we are now tracing the location of all 81 animals.
As I mentioned previously in previous press conferences, this positive cow had three calves while she was in the United States. One of them died shortly after birth, shortly after the animal entered the United States. The second one remains in a herd in Washington State where the positive cow was at the time that she went to slaughter. And the third animal, a bull calf, is currently in a separate herd with several other bull calves, which is subject to a hold order in place by the state of Washington.
And as I explained before as well, this hold order is not to stop the spread of the disease. BSE is not a contagious disease like we associate with conditions such as human flu, but rather the hold order has been put in place to make sure we know where all of the relevant animals are with regard to this investigation and to prevent future complications as it relates to the investigation.
I would emphasize again even though we are following up on these three calves that maternal transmission, transmission from the cow to her offspring, is a rare means of transmission if it occurs at all. Therefore, it would be highly unlikely that this is, this type of transmission would occur in this case. However, as I mentioned, the calves that are still alive, those two, one on the indexed farm and the other in this calf-rearing facility, are on hold orders out of an abundance of caution to preserve public and international confidence that we in fact have the situation well in hand with regard to our investigation.
We are continuing to look at any and all appropriate changes to our entire meat and livestock system as it relates to BSE. Even though we are still early in this investigation there is no indication that we have the magnitude of problem that Europe has experienced in the years past -- in large part due to the preventive measures such as feed bans that were put in place in this country back in August of 1997.
There is also no reason to question the safety of the US beef supply. Muscle tissue or cuts of meats are safe. Research shows that the prion, which is that infectious agent that causes BSE, is not found in skeletal muscle tissue. The infective agent is largely in the brain and spinal cord and a few other tissues not normally consumed by humans in this country.
Research studies in which muscle tissue from infected cattle has been injected directly into the brain of other cattle, the most likely way to transmit the disease when infectivity is present, have demonstrated no evidence of transmission of the disease through muscle tissue.
In contrast, high-risk tissues such as brain or spinal cord in the same study do cause the disease when they are either fed to or injected into recipient cattle.
International standards allow for the import of meat and other commodities even from countries that have a high or moderate risk for BSE. Those countries that have had numerous cases of BSE in their own native-born cattle. These international standards have been developed with the advice and consultation of many of the top international scientists and researchers in the field of BSE. By any stretch of the imagination the US cannot be considered to be at high risk for BSE, especially given our high level of surveillance over the recent past and the fact that only one case has been found here, and further that a single case appears not to have been even born in the United States at this point.
International reaction to our find of this positive case has been based largely on public perception and not what we know about the science of this disease. We have been working with the World Animal Health Organization, the OIE, especially since the finding of the single case of BSE in Canada in May of this year to ensure that the international response to a case of BSE is better founded in science and not just in public perception.
Even with the finding of this single cow, the US remains at very low risk. Measures we put in place in this country years ago -- including the prohibiting of feeding rendered cattle products back to other cattle and stopping cattle imports from high-risk countries -- are protecting the US consumer. Further, we have conducted surveillance testing of high-risk cattle for more than 10 years, and this is our only positive find despite that high level of surveillance testing. For the last two years we conducted approximately 20,000 tests each of those two years -- more than 45 times what the World Animal Health Standard would call upon us to test.
An extensive risk assessment was conducted by Harvard University, and that assessment demonstrated that the risk of BSE in the United States is very low and that even with the disease our procedures that we have put in place would be eliminating the disease from our population.
The producer recalled the meat, and the recall in this situation from this cow and others slaughtered on that day has been done out of an abundance of caution. The risky materials, especially the central nervous system, the brain and spinal cord from this animal, were removed, and they went into rendered product for inedible purposes and did not go into the human food chain.
Again, I want to reiterate my thanks to the herd owner, the slaughter plant owner, the importers, the officials in the state of Washington and our colleagues in Canada for their tremendous assistance as we have proceeded with our investigation. And again, my thanks to you in the news media who have been working so hard to ensure that reporting on this situation is accurate and is timely and recognizing that this situation is evolving very rapidly.
With that, let me pass the microphone to my colleague with Food Safety Inspection Service, Dr. Ken Petersen.
DR. KEN PETERSEN: Thank you, and again, good afternoon.
I'd like to briefly summarize the current situation on the beef products related to the December 23, 2003, BSE recall. The beef products were distributed from Verns Moses Lake Meat to Midway Meat on December 11, 2003. We know that on December 9 when this animal was slaughtered, that was the only animal that tested presumptive positive for BSE. And yet we decided to initiate a recall out of all 20 animals that were slaughtered on that day. The recall was for those 20 carcasses, which involved slightly over 10,000 pounds of meat.
We also know that all of the central nervous system-related tissue -- that is, the brain, the spinal cord and lower part of the intestines -- were removed at the Verns slaughter facility during the slaughter that occurred on December 9, 2003.
Those are the tissues that are most likely to contain the BSE agent. Because the meat leaving Verns did not contain these high-risk material, the recalled beef presents an essentially zero risk to consumers.
This recall was initiated out of an abundance of caution following the report of this one cow testing presumptive positive. Even though we remain confident in the safety of these beef products, we are and we will continue to verify distribution and control of all products related to this recall.
Since the discovery of BSE last week, the Food Safety Inspection Service has been working literally around the clock to ensure the protection of public health. FSIS is verifying that the commercial companies have notified their customers of the recalled product and have also told their customers how to handle recalled products that they have in their possession.
Previously we've discussed the distribution of products from Midway Meats down to Interstate Meats and Willamette Valley Meats. Both of those last two are located in Oregon. We've since found that the products were distributed to an additional 42 locations from Interstate Meats and Willamette Valley Meat. The vast majority of these products, at least 80 percent, were distributed to stores exclusively in the states of Oregon and Wisconsin.
FSIS is verifying that these 42 distributors are complying with their requirement to notify their customers. In overseeing this process, FSIS has found that all of the companies that have received these products have in fact been duly and promptly notifying their customers. We will continue to ensure that this indeed remains the case.
The transcript continues with Q&A's with reporters
Permalink
Monday, December 29, 2003
DR. RON DEHAVEN: Let me speak first from an investigation standpoint. We are continuing to work with our Canadian colleagues to verify the trace-back of the indexed or positive animal.
One issue that has been of particular concern was the initial discrepancy in the age of the animal as reported by our records in the US versus those records that were available in Canada.
Yesterday I personally telephoned the owner of this herd where the positive animal was located primarily to thank him for his cooperation thus far in this effort. However, during that discussion he indicated that he has conducted an extensive search of his records and located original documents that would indicate that the cow in question, this positive animal, was indeed an older animal when he purchased her in 2001.
Those records are consistent with the Canadian records indicating that this animal was born in April of 1997, making her approximately 6 1/2 years old at the time of slaughter. So again I want to personally thank him and his employees for the extraordinary level of cooperation that they have shown to our investigators throughout what is no doubt a very difficult time for them.
The age of the animal is especially important in that it is a likely explanation as to how this animal would have become infected. She would have been born before feed bans were implemented in North America. As the feed bans in the US and Canada both went into effect in August of 1997, as I mentioned records would now indicate that this animal was born in April of 1997.
Again, those feed bans prohibit the inclusion of ruminant protein -- that would be material from animals such as cattle, sheep and goats -- from being fed back to other ruminants. Research evidence suggests that this is the primary, if not in fact the only, means by which BSE is spread from animal to animal. Obviously the more time goes by the fewer animals that are alive that would have been exposed to feed before this feed ban went into place, and so as time goes by the risk of more animals becoming infected decreases.
Even though we have now resolved or apparently resolved the earlier discrepancy regarding the actual age of this animal, only DNA testing will positively confirm her origin. Again, our primary line of inquiry goes to a farm in Alberta, Canada, and our Canadian counterparts are working hand-in-hand with us sharing information, records and samples that will enable us to perform this DNA testing to hopefully confirm the actual herd of origin for this particular animal.
We are continuing the trace-back of the other 73 head of cattle that came into the United States in the same shipment as the infected cow but do not have any new data to report in that regard at this point. However, while reviewing records we have also determined that an additional eight animals from the same herd in Canada were also shipped to the United States, so we are now tracing the location of all 81 animals.
As I mentioned previously in previous press conferences, this positive cow had three calves while she was in the United States. One of them died shortly after birth, shortly after the animal entered the United States. The second one remains in a herd in Washington State where the positive cow was at the time that she went to slaughter. And the third animal, a bull calf, is currently in a separate herd with several other bull calves, which is subject to a hold order in place by the state of Washington.
And as I explained before as well, this hold order is not to stop the spread of the disease. BSE is not a contagious disease like we associate with conditions such as human flu, but rather the hold order has been put in place to make sure we know where all of the relevant animals are with regard to this investigation and to prevent future complications as it relates to the investigation.
I would emphasize again even though we are following up on these three calves that maternal transmission, transmission from the cow to her offspring, is a rare means of transmission if it occurs at all. Therefore, it would be highly unlikely that this is, this type of transmission would occur in this case. However, as I mentioned, the calves that are still alive, those two, one on the indexed farm and the other in this calf-rearing facility, are on hold orders out of an abundance of caution to preserve public and international confidence that we in fact have the situation well in hand with regard to our investigation.
We are continuing to look at any and all appropriate changes to our entire meat and livestock system as it relates to BSE. Even though we are still early in this investigation there is no indication that we have the magnitude of problem that Europe has experienced in the years past -- in large part due to the preventive measures such as feed bans that were put in place in this country back in August of 1997.
There is also no reason to question the safety of the US beef supply. Muscle tissue or cuts of meats are safe. Research shows that the prion, which is that infectious agent that causes BSE, is not found in skeletal muscle tissue. The infective agent is largely in the brain and spinal cord and a few other tissues not normally consumed by humans in this country.
Research studies in which muscle tissue from infected cattle has been injected directly into the brain of other cattle, the most likely way to transmit the disease when infectivity is present, have demonstrated no evidence of transmission of the disease through muscle tissue.
In contrast, high-risk tissues such as brain or spinal cord in the same study do cause the disease when they are either fed to or injected into recipient cattle.
International standards allow for the import of meat and other commodities even from countries that have a high or moderate risk for BSE. Those countries that have had numerous cases of BSE in their own native-born cattle. These international standards have been developed with the advice and consultation of many of the top international scientists and researchers in the field of BSE. By any stretch of the imagination the US cannot be considered to be at high risk for BSE, especially given our high level of surveillance over the recent past and the fact that only one case has been found here, and further that a single case appears not to have been even born in the United States at this point.
International reaction to our find of this positive case has been based largely on public perception and not what we know about the science of this disease. We have been working with the World Animal Health Organization, the OIE, especially since the finding of the single case of BSE in Canada in May of this year to ensure that the international response to a case of BSE is better founded in science and not just in public perception.
Even with the finding of this single cow, the US remains at very low risk. Measures we put in place in this country years ago -- including the prohibiting of feeding rendered cattle products back to other cattle and stopping cattle imports from high-risk countries -- are protecting the US consumer. Further, we have conducted surveillance testing of high-risk cattle for more than 10 years, and this is our only positive find despite that high level of surveillance testing. For the last two years we conducted approximately 20,000 tests each of those two years -- more than 45 times what the World Animal Health Standard would call upon us to test.
An extensive risk assessment was conducted by Harvard University, and that assessment demonstrated that the risk of BSE in the United States is very low and that even with the disease our procedures that we have put in place would be eliminating the disease from our population.
The producer recalled the meat, and the recall in this situation from this cow and others slaughtered on that day has been done out of an abundance of caution. The risky materials, especially the central nervous system, the brain and spinal cord from this animal, were removed, and they went into rendered product for inedible purposes and did not go into the human food chain.
Again, I want to reiterate my thanks to the herd owner, the slaughter plant owner, the importers, the officials in the state of Washington and our colleagues in Canada for their tremendous assistance as we have proceeded with our investigation. And again, my thanks to you in the news media who have been working so hard to ensure that reporting on this situation is accurate and is timely and recognizing that this situation is evolving very rapidly.
With that, let me pass the microphone to my colleague with Food Safety Inspection Service, Dr. Ken Petersen.
DR. KEN PETERSEN: Thank you, and again, good afternoon.
I'd like to briefly summarize the current situation on the beef products related to the December 23, 2003, BSE recall. The beef products were distributed from Verns Moses Lake Meat to Midway Meat on December 11, 2003. We know that on December 9 when this animal was slaughtered, that was the only animal that tested presumptive positive for BSE. And yet we decided to initiate a recall out of all 20 animals that were slaughtered on that day. The recall was for those 20 carcasses, which involved slightly over 10,000 pounds of meat.
We also know that all of the central nervous system-related tissue -- that is, the brain, the spinal cord and lower part of the intestines -- were removed at the Verns slaughter facility during the slaughter that occurred on December 9, 2003.
Those are the tissues that are most likely to contain the BSE agent. Because the meat leaving Verns did not contain these high-risk material, the recalled beef presents an essentially zero risk to consumers.
This recall was initiated out of an abundance of caution following the report of this one cow testing presumptive positive. Even though we remain confident in the safety of these beef products, we are and we will continue to verify distribution and control of all products related to this recall.
Since the discovery of BSE last week, the Food Safety Inspection Service has been working literally around the clock to ensure the protection of public health. FSIS is verifying that the commercial companies have notified their customers of the recalled product and have also told their customers how to handle recalled products that they have in their possession.
Previously we've discussed the distribution of products from Midway Meats down to Interstate Meats and Willamette Valley Meats. Both of those last two are located in Oregon. We've since found that the products were distributed to an additional 42 locations from Interstate Meats and Willamette Valley Meat. The vast majority of these products, at least 80 percent, were distributed to stores exclusively in the states of Oregon and Wisconsin.
FSIS is verifying that these 42 distributors are complying with their requirement to notify their customers. In overseeing this process, FSIS has found that all of the companies that have received these products have in fact been duly and promptly notifying their customers. We will continue to ensure that this indeed remains the case.
The transcript continues with Q&A's with reporters
Permalink
O'REILLY FACTOR
Don't know how many of you saw the O'Reilly Factor tonight, but they really did a job on the U.S. beef industry. Tony Snow was the guest host, and he had as his "expert" a professor from NYU, I believe was the university. When asked if our food supply was safe she wouldn't answer, told people to vote with their forks to get changes made, and told people to buy organic. On Fox News! Wonder what CBS will do.
If you want to express your concern about this one-sided presentation of the issue, you can email the show at oreilly@foxnews.com
Permalink
Don't know how many of you saw the O'Reilly Factor tonight, but they really did a job on the U.S. beef industry. Tony Snow was the guest host, and he had as his "expert" a professor from NYU, I believe was the university. When asked if our food supply was safe she wouldn't answer, told people to vote with their forks to get changes made, and told people to buy organic. On Fox News! Wonder what CBS will do.
If you want to express your concern about this one-sided presentation of the issue, you can email the show at oreilly@foxnews.com
Permalink
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...
Permalink
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...
Permalink
MAD COW NEWS
Missouri Stockgrowers' Association
December 24, 2003
On Thursday, December 11, 2003, R-CALF-USA and a number of its affiliate cattle organizations sponsored a Prion Disease Roundtable in Denver, Colorado. Dr. R. M. Thornsberry, President of the Missouri Stockgrower’s Association was commissioned by R-CALF President Leo McDonnell to organize the roundtable and invite prion specialists to present information at the roundtable that would benefit the education of livestock producers throughout the United States.
Dr. Stanley Prusiner, the scientist who discovered prions, for which he won the Nobel Prize in medicine, was invited to the roundtable. Notes from Dr. Prusiner’s presentation on prions and prion diseases was presented to the roundtable by Dr. Thornsberry, who had attended one of Dr. Prusiner’s lectures on prion diseases. Although uable to attend the roundtable, Dr. Prusiner provided the roundtable with five papers published in prestigious peer reviewed medical and science journals. These papers were provided to all the attendees and key points from these papers were discussed at the beginning of the roundtable discussion. Dr. Prusiner emphasized normal cooking temperatures do not inactivate prions. This point is especially important when humans are exposed to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) prions in the normal process of consuming beef muscle cuts that may contain significant nerve tissue. Dr. Pruisner’s laboratory is currently developing a live animal test to determine whether or not an animal is carrying BSE prions prior to entering the food chain for human consumption.
Dr. Jason Bartz, an applied science researcher from Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, was the second presenter at the roundtable. Dr. Bartz presented current research data on prion diseases and particularly outlined the pathogenesis of prion diseases. Dr. Bartz presented data that defined the ability of prions to replicate in secondary lymphoreticular system tissues, and the ability of prions to travel throughout the nervous system, finally locating within the brain or brain stem tissues where pathological changes occur. Dr. Bartz also presented data to illustrate the severity of prion disease appears to increase as the disease is passed from animal to animal. Dr. Bartz presented data to illustrate the infectivity and persistency of prions. Prions in brain tissue were heated to 600 degrees Celsius--that is over 1200 degrees Fahrenheit--and injected into brain tissue. These heat treated prions were still capable of causing prion disease changes. In other words, there is no commonly utilized method with which to inactivate prions on surgical instruments, surfaces, pens, corrals, chutes, ground, etc. Dr. Bartz also presented data that indicates tongue lesions or sores provide the mechanism for prions to enter brain tissue through the nerve that supplies the muscle tissue of an animal’s tongue. Dr. Bartz, with more sensitive immunodection, has identified prions in muscle tissues of the tongue.
Dr. Terry Spraker, a veterinary pathologist from Colorado State University, demonstrated in his presentation that not all animals that develop prion disease die immediately. On the contrary, animals can carry prion disease and shed large numbers of prions for months and maybe years before the disease progresses to the point where it may be identified by clinical symptoms. Dr. Spraker mentioned that research being done by Hamair Amair in Ames, Iown, Mike Miller with the Colorado Department of Wildlife, and Beth Williams thus far shows no evidence of natural transmission of Chronic Wasting Disease in deer and elk to cattle.
Dr. Linda Detwiler, adjunct professor and animal health consultant specializing in prion diseases and other regulatory issues, presented her findings from prion disease investigations in Canada and Europe. Dr. Detwiler also presented a short video of four Holstein cows with mad cow disease (BSE). The clinical signs were extremely subtle. Although they appeared essentially normal, they could have infectivity in certain tissues such as intestine and tonsil for months prior to developing clinical signs. Dr. Detwiler identified risk factors present in the United States and Canada that could result in exposing negative ruminants to prions. The BSE case in a native Canadian cow demonstrates that the BSE agent is in North America. Some of the current practices which could pose a risk to the North American cattle production system include no specified risk material (SRM) ban (tissues such bovine brain and spinal cord can still be included in nonruminant feed) so if the agent is present there could be contamination of feed for ruminants if produced in plants with no dedicated lines. There are certain exemptions to the current US feed ban which could potentially expose US cattle to the BSE agent. These include the feeding of ruminant blood meal, unfiltered beef tallow, and poultry litter to ruminants. In addition, there is no SRM ban in place for public health. That is, bovine brain, spinal cord and other potentially infected tissues may still be used in food products.
Dr. Susan Keller, Deputy State Veterinarian for North Dakota, presented the regulatory issues surrounding prion diseases including Scrapie in sheep and BSE in cattle. During a discussion on the most recent Havard Risk Assessment for BSE in the United States, Dr. Keller attempted to determine what the industry response would be to a single case of BSE in the United States. The fact that the incubation period of BSE is extremely long (possibly up to 20 years), Dr. Keller determined that responding to a single case of BSE could potentially encompass up to 20 years of regulatory activity to ensure the public that BSE was under control in the United States. Although the Havard Risk Assessment for BSE is accurate, it does not take into account the devastating effect of a single case in the United States on state regulatory function and financing. Once Canada is designated an acceptable risk country for export of meat or animals into the United States, other countries with a history of cases of BSE will also petition the United States government for the same export status.
Following the roundtable, a general consensus was reached on four topics:
-- Prion diseases are infective, especially within susceptible species. Although most animals that exhibit symptoms of prion disease die, thus ending the progression of the disease, that animal may in fact shed many prions into the environment prior to and after death.
-- Since there is no known Standard Operating Procedural method to adequately disinfect or inactivate prions, extreme caution should be taken with prion diseases, their research, and their disposal.
-- New more sensitive prion histochemial testing procedures identify prions in muscle tissue as well as lympoid and nervous tissue. This finding is reinforced by Dr. Prusiner’s laboratory, which is developing a preslaughter test to identify prions in tissues prior to meat entering the food chain. This finding means human exposure to prions in certain muscle cuts of beef is possible.
-- Opening the border to Canada is questionable until high risk factors such as the feeding of blood meal, feather meal, unfiltered beef tallow, poultry manure, and non-ruminant species feeding of meat and bone meal is properly addressed by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration.
The roundtable presentations and discussions were recorded. A transcript will be made available to the Academy of Veterinary Consultants, the American Association of Bovine Practioners, and the Colleges of Veterinary Medicine throughout the United States and Canada. A condensed version translated for the livestock industry will be made available to educate livestock producers about prion related diseases.
This press release was written by Dr. R. M. Thornsberry, the moderator of the Prion Disease Roundtable and has been edited and approved by those participating in the roundtable. A transcript approved by and edited by all participants will be available in January, 2004. For a copy of that transcript, write to: R. M. Thornsberry, D.V.M., P.O. Box 818, Richland, MO 65556 or email:cowman@webound.com
Permalink
Missouri Stockgrowers' Association
December 24, 2003
On Thursday, December 11, 2003, R-CALF-USA and a number of its affiliate cattle organizations sponsored a Prion Disease Roundtable in Denver, Colorado. Dr. R. M. Thornsberry, President of the Missouri Stockgrower’s Association was commissioned by R-CALF President Leo McDonnell to organize the roundtable and invite prion specialists to present information at the roundtable that would benefit the education of livestock producers throughout the United States.
Dr. Stanley Prusiner, the scientist who discovered prions, for which he won the Nobel Prize in medicine, was invited to the roundtable. Notes from Dr. Prusiner’s presentation on prions and prion diseases was presented to the roundtable by Dr. Thornsberry, who had attended one of Dr. Prusiner’s lectures on prion diseases. Although uable to attend the roundtable, Dr. Prusiner provided the roundtable with five papers published in prestigious peer reviewed medical and science journals. These papers were provided to all the attendees and key points from these papers were discussed at the beginning of the roundtable discussion. Dr. Prusiner emphasized normal cooking temperatures do not inactivate prions. This point is especially important when humans are exposed to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) prions in the normal process of consuming beef muscle cuts that may contain significant nerve tissue. Dr. Pruisner’s laboratory is currently developing a live animal test to determine whether or not an animal is carrying BSE prions prior to entering the food chain for human consumption.
Dr. Jason Bartz, an applied science researcher from Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, was the second presenter at the roundtable. Dr. Bartz presented current research data on prion diseases and particularly outlined the pathogenesis of prion diseases. Dr. Bartz presented data that defined the ability of prions to replicate in secondary lymphoreticular system tissues, and the ability of prions to travel throughout the nervous system, finally locating within the brain or brain stem tissues where pathological changes occur. Dr. Bartz also presented data to illustrate the severity of prion disease appears to increase as the disease is passed from animal to animal. Dr. Bartz presented data to illustrate the infectivity and persistency of prions. Prions in brain tissue were heated to 600 degrees Celsius--that is over 1200 degrees Fahrenheit--and injected into brain tissue. These heat treated prions were still capable of causing prion disease changes. In other words, there is no commonly utilized method with which to inactivate prions on surgical instruments, surfaces, pens, corrals, chutes, ground, etc. Dr. Bartz also presented data that indicates tongue lesions or sores provide the mechanism for prions to enter brain tissue through the nerve that supplies the muscle tissue of an animal’s tongue. Dr. Bartz, with more sensitive immunodection, has identified prions in muscle tissues of the tongue.
Dr. Terry Spraker, a veterinary pathologist from Colorado State University, demonstrated in his presentation that not all animals that develop prion disease die immediately. On the contrary, animals can carry prion disease and shed large numbers of prions for months and maybe years before the disease progresses to the point where it may be identified by clinical symptoms. Dr. Spraker mentioned that research being done by Hamair Amair in Ames, Iown, Mike Miller with the Colorado Department of Wildlife, and Beth Williams thus far shows no evidence of natural transmission of Chronic Wasting Disease in deer and elk to cattle.
Dr. Linda Detwiler, adjunct professor and animal health consultant specializing in prion diseases and other regulatory issues, presented her findings from prion disease investigations in Canada and Europe. Dr. Detwiler also presented a short video of four Holstein cows with mad cow disease (BSE). The clinical signs were extremely subtle. Although they appeared essentially normal, they could have infectivity in certain tissues such as intestine and tonsil for months prior to developing clinical signs. Dr. Detwiler identified risk factors present in the United States and Canada that could result in exposing negative ruminants to prions. The BSE case in a native Canadian cow demonstrates that the BSE agent is in North America. Some of the current practices which could pose a risk to the North American cattle production system include no specified risk material (SRM) ban (tissues such bovine brain and spinal cord can still be included in nonruminant feed) so if the agent is present there could be contamination of feed for ruminants if produced in plants with no dedicated lines. There are certain exemptions to the current US feed ban which could potentially expose US cattle to the BSE agent. These include the feeding of ruminant blood meal, unfiltered beef tallow, and poultry litter to ruminants. In addition, there is no SRM ban in place for public health. That is, bovine brain, spinal cord and other potentially infected tissues may still be used in food products.
Dr. Susan Keller, Deputy State Veterinarian for North Dakota, presented the regulatory issues surrounding prion diseases including Scrapie in sheep and BSE in cattle. During a discussion on the most recent Havard Risk Assessment for BSE in the United States, Dr. Keller attempted to determine what the industry response would be to a single case of BSE in the United States. The fact that the incubation period of BSE is extremely long (possibly up to 20 years), Dr. Keller determined that responding to a single case of BSE could potentially encompass up to 20 years of regulatory activity to ensure the public that BSE was under control in the United States. Although the Havard Risk Assessment for BSE is accurate, it does not take into account the devastating effect of a single case in the United States on state regulatory function and financing. Once Canada is designated an acceptable risk country for export of meat or animals into the United States, other countries with a history of cases of BSE will also petition the United States government for the same export status.
Following the roundtable, a general consensus was reached on four topics:
-- Prion diseases are infective, especially within susceptible species. Although most animals that exhibit symptoms of prion disease die, thus ending the progression of the disease, that animal may in fact shed many prions into the environment prior to and after death.
-- Since there is no known Standard Operating Procedural method to adequately disinfect or inactivate prions, extreme caution should be taken with prion diseases, their research, and their disposal.
-- New more sensitive prion histochemial testing procedures identify prions in muscle tissue as well as lympoid and nervous tissue. This finding is reinforced by Dr. Prusiner’s laboratory, which is developing a preslaughter test to identify prions in tissues prior to meat entering the food chain. This finding means human exposure to prions in certain muscle cuts of beef is possible.
-- Opening the border to Canada is questionable until high risk factors such as the feeding of blood meal, feather meal, unfiltered beef tallow, poultry manure, and non-ruminant species feeding of meat and bone meal is properly addressed by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration.
The roundtable presentations and discussions were recorded. A transcript will be made available to the Academy of Veterinary Consultants, the American Association of Bovine Practioners, and the Colleges of Veterinary Medicine throughout the United States and Canada. A condensed version translated for the livestock industry will be made available to educate livestock producers about prion related diseases.
This press release was written by Dr. R. M. Thornsberry, the moderator of the Prion Disease Roundtable and has been edited and approved by those participating in the roundtable. A transcript approved by and edited by all participants will be available in January, 2004. For a copy of that transcript, write to: R. M. Thornsberry, D.V.M., P.O. Box 818, Richland, MO 65556 or email:cowman@webound.com
Permalink
Sunday, December 28, 2003
NEWS ROUNDUP
Bridger-Teton National Forest officials propose more heli-skiing Bridger-Teton National Forest officials are proposing to allow more heli-skiing while redrawing permit boundaries for heli-skiing to limit interference with wildlife and backcountry skiers. The forest on Tuesday released a draft study and proposal to award a five-year permit to High Mountain Heli-Skiing, which has been permitted to guide heli-skiing trips in the Bridger-Teton and Caribou-Targhee national forests since 1977. The company had sought permission to expand its operation. Under the forest's preferred plan, the company would be allowed access for 1,000 skier days, up from 468 days originally permitted in 1984. The company had requested 1,500 skier days to meet future demand...Grizzly bear recovery presents new challenge Hans Peterson wasn't concerned when the 2-year-old grizzly bear wandered into the yard of his home in Tetonia, on the Wyoming border, in September. Even after the bear turned into a regular visitor, ignoring his barking dogs, Peterson didn't rattle. But when the 150-pound sub-adult sow refused to leave his garage after his wife honked the car horn, Peterson lost his patience with his new neighbor. The bear was trapped and moved by federal authorities last month, a scene that is expected to become a regular occurrence in eastern Idaho as the grizzly population continues to expand out of Yellowstone National Park. Peterson's non-violent resolution of his encounter with the bear is a sign of the success of the Endangered Species Act, signed into law 30 years ago today by President Richard Nixon...Species Act reform may be possible As the federal Endangered Species Act turns 30 today, groups warring over the landmark conservation law say they're edging toward a consensus that its future lies in cooperation instead of confrontation. Supporters and opponents alike say the act is being loved to death by environmental groups that have used it not only to save species from extinction, but to block -- or at least slow -- rampaging development. The Bush administration's chief overseer declared the act "broken," snapped under the weight of myriad lawsuits that now drive most aspects of the law. Environmental groups counter that Bush has sabotaged the law by not seeking sufficient money through a Congress that, in turn, is so split it hasn't reauthorized the act since 1988. It's funded instead on a year-to-year basis as critics and supporters spar over its future...Measure shielding wildlife turns 30 Thirty years after President Nixon quietly signed it into law, the Endangered Species Act remains one of the nation's premier environmental statutes and one of its most controversial. From the snail darter to the spotted owl to Pacific salmon, the law and its enforcement still spark fierce confrontations between environmentalists and business interests that almost inevitably end up in court. Repeated attempts to overhaul the law have been beaten back in Congress, though critics say they aren't about to give up trying. The original sponsors of the act may not have foreseen the impact it would have...Endangered Species Act hits 30 Paul Selzer can thank a tiny lizard for making him an unlikely member in the desert's club of Endangered Species Act pioneers. It was the early 1980s and Selzer, a Palm Springs attorney, had a client whose plans to build a new country club were being hindered in part because it would have threatened a population of Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizards. At the time Selzer said he had never heard of the Endangered Species Act, the 1973 law that was shielding the lizards' habitat from the proposed country club development. But he soon became acquainted with the landmark environmental law and, perhaps more important, an amendment to the act that would allow the country club to go forward and rewrite the way species are protected in the Coachella Valley and the nation. "Before (the amendment), if you found an endangered species on your property the game was over," Selzer said. "You couldn't do anything."...Pombo eyes overhaul of Endangered Species Act Since he was elected to Congress in 1992, Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, has steadily gained political influence in Washington, D.C. The former rancher serves on the Committee on Agriculture and last year was elected to a powerful post -- chairman of the House Committee on Resources. As chairman of the Resources Committee, Pombo helps set policies governing oil and gas exploration, logging, water use and endangered species protection. A staunch defender of property rights, Pombo recently talked about his legislative priorities...Activists protest Alaska in NYC On a Manhattan sidewalk jammed with shoppers and tourists, a tight band of animal rights activists Saturday tried to draw attention to the cause of Alaska wolves. "Save a wolf. Sign a postcard. Boycott Alaska," Bob Orabona called out to the crowd rushing past Rockefeller Center. Orabona works in the Connecticut headquarters of Friends of Animals, the group that staged the protest...Feds losing grip on species act A funny thing happened to the landmark Endangered Species Act (ESA) on its way to turning 30 today: Depending on whom you ask, the government either lost -- or ceded -- control over it. When a federal judge in Seattle this month ordered the government to rethink its decision not to protect Puget Sound orcas under the ESA, it did so at the behest of a Tucson, Ariz.-based environmental group, which had filed a legal challenge. Three decades after President Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law, nearly every major decision about what animals or plants to protect -- from the Columbia Basin's pygmy rabbit to the Washington gray squirrel -- is now made, at least in part, by Arizona's Center for Biological Diversity. Founded more than a decade ago by a philosopher, a biologist and an emergency-room doctor, the Center for Biological Diversity has grown so efficient and successful at filing lawsuits that it is responsible for more than 95 percent of the species nationwide that have been protected by the act since the year 2000...Endangered Species Act remains source of controversy Critics say that law went too far. Conservationists say not far enough. The Endangered Species Act offered crucial protection not just for critters but for us, too, scientists say. So in a state where the needs of both often clash, they say the battle to save species is far from won. Environmental groups considered the act a national wakeup call. It replaced weaker laws in 1966 and 1969 that set forth lists of endangered wildlife. For the first time, the government had to identify the most important habitats and create plans for recovering species. It also had to consult federal biologists before issuing permits for construction in areas where listed species live. Now, some wildlife advocates consider the results mixed...Endangered Species Act survives 3 decades: Law's future rocky as backers, critics deadlock on possible changes Whether the act that was meant to keep species alive has become creaky and outmoded -- or is just underfed after years of political stalemate and stagnant budgets -- is a matter for debate. The law's supporters cite its legendary successes, such as the comebacks of the bald eagle and the California condor. Backers say other victories are less well known but just as ecologically significant. But the law's critics -- including senior officials in the Bush administration -- say it has become an economic drag and is badly in need of reform...Column: GOP moves imperil dynamic, flexible, common-sense law On Dec. 28, 1973, I watched President Richard Nixon sign into law the Endangered Species Act. It was one of my proudest moments in Congress. For 30 years the ESA has been protecting our environment and species on the verge of extinction. Today, conservationists and supporters look at the ESA and call its enactment visionary, while developers and critics refer to it in four-letter terms not fit for printing on the pages of this newspaper. I disagree with both characterizations. To me, the ESA was and remains common sense. Like many of the cornerstone environmental laws we put in place during the early 1970s, the ESA's enactment was a nonpartisan, consensus undertaking: it passed the House by a vote of 391-12, and the Senate by a vote of 92-0...As list grows, so does struggle to save endangered species Now, 30 years after President Richard M. Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law on Dec. 28, 1973, conservationists are still wondering how to keep the dwarf wedge mussel, the bog turtle, and the wild yak from disappearing. The challenge gets bigger every year. In 1973, 77 species were on the endangered or threatened list. Today, more than 1,800 plants and animals are listed. Though critics slam the Bush administration for weakening environmental protection and say the process to get on the endangered list is cumbersome, even the harshest voices say the Endangered Species Act has been a positive force. "It's a law that has morals - and to me it's a miracle that it's stood intact for so long," said Brock Evans, executive director of the Endangered Species Coalition, which represents about 400 grassroots groups. "Sure, it could be better and improved, but this is a law with teeth."...The State of the Species The biggest battles now are over the act's requirement that endangered species listings be accompanied by designations of "critical habitat'' areas. Such a designation requires scientific review and a formal declaration by the U.S. Department of Interior that precludes habitat changes that would adversely affect the endangered species. Craig Manson, assistant secretary of the interior for fish and wildlife and parks, has said a flood of court orders requiring the government to designate critical habitat for endangered species already on the list is eating up the program's $9 million annual budget. He said the requirement has become an obstacle to private landowner cooperation and has delayed the listing of other species that are in need of the act's protections. Only about 400 species have had critical habitat designations, Manson said, and to do the work for designating habitat for the other 800 species on the list would cost more than $150 million. Pending court orders require the Interior Department to perform assessments and designate critical habitat for 32 species on the endangered list...Editorial: An Endangered Act In recent years, skeptical members of Congress have frequently complained that the Endangered Species Act is "broken" and so riddled with litigation and ill-defined rules that it ought to be abandoned. Controversies over obscure plants and toads have led many to ridicule the act's stringent provisions. The congressional committees with jurisdiction over the law are now all controlled by members who oppose the act. As a result, it has not been reauthorized since 1988, when Ronald Reagan was in the White House, though it remains in effect by default. But however despised, the law has been a success, at least in one sense. Thanks to the legislation, the American bald eagle, whose near-extinction had become a symbol for environmental degradation, is still flying. Species as varied as the gray and red wolves, the American alligator, the black-footed ferret and the California condor have also recovered, and their numbers are increasing. The act has also inspired conservation efforts around the world, including a ban on trade in elephant tusks and the redesign of fishing nets, which once killed large numbers of endangered turtles in the Gulf of Mexico and now allow them to escape...Column: Allowing snowmobiles in Yellowstone is the right thing to do However, to the environmentalists' chagrin, populations of bison, as well as elk, grizzly bear and gray wolf, increased as the case ground its way through court. As snowmobile use had not decreased, other theories had to be advanced, including alleged water and air pollution. However, the Park Service's own environmental analysis showed that the air and water in Yellowstone are not polluted. While snowmobiles do have impacts, they are a fraction of the total human impacts to the park. This makes intuitive sense, as Yellowstone receives more than 1.6 million summertime visitors traveling in all types of motorized vehicles along a more extensive road network than previously available to the 60,000 or so visitors on snowmobiles. That doesn't matter to the environmentalists. They are driven by a philosophy that would eliminate much of the human use and visitation to all of America's parks. They truly believe that we are "loving our parks to death." Their ultimate vision for the National Park system is a vast primitive wildernesses connected by highly restrictive "wildland corridors" where humans will at best be allowed a quick glimpse through a carefully controlled mass transit system...Park employees can use snowmoblies Most of the new snowmobiling rules in Yellowstone National Park probably won't apply to people who live and work in the park's interior. "Personal, non-recreational use of snowmobiles will be allowed to continue" for employees, park spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews said last week...Denali park opens to snowmobiles Like much of Southcentral Alaska, Denali National Park and Preserve has gotten copious quantities of snow. Enough has fallen, park managers said recently, that portions of the 6-million-acre park are now open to snowmachines. But when Denali National Park and snowmachines are mentioned in the same breath, confusion is never far behind. The 4 million acres added 23 years ago to Mount McKinley National Park by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, and designated either "park" or "preserve," are open, when snow cover is sufficient, to snowmachine access for "traditional activities." ANILCA did not specify what those activities are, but "congressional debate refers to subsistence-like activities associated with a rural Alaska lifestyle," according to a Park Service statement last May...Gibbons' plan to sell public land for mining criticized Rep. Jim Gibbons and environmentalists are clashing over his plan to sell public land in Nevada to two mining companies. The Reno Republican maintains the plan would give a boost to the rural economy, but environmentalists call it an end run on the nation's environmental laws to the benefit of one special interest. His plan calls for the sale of various plots of federal land in Elko, Eureka, Humboldt, Lander and White Pine counties to Placer Dome U.S. Inc. or Graymont Western U.S. Inc. The proposal would allow the companies to bypass what Gibbons views as excessive red tape: the permitting process of the National Environmental Policy Act...BLM looks to double gas wells allowed The U.S Bureau of Land Management has more than doubled the number of gas wells that would be allowed under the Jonah Infill Drilling Project. The BLM originally proposed allowing up to 1,250 new wells to be drilled from 850 new well pads for the lucrative Jonah gas fields of southwest Wyoming. Based on new information and a revised development proposal from Encana Oil and Gas, Inc., the BLM revised that number to 3,100, according to Carol Kruse, leader of the BLM Jonah Drilling Project Interdisciplinary Team...Environmen talists wary of Steens Wilderness plan Environmentalists fear that consultants with strong ties to the mining industry who wrote a management plan for about 1.6 million acres of public land in southeastern Oregon ignored their concerns. In October 2002, environmentalists from the Oregon Natural Desert Association asked the Bureau of Land Management to designate 363,000 acres in southeastern Oregon as wilderness study areas. The land surrounded the Steens Wilderness Area, which was created in 2000. They got no response. The proposed area fits into a larger parcel -- roughly 1.6 million acres -- for which the agency was writing a management plan...Drought: Current dry spell no match for Great Depression No matter how dry it gets or how long the current drought lasts, it probably can never compare to the misery of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. "Most of our population now is insulated from its effects," said Bill Volk, a soil scientist and plant ecologist for the Bureau of Land Management. "There's food on the shelves at the grocery store, and water still comes out of the tap." Only a very small percentage of Montanans - those still farming and ranching - have experienced the latest drought's direct effect, he said. The other 90 percent has yet to feel the pain...A dark age driven by wind A mighty wind blew out of Montana and Wyoming on May 8, 1934, sucking top soil off dried-up fields and blowing it in a vast brown cloud east across the country and onto ships 300 miles off the Atlantic coast. The dust storm was estimated at 1,500 miles long, 900 miles across and two miles deep. On its sweep across the continent, the storm picked up 350 million tons of dirt and drove it at speeds of up to 100 mph. On the night of May 9, an estimated 12 million tons fell on Chicago as the dark cloud advanced on the East Coast. Three days after the storm began, the dust headed out to sea...State gets challenge on public land auctions A challenge to the way the state auctions public land has complicated Phoenix's plan to preserve thousands of acres and threatens preservation plans of cities around the state. Two members of People for the West, a property-rights group, sent letters to the State Land Department to stop the state from selling land to Phoenix for the Sonoran Preserve in north Phoenix. The group questions the legality of the Arizona Preserve Initiative, a 1996 law that enables the department to mark some land for conservation at the request of cities and non-profit associations. The auctions for such land are closed to developers...Court opens door for gravel mining to resume The Idaho Supreme Court has refused to rehear Blaine County's arguments over zoning on state lands, opening the door for a gravel mining operation unpopular with local homeowners to resume operations. The court has denied the county's motion for another hearing after its July 23 decision, when it handed the state Land Board an exemption from local planning and zoning laws for its mining and other "non-commercial" leases of state endowment land. The high court overturned 5th District Judge James May, who gave counties regulatory authority over state trust lands. Income from those lands goes into the state endowment funds for the public schools...Texas county is reluctant to shoot ions into clouds Farmers and ranchers in these parts have been seeding clouds and harvesting rain for decades, scientifically fighting what has been a losing battle against the arid climate of the Lower Rio Grande Basin. But new Russian technology that purports to build rain clouds by shooting ions into the sky is instead creating a firestorm on the Texas border. A political squabble has broken out between Webb County Judge Luis Bruni and the four county commissioners, who can't decide if they want to be the first county in the country to test the IOLA (ionization of the local atmosphere) technology...Scientists test dogs to sniff out weeds Someday soon, man's best friend could also be one of his biggest allies in the war on noxious weeds. That's the hope of researchers like Kim Goodwin, who are studying whether dogs can be trained to detect the prolific - and problematic - spotted knapweed the same way they can be trained to sniff out drugs and bombs. Goodwin, a weed prevention coordinator at Montana State University at Bozeman, said she got the idea for putting dogs to work by seeing how dogs have been used at airports, post offices and ports of entry to search for everything from illegal drugs and bombs to prohibited agricultural products...Local cattle paper has global reach In his travels across the United States and Canada, Byron Bayers discovered a common thread among cattle ranchers. "You can go into Alberta or travel into Texas and if someone didn't know these people were from different regions, you'd never know," Bayers said. "Ranchers everywhere are trying to do the same thing and achieve the same end result." That's one of the many observations Bayers has had over the last seven years as the co-owner of the largest independently owned newspaper on the Hereford breed of cattle in the United States. Bayers, 73, of Twin Bridges, and his daughter, Jill Hotchkiss of Reva, S.D., have published "Hereford America" - which boasts a circulation of 15,500, including readers in every state and 11 foreign countries...Cowboy churches, where religion is easy, ropin' em in Wearing a cowboy hat, boots and string tie, Harry Yates doesn't look like a typical preacher. And the Texas Troubadour Theatre he's standing in front of - with its neon Texas-shaped sign flanked by guitars - is not your normal church building. But that is part of the attraction of the Nashville Cowboy Church, which draws several hundred worshippers each Sunday and has thousands more listening on the radio or via the Internet...Newcastle engraver's silverwork adorns saddle displayed on movie screen in "The Missing" It was the classic case of being in the right place at the right time for engraver-silversmith Linda Doyle Dearmore. The outcome was that some of her artistry has made it onto the movie screen in "The Missing," a big-budget western directed by Ron Howard and starring Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett. Dearmore, who lives on an 18-acre ranch in Newcastle with her husband, Cliff, has been putting her own distinctive stamp on western-style silver pieces for the last three decades. One of her big fans is Clint Mortenson, who owns the Silver & Saddles shop in Santa Fe and does work for Euro Disney's Buffalo Bill Wild West Show. Mortenson invited Dearmore to Santa Fe last February to bring her tools with her for a couple of weeks of work...On The Edge Of Common Sense: Capture one of good's great triumphs over evil It is particularly unfortunate over the holidays that politics interferes with all Americans enjoying one of the greatest triumphs of good over evil that the world has seen since Hitler was driven from power. On Dec. 13, Saddam crawled from his hole a beaten man. Our magnificent armed forces, from Rumsfield to Jessica Lynch, rode in like the avenging army of red, white and blue. Despite sharp turns, pot holes and setbacks, they never hesitated, never lost their resolve. It is the job of critics to ask questions, to make us examine our motives, to encourage us to consider our options. Some critics consider it their obligation to diminish successes, to create doubt, to question the cause, to sow the seeds of dissent. Critics at home and abroad have done their job. They did as well as they could in the face of overwhelming odds. Nine months is not much time to fight an opponent as committed and well-trained as America's armed forces...
Permalink
Bridger-Teton National Forest officials propose more heli-skiing Bridger-Teton National Forest officials are proposing to allow more heli-skiing while redrawing permit boundaries for heli-skiing to limit interference with wildlife and backcountry skiers. The forest on Tuesday released a draft study and proposal to award a five-year permit to High Mountain Heli-Skiing, which has been permitted to guide heli-skiing trips in the Bridger-Teton and Caribou-Targhee national forests since 1977. The company had sought permission to expand its operation. Under the forest's preferred plan, the company would be allowed access for 1,000 skier days, up from 468 days originally permitted in 1984. The company had requested 1,500 skier days to meet future demand...Grizzly bear recovery presents new challenge Hans Peterson wasn't concerned when the 2-year-old grizzly bear wandered into the yard of his home in Tetonia, on the Wyoming border, in September. Even after the bear turned into a regular visitor, ignoring his barking dogs, Peterson didn't rattle. But when the 150-pound sub-adult sow refused to leave his garage after his wife honked the car horn, Peterson lost his patience with his new neighbor. The bear was trapped and moved by federal authorities last month, a scene that is expected to become a regular occurrence in eastern Idaho as the grizzly population continues to expand out of Yellowstone National Park. Peterson's non-violent resolution of his encounter with the bear is a sign of the success of the Endangered Species Act, signed into law 30 years ago today by President Richard Nixon...Species Act reform may be possible As the federal Endangered Species Act turns 30 today, groups warring over the landmark conservation law say they're edging toward a consensus that its future lies in cooperation instead of confrontation. Supporters and opponents alike say the act is being loved to death by environmental groups that have used it not only to save species from extinction, but to block -- or at least slow -- rampaging development. The Bush administration's chief overseer declared the act "broken," snapped under the weight of myriad lawsuits that now drive most aspects of the law. Environmental groups counter that Bush has sabotaged the law by not seeking sufficient money through a Congress that, in turn, is so split it hasn't reauthorized the act since 1988. It's funded instead on a year-to-year basis as critics and supporters spar over its future...Measure shielding wildlife turns 30 Thirty years after President Nixon quietly signed it into law, the Endangered Species Act remains one of the nation's premier environmental statutes and one of its most controversial. From the snail darter to the spotted owl to Pacific salmon, the law and its enforcement still spark fierce confrontations between environmentalists and business interests that almost inevitably end up in court. Repeated attempts to overhaul the law have been beaten back in Congress, though critics say they aren't about to give up trying. The original sponsors of the act may not have foreseen the impact it would have...Endangered Species Act hits 30 Paul Selzer can thank a tiny lizard for making him an unlikely member in the desert's club of Endangered Species Act pioneers. It was the early 1980s and Selzer, a Palm Springs attorney, had a client whose plans to build a new country club were being hindered in part because it would have threatened a population of Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizards. At the time Selzer said he had never heard of the Endangered Species Act, the 1973 law that was shielding the lizards' habitat from the proposed country club development. But he soon became acquainted with the landmark environmental law and, perhaps more important, an amendment to the act that would allow the country club to go forward and rewrite the way species are protected in the Coachella Valley and the nation. "Before (the amendment), if you found an endangered species on your property the game was over," Selzer said. "You couldn't do anything."...Pombo eyes overhaul of Endangered Species Act Since he was elected to Congress in 1992, Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, has steadily gained political influence in Washington, D.C. The former rancher serves on the Committee on Agriculture and last year was elected to a powerful post -- chairman of the House Committee on Resources. As chairman of the Resources Committee, Pombo helps set policies governing oil and gas exploration, logging, water use and endangered species protection. A staunch defender of property rights, Pombo recently talked about his legislative priorities...Activists protest Alaska in NYC On a Manhattan sidewalk jammed with shoppers and tourists, a tight band of animal rights activists Saturday tried to draw attention to the cause of Alaska wolves. "Save a wolf. Sign a postcard. Boycott Alaska," Bob Orabona called out to the crowd rushing past Rockefeller Center. Orabona works in the Connecticut headquarters of Friends of Animals, the group that staged the protest...Feds losing grip on species act A funny thing happened to the landmark Endangered Species Act (ESA) on its way to turning 30 today: Depending on whom you ask, the government either lost -- or ceded -- control over it. When a federal judge in Seattle this month ordered the government to rethink its decision not to protect Puget Sound orcas under the ESA, it did so at the behest of a Tucson, Ariz.-based environmental group, which had filed a legal challenge. Three decades after President Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law, nearly every major decision about what animals or plants to protect -- from the Columbia Basin's pygmy rabbit to the Washington gray squirrel -- is now made, at least in part, by Arizona's Center for Biological Diversity. Founded more than a decade ago by a philosopher, a biologist and an emergency-room doctor, the Center for Biological Diversity has grown so efficient and successful at filing lawsuits that it is responsible for more than 95 percent of the species nationwide that have been protected by the act since the year 2000...Endangered Species Act remains source of controversy Critics say that law went too far. Conservationists say not far enough. The Endangered Species Act offered crucial protection not just for critters but for us, too, scientists say. So in a state where the needs of both often clash, they say the battle to save species is far from won. Environmental groups considered the act a national wakeup call. It replaced weaker laws in 1966 and 1969 that set forth lists of endangered wildlife. For the first time, the government had to identify the most important habitats and create plans for recovering species. It also had to consult federal biologists before issuing permits for construction in areas where listed species live. Now, some wildlife advocates consider the results mixed...Endangered Species Act survives 3 decades: Law's future rocky as backers, critics deadlock on possible changes Whether the act that was meant to keep species alive has become creaky and outmoded -- or is just underfed after years of political stalemate and stagnant budgets -- is a matter for debate. The law's supporters cite its legendary successes, such as the comebacks of the bald eagle and the California condor. Backers say other victories are less well known but just as ecologically significant. But the law's critics -- including senior officials in the Bush administration -- say it has become an economic drag and is badly in need of reform...Column: GOP moves imperil dynamic, flexible, common-sense law On Dec. 28, 1973, I watched President Richard Nixon sign into law the Endangered Species Act. It was one of my proudest moments in Congress. For 30 years the ESA has been protecting our environment and species on the verge of extinction. Today, conservationists and supporters look at the ESA and call its enactment visionary, while developers and critics refer to it in four-letter terms not fit for printing on the pages of this newspaper. I disagree with both characterizations. To me, the ESA was and remains common sense. Like many of the cornerstone environmental laws we put in place during the early 1970s, the ESA's enactment was a nonpartisan, consensus undertaking: it passed the House by a vote of 391-12, and the Senate by a vote of 92-0...As list grows, so does struggle to save endangered species Now, 30 years after President Richard M. Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law on Dec. 28, 1973, conservationists are still wondering how to keep the dwarf wedge mussel, the bog turtle, and the wild yak from disappearing. The challenge gets bigger every year. In 1973, 77 species were on the endangered or threatened list. Today, more than 1,800 plants and animals are listed. Though critics slam the Bush administration for weakening environmental protection and say the process to get on the endangered list is cumbersome, even the harshest voices say the Endangered Species Act has been a positive force. "It's a law that has morals - and to me it's a miracle that it's stood intact for so long," said Brock Evans, executive director of the Endangered Species Coalition, which represents about 400 grassroots groups. "Sure, it could be better and improved, but this is a law with teeth."...The State of the Species The biggest battles now are over the act's requirement that endangered species listings be accompanied by designations of "critical habitat'' areas. Such a designation requires scientific review and a formal declaration by the U.S. Department of Interior that precludes habitat changes that would adversely affect the endangered species. Craig Manson, assistant secretary of the interior for fish and wildlife and parks, has said a flood of court orders requiring the government to designate critical habitat for endangered species already on the list is eating up the program's $9 million annual budget. He said the requirement has become an obstacle to private landowner cooperation and has delayed the listing of other species that are in need of the act's protections. Only about 400 species have had critical habitat designations, Manson said, and to do the work for designating habitat for the other 800 species on the list would cost more than $150 million. Pending court orders require the Interior Department to perform assessments and designate critical habitat for 32 species on the endangered list...Editorial: An Endangered Act In recent years, skeptical members of Congress have frequently complained that the Endangered Species Act is "broken" and so riddled with litigation and ill-defined rules that it ought to be abandoned. Controversies over obscure plants and toads have led many to ridicule the act's stringent provisions. The congressional committees with jurisdiction over the law are now all controlled by members who oppose the act. As a result, it has not been reauthorized since 1988, when Ronald Reagan was in the White House, though it remains in effect by default. But however despised, the law has been a success, at least in one sense. Thanks to the legislation, the American bald eagle, whose near-extinction had become a symbol for environmental degradation, is still flying. Species as varied as the gray and red wolves, the American alligator, the black-footed ferret and the California condor have also recovered, and their numbers are increasing. The act has also inspired conservation efforts around the world, including a ban on trade in elephant tusks and the redesign of fishing nets, which once killed large numbers of endangered turtles in the Gulf of Mexico and now allow them to escape...Column: Allowing snowmobiles in Yellowstone is the right thing to do However, to the environmentalists' chagrin, populations of bison, as well as elk, grizzly bear and gray wolf, increased as the case ground its way through court. As snowmobile use had not decreased, other theories had to be advanced, including alleged water and air pollution. However, the Park Service's own environmental analysis showed that the air and water in Yellowstone are not polluted. While snowmobiles do have impacts, they are a fraction of the total human impacts to the park. This makes intuitive sense, as Yellowstone receives more than 1.6 million summertime visitors traveling in all types of motorized vehicles along a more extensive road network than previously available to the 60,000 or so visitors on snowmobiles. That doesn't matter to the environmentalists. They are driven by a philosophy that would eliminate much of the human use and visitation to all of America's parks. They truly believe that we are "loving our parks to death." Their ultimate vision for the National Park system is a vast primitive wildernesses connected by highly restrictive "wildland corridors" where humans will at best be allowed a quick glimpse through a carefully controlled mass transit system...Park employees can use snowmoblies Most of the new snowmobiling rules in Yellowstone National Park probably won't apply to people who live and work in the park's interior. "Personal, non-recreational use of snowmobiles will be allowed to continue" for employees, park spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews said last week...Denali park opens to snowmobiles Like much of Southcentral Alaska, Denali National Park and Preserve has gotten copious quantities of snow. Enough has fallen, park managers said recently, that portions of the 6-million-acre park are now open to snowmachines. But when Denali National Park and snowmachines are mentioned in the same breath, confusion is never far behind. The 4 million acres added 23 years ago to Mount McKinley National Park by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, and designated either "park" or "preserve," are open, when snow cover is sufficient, to snowmachine access for "traditional activities." ANILCA did not specify what those activities are, but "congressional debate refers to subsistence-like activities associated with a rural Alaska lifestyle," according to a Park Service statement last May...Gibbons' plan to sell public land for mining criticized Rep. Jim Gibbons and environmentalists are clashing over his plan to sell public land in Nevada to two mining companies. The Reno Republican maintains the plan would give a boost to the rural economy, but environmentalists call it an end run on the nation's environmental laws to the benefit of one special interest. His plan calls for the sale of various plots of federal land in Elko, Eureka, Humboldt, Lander and White Pine counties to Placer Dome U.S. Inc. or Graymont Western U.S. Inc. The proposal would allow the companies to bypass what Gibbons views as excessive red tape: the permitting process of the National Environmental Policy Act...BLM looks to double gas wells allowed The U.S Bureau of Land Management has more than doubled the number of gas wells that would be allowed under the Jonah Infill Drilling Project. The BLM originally proposed allowing up to 1,250 new wells to be drilled from 850 new well pads for the lucrative Jonah gas fields of southwest Wyoming. Based on new information and a revised development proposal from Encana Oil and Gas, Inc., the BLM revised that number to 3,100, according to Carol Kruse, leader of the BLM Jonah Drilling Project Interdisciplinary Team...Environmen talists wary of Steens Wilderness plan Environmentalists fear that consultants with strong ties to the mining industry who wrote a management plan for about 1.6 million acres of public land in southeastern Oregon ignored their concerns. In October 2002, environmentalists from the Oregon Natural Desert Association asked the Bureau of Land Management to designate 363,000 acres in southeastern Oregon as wilderness study areas. The land surrounded the Steens Wilderness Area, which was created in 2000. They got no response. The proposed area fits into a larger parcel -- roughly 1.6 million acres -- for which the agency was writing a management plan...Drought: Current dry spell no match for Great Depression No matter how dry it gets or how long the current drought lasts, it probably can never compare to the misery of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. "Most of our population now is insulated from its effects," said Bill Volk, a soil scientist and plant ecologist for the Bureau of Land Management. "There's food on the shelves at the grocery store, and water still comes out of the tap." Only a very small percentage of Montanans - those still farming and ranching - have experienced the latest drought's direct effect, he said. The other 90 percent has yet to feel the pain...A dark age driven by wind A mighty wind blew out of Montana and Wyoming on May 8, 1934, sucking top soil off dried-up fields and blowing it in a vast brown cloud east across the country and onto ships 300 miles off the Atlantic coast. The dust storm was estimated at 1,500 miles long, 900 miles across and two miles deep. On its sweep across the continent, the storm picked up 350 million tons of dirt and drove it at speeds of up to 100 mph. On the night of May 9, an estimated 12 million tons fell on Chicago as the dark cloud advanced on the East Coast. Three days after the storm began, the dust headed out to sea...State gets challenge on public land auctions A challenge to the way the state auctions public land has complicated Phoenix's plan to preserve thousands of acres and threatens preservation plans of cities around the state. Two members of People for the West, a property-rights group, sent letters to the State Land Department to stop the state from selling land to Phoenix for the Sonoran Preserve in north Phoenix. The group questions the legality of the Arizona Preserve Initiative, a 1996 law that enables the department to mark some land for conservation at the request of cities and non-profit associations. The auctions for such land are closed to developers...Court opens door for gravel mining to resume The Idaho Supreme Court has refused to rehear Blaine County's arguments over zoning on state lands, opening the door for a gravel mining operation unpopular with local homeowners to resume operations. The court has denied the county's motion for another hearing after its July 23 decision, when it handed the state Land Board an exemption from local planning and zoning laws for its mining and other "non-commercial" leases of state endowment land. The high court overturned 5th District Judge James May, who gave counties regulatory authority over state trust lands. Income from those lands goes into the state endowment funds for the public schools...Texas county is reluctant to shoot ions into clouds Farmers and ranchers in these parts have been seeding clouds and harvesting rain for decades, scientifically fighting what has been a losing battle against the arid climate of the Lower Rio Grande Basin. But new Russian technology that purports to build rain clouds by shooting ions into the sky is instead creating a firestorm on the Texas border. A political squabble has broken out between Webb County Judge Luis Bruni and the four county commissioners, who can't decide if they want to be the first county in the country to test the IOLA (ionization of the local atmosphere) technology...Scientists test dogs to sniff out weeds Someday soon, man's best friend could also be one of his biggest allies in the war on noxious weeds. That's the hope of researchers like Kim Goodwin, who are studying whether dogs can be trained to detect the prolific - and problematic - spotted knapweed the same way they can be trained to sniff out drugs and bombs. Goodwin, a weed prevention coordinator at Montana State University at Bozeman, said she got the idea for putting dogs to work by seeing how dogs have been used at airports, post offices and ports of entry to search for everything from illegal drugs and bombs to prohibited agricultural products...Local cattle paper has global reach In his travels across the United States and Canada, Byron Bayers discovered a common thread among cattle ranchers. "You can go into Alberta or travel into Texas and if someone didn't know these people were from different regions, you'd never know," Bayers said. "Ranchers everywhere are trying to do the same thing and achieve the same end result." That's one of the many observations Bayers has had over the last seven years as the co-owner of the largest independently owned newspaper on the Hereford breed of cattle in the United States. Bayers, 73, of Twin Bridges, and his daughter, Jill Hotchkiss of Reva, S.D., have published "Hereford America" - which boasts a circulation of 15,500, including readers in every state and 11 foreign countries...Cowboy churches, where religion is easy, ropin' em in Wearing a cowboy hat, boots and string tie, Harry Yates doesn't look like a typical preacher. And the Texas Troubadour Theatre he's standing in front of - with its neon Texas-shaped sign flanked by guitars - is not your normal church building. But that is part of the attraction of the Nashville Cowboy Church, which draws several hundred worshippers each Sunday and has thousands more listening on the radio or via the Internet...Newcastle engraver's silverwork adorns saddle displayed on movie screen in "The Missing" It was the classic case of being in the right place at the right time for engraver-silversmith Linda Doyle Dearmore. The outcome was that some of her artistry has made it onto the movie screen in "The Missing," a big-budget western directed by Ron Howard and starring Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett. Dearmore, who lives on an 18-acre ranch in Newcastle with her husband, Cliff, has been putting her own distinctive stamp on western-style silver pieces for the last three decades. One of her big fans is Clint Mortenson, who owns the Silver & Saddles shop in Santa Fe and does work for Euro Disney's Buffalo Bill Wild West Show. Mortenson invited Dearmore to Santa Fe last February to bring her tools with her for a couple of weeks of work...On The Edge Of Common Sense: Capture one of good's great triumphs over evil It is particularly unfortunate over the holidays that politics interferes with all Americans enjoying one of the greatest triumphs of good over evil that the world has seen since Hitler was driven from power. On Dec. 13, Saddam crawled from his hole a beaten man. Our magnificent armed forces, from Rumsfield to Jessica Lynch, rode in like the avenging army of red, white and blue. Despite sharp turns, pot holes and setbacks, they never hesitated, never lost their resolve. It is the job of critics to ask questions, to make us examine our motives, to encourage us to consider our options. Some critics consider it their obligation to diminish successes, to create doubt, to question the cause, to sow the seeds of dissent. Critics at home and abroad have done their job. They did as well as they could in the face of overwhelming odds. Nine months is not much time to fight an opponent as committed and well-trained as America's armed forces...
Permalink
MAD COW NEWS
'MAD COW' BEEF TRACED TO FOUR MORE STATES & GUAM Meat from a Holstein infected with mad-cow disease has been traced to four more states - bringing the total to eight. Investigators have determined that some of the meat went to Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana and the U.S. territory of Guam, said Dr. Kenneth Petersen, a U.S. Agriculture Department veterinarian. Earlier, officials said most of the meat was shipped to Washington and Oregon, with smaller amounts going to California and Nevada...Mad cow case heightens debate about feed inspections Congressional investigators last year sharply criticized federal efforts to keep mad cow disease out of the United States after they found weak enforcement of a ban on certain cattle feed considered the likely source of such infections. Now the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates animal feed, says enforcement has improved so significantly that 99.9 percent of the nation´s feed companies comply with the ban. But the agency acknowledges that statistic is based on inspection of company records, not on independent testing of the potentially infectious feed itself. Such tests are still being developed. So some lawmakers want more proof that the warnings issued in 2002 have been taken seriously...Cattle industry braces for Tuesday sale Montana cattle producers and dealers could learn this week how much the first U.S. case of mad cow disease will cost them. The state's first cattle sale since last week's announcement of the infected Holstein cow in Washington state is set for Tuesday. "I know that the market will be lower, but I don't know how much," said Craig Britton, manager of the Montana Livestock Co. in Ramsay. "That's the million-dollar question." Britton said he'd have a better idea Monday after packing house representatives meet and assess their situation before heading into auctions...Farmers anxiously await DNA tests on mad cow Prairie governments urged worried beef producers Sunday not to panic after American officials pointed to an Alberta dairy farm as the likely source of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease. Producers and governments in Canada must wait for the results of DNA testing before they can really grapple with the potential impact to the already-battered industry, said Saskatchewan deputy premier Clay Serby. "Let's just hold on right now. There is no need to panic," Serby said from his home in Yorkton, a community surrounded by cattle ranches...Beef industry looks to reopen markets With U.S. beef exports having been brought to a near halt, ranchers and packers are turning to diplomacy and science to try to reopen foreign markets that closed due to the mad cow scare. A U.S. agricultural delegation traveled over the weekend to Japan, the largest export market for American beef, as U.S. officials continued to determine the extent of the outbreak. About 1,800 shipping containers crammed with more than 44 tons of U.S. beef were already on their way when the bans came down, says Lynn Heinze, a vice president with the U.S. Meat Export Federation. He says his group is sending e-mails and making other efforts to convince trading partners that the shipped beef is safe. On Saturday, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association said the indication that the infected cow was from Canada means countries should reopen their borders to American beef. Beef producers say relief can't come soon enough...Dairy farmers struggling with mad cow setbacks Dairy farmers in Southwestern Ontario say it will be years before their industry recovers from border closings prompted by mad cow disease. Canadian beef producers aren't the only ones suffering from a crisis that intensified last week when American officials said they suspected an infected animal found there originated in Alberta. Since May, when borders were closed to Canadian cattle after a single case of mad cow was found in Alberta, dairy farms have lost business and exporters of the animals have shut down operations...In Brush, mad cow news rattles pews If you were blindfolded, wrapped in ankle chains and dropped in the center of Brush, it would still take you less than two minutes to find a church and somebody willing to talk about the mad cow disease scare. That's because this is cattle country, and there's a church on nearly every other corner. And from the organists to the pastors to the folks in the pews, everyone either now has, or once had, a deep stake in beef...Japanese seek Australian beef Australian beef producers are not expecting a bonanza from the United States mad cow scare despite a Japanese delegation heading to Australia in January to explore buying more beef. Meat and Livestock Australia marketing services manager Peter Barnard said he expected the Japanese ministry of agriculture, fisheries and forestry delegation to visit Australia and New Zealand early next month after Japan closed its doors to US beef last week. "We don't believe that this event in the United States will lead to a bonanza for the Australian industry," Dr Barnard said...U.S. Envoys Discuss Mad Cow in Japan U.S. agriculture envoys met with Japanese officials on Monday to allay concerns in Japan - a top overseas market for U.S. beef - about the discovery of the first case of mad cow disease in the United States. Japan, which bought more than $1 billion of U.S. beef last year, joined more than two dozen nations that suspended imports after a cow in Washington state tested positive for the brain-wasting bovine disease last week. The meeting with U.S. officials is unlikely to lead to Japan lifting its ban on imports of U.S. beef, the Japanese media reported, saying government officials here first want the United States to adopt more stringent screening of its herds...Japan Refuses to Discuss Lifting Beef BanJapan rejected a U.S. request Monday to discuss lifting a ban on American beef, saying that officials should first establish the facts surrounding the discovery of mad cow disease in the United States, Agriculture Ministry officials said. The officials spoke after talks with American agriculture delegation in Tokyo to discuss the mad cow disease scare. Japan, the largest overseas market for U.S. beef, banned American beef last week to check the spread of the disease. The U.S. delegation asked to discuss the lifting of the ban, a Japanese official said on condition of anonymity. "First we have to confirm the facts, so it's too early to have such a discussion," the Japanese official told reporters...Democrats Criticize Bush on Beef Policy Democratic candidates tried to turn "mad cow" disease to political advantage Sunday, accusing the White House of lax regulatory policies, as officials announced that meat from the cow infected with the disease had been distributed to four more states than previously thought. During a daylong swing through Iowa, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean hammered away at the "mad cow" issue, scolding the administration for not doing enough to trace and test the nation's cattle. Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry, also campaigning in Iowa, called for similar efforts to protect public health, including a ban on selling beef brains and vertebrae and federal aid for farmers forced to slaughter their cattle. "There are many in the cattle industry who will continue to resist much-needed changes," Kerry said in a statement. "I urge President Bush for once not to listen to the demands of corporate America and act on behalf of the health and economic needs of all Americans." For good measure, a fellow Democratic candidate, Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, said in a statement that Bush "refuses to fund important country-of-origin labeling provisions for meat and has ignored the need for resources at the [Food and Drug Administration] and [the U.S. Department of Agriculture] to inspect the agricultural products coming across our borders."...Dairy Farmers Contributed to House Panel The dairy industry contributed to most members of a key House committee who voted nearly in lockstep against banning the sale of meat from ill or disabled animals, like the one that tested positive last week for mad cow disease. Political action committees representing dairy farmers gave money to 33 of the 51 members of the House Agriculture Committee, an Associated Press review of campaign reports shows. Of the 33, 28 voted against the ban on marketing "downed" animals, four voted for it and one didn't vote, when it was defeated 202-199 in July. The Senate approved the ban on a voice vote in November, but it was left out of the final compromise passed by the House this month and awaiting action in the Senate...U.S. set to extend beef ban News that the Washington-state Holstein with mad-cow disease was almost certainly born at an Alberta dairy farm is likely to prolong the U.S. ban on imports of Canadian cattle. Canada's chief veterinarian, however, warned yesterday that feed contaminated in the United States could have infected the animal. Ron DeHaven, chief veterinarian for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, suggested yesterday that if investigators confirm the Holstein came from a dairy farm near Edmonton, Canada's hopes of moving live cattle and more beef products over the border by early next year could be damaged...Column: Don't Have a Cow, Man We can be assured of one thing when it comes to the safety of our food: media hysteria will be inversely proportional to actual risks. Alfred Hitchcock knew a shadowy figure was far more terrifying than a well-lit known villain. Nothing haunts us more than our own imaginations, said Frank Furedi, sociologist at the University of Kent in Canterbury and author of The Culture of Fear (Continuum Publishing, 2002). Likewise today's newspapers and television networks have found that fictitious, sensationalized, "what-if?" scares of hidden dangers lurking in our foods make the juiciest stories guaranteed to capture audiences and sell papers. The mania surrounding mad cow is already proving this point...Editorial: Lax rules and testing put public, cattle industry at risk When mad cow disease was discovered in Canada earlier this year, the cattle industry and the U.S. Agriculture Department shrugged off the incident as regrettable, but unlikely to affect beef in the United States. Resisting calls for more testing of animals and new restrictions on how they are raised and slaughtered, the industry boasted the safest beef supply in the world. Cattlemen and meat packers have fought calls for more frequent inspections, and tighter feeding and slaughtering rules. Such measures have long been identified as necessary to fully protect U.S. beef. The laissez-faire approach to inspections and opposition to regulations might help cattlemen save money in the short run, but it exposes them to far greater losses over time through damage to the reputation of U.S. beef. Already, U.S. beef bans by 28 countries risk shutting off as much as $6 billion in annual exports. Experts see beef prices domestically dropping by 20% or more. And with the announcement on Sunday that meat from the sick Holstein has reached retail markets in eight states and Guam, concern is spreading in spite of assurances by Agriculture Department officials that the public faces no health risk. The dearth of cattle inspections is hardly the only example of industry-friendly beef regulations that expose the nation's food supply to avoidable dangers:...Cattle prices set to plunge again The unprecedented rout in prices for live-cattle futures is set to accelerate Monday, further pummelling Canadian and U.S. ranchers already reeling from the second confirmed case of mad-cow disease on the continent. Futures contracts for live cattle and for feeder cattle have fallen by the maximum daily allowed in the past two sessions on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange — with trading shutting down within minutes as a result — despite the CME doubling that daily limit on Friday to $3 (U.S.) a hundredweight, or 3 cents a pound. The trading limit will be increased even more Monday, allowing prices to drop by 5 cents a pound, more than triple the amount of the original collar...
Permalink
'MAD COW' BEEF TRACED TO FOUR MORE STATES & GUAM Meat from a Holstein infected with mad-cow disease has been traced to four more states - bringing the total to eight. Investigators have determined that some of the meat went to Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana and the U.S. territory of Guam, said Dr. Kenneth Petersen, a U.S. Agriculture Department veterinarian. Earlier, officials said most of the meat was shipped to Washington and Oregon, with smaller amounts going to California and Nevada...Mad cow case heightens debate about feed inspections Congressional investigators last year sharply criticized federal efforts to keep mad cow disease out of the United States after they found weak enforcement of a ban on certain cattle feed considered the likely source of such infections. Now the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates animal feed, says enforcement has improved so significantly that 99.9 percent of the nation´s feed companies comply with the ban. But the agency acknowledges that statistic is based on inspection of company records, not on independent testing of the potentially infectious feed itself. Such tests are still being developed. So some lawmakers want more proof that the warnings issued in 2002 have been taken seriously...Cattle industry braces for Tuesday sale Montana cattle producers and dealers could learn this week how much the first U.S. case of mad cow disease will cost them. The state's first cattle sale since last week's announcement of the infected Holstein cow in Washington state is set for Tuesday. "I know that the market will be lower, but I don't know how much," said Craig Britton, manager of the Montana Livestock Co. in Ramsay. "That's the million-dollar question." Britton said he'd have a better idea Monday after packing house representatives meet and assess their situation before heading into auctions...Farmers anxiously await DNA tests on mad cow Prairie governments urged worried beef producers Sunday not to panic after American officials pointed to an Alberta dairy farm as the likely source of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease. Producers and governments in Canada must wait for the results of DNA testing before they can really grapple with the potential impact to the already-battered industry, said Saskatchewan deputy premier Clay Serby. "Let's just hold on right now. There is no need to panic," Serby said from his home in Yorkton, a community surrounded by cattle ranches...Beef industry looks to reopen markets With U.S. beef exports having been brought to a near halt, ranchers and packers are turning to diplomacy and science to try to reopen foreign markets that closed due to the mad cow scare. A U.S. agricultural delegation traveled over the weekend to Japan, the largest export market for American beef, as U.S. officials continued to determine the extent of the outbreak. About 1,800 shipping containers crammed with more than 44 tons of U.S. beef were already on their way when the bans came down, says Lynn Heinze, a vice president with the U.S. Meat Export Federation. He says his group is sending e-mails and making other efforts to convince trading partners that the shipped beef is safe. On Saturday, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association said the indication that the infected cow was from Canada means countries should reopen their borders to American beef. Beef producers say relief can't come soon enough...Dairy farmers struggling with mad cow setbacks Dairy farmers in Southwestern Ontario say it will be years before their industry recovers from border closings prompted by mad cow disease. Canadian beef producers aren't the only ones suffering from a crisis that intensified last week when American officials said they suspected an infected animal found there originated in Alberta. Since May, when borders were closed to Canadian cattle after a single case of mad cow was found in Alberta, dairy farms have lost business and exporters of the animals have shut down operations...In Brush, mad cow news rattles pews If you were blindfolded, wrapped in ankle chains and dropped in the center of Brush, it would still take you less than two minutes to find a church and somebody willing to talk about the mad cow disease scare. That's because this is cattle country, and there's a church on nearly every other corner. And from the organists to the pastors to the folks in the pews, everyone either now has, or once had, a deep stake in beef...Japanese seek Australian beef Australian beef producers are not expecting a bonanza from the United States mad cow scare despite a Japanese delegation heading to Australia in January to explore buying more beef. Meat and Livestock Australia marketing services manager Peter Barnard said he expected the Japanese ministry of agriculture, fisheries and forestry delegation to visit Australia and New Zealand early next month after Japan closed its doors to US beef last week. "We don't believe that this event in the United States will lead to a bonanza for the Australian industry," Dr Barnard said...U.S. Envoys Discuss Mad Cow in Japan U.S. agriculture envoys met with Japanese officials on Monday to allay concerns in Japan - a top overseas market for U.S. beef - about the discovery of the first case of mad cow disease in the United States. Japan, which bought more than $1 billion of U.S. beef last year, joined more than two dozen nations that suspended imports after a cow in Washington state tested positive for the brain-wasting bovine disease last week. The meeting with U.S. officials is unlikely to lead to Japan lifting its ban on imports of U.S. beef, the Japanese media reported, saying government officials here first want the United States to adopt more stringent screening of its herds...Japan Refuses to Discuss Lifting Beef BanJapan rejected a U.S. request Monday to discuss lifting a ban on American beef, saying that officials should first establish the facts surrounding the discovery of mad cow disease in the United States, Agriculture Ministry officials said. The officials spoke after talks with American agriculture delegation in Tokyo to discuss the mad cow disease scare. Japan, the largest overseas market for U.S. beef, banned American beef last week to check the spread of the disease. The U.S. delegation asked to discuss the lifting of the ban, a Japanese official said on condition of anonymity. "First we have to confirm the facts, so it's too early to have such a discussion," the Japanese official told reporters...Democrats Criticize Bush on Beef Policy Democratic candidates tried to turn "mad cow" disease to political advantage Sunday, accusing the White House of lax regulatory policies, as officials announced that meat from the cow infected with the disease had been distributed to four more states than previously thought. During a daylong swing through Iowa, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean hammered away at the "mad cow" issue, scolding the administration for not doing enough to trace and test the nation's cattle. Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry, also campaigning in Iowa, called for similar efforts to protect public health, including a ban on selling beef brains and vertebrae and federal aid for farmers forced to slaughter their cattle. "There are many in the cattle industry who will continue to resist much-needed changes," Kerry said in a statement. "I urge President Bush for once not to listen to the demands of corporate America and act on behalf of the health and economic needs of all Americans." For good measure, a fellow Democratic candidate, Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, said in a statement that Bush "refuses to fund important country-of-origin labeling provisions for meat and has ignored the need for resources at the [Food and Drug Administration] and [the U.S. Department of Agriculture] to inspect the agricultural products coming across our borders."...Dairy Farmers Contributed to House Panel The dairy industry contributed to most members of a key House committee who voted nearly in lockstep against banning the sale of meat from ill or disabled animals, like the one that tested positive last week for mad cow disease. Political action committees representing dairy farmers gave money to 33 of the 51 members of the House Agriculture Committee, an Associated Press review of campaign reports shows. Of the 33, 28 voted against the ban on marketing "downed" animals, four voted for it and one didn't vote, when it was defeated 202-199 in July. The Senate approved the ban on a voice vote in November, but it was left out of the final compromise passed by the House this month and awaiting action in the Senate...U.S. set to extend beef ban News that the Washington-state Holstein with mad-cow disease was almost certainly born at an Alberta dairy farm is likely to prolong the U.S. ban on imports of Canadian cattle. Canada's chief veterinarian, however, warned yesterday that feed contaminated in the United States could have infected the animal. Ron DeHaven, chief veterinarian for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, suggested yesterday that if investigators confirm the Holstein came from a dairy farm near Edmonton, Canada's hopes of moving live cattle and more beef products over the border by early next year could be damaged...Column: Don't Have a Cow, Man We can be assured of one thing when it comes to the safety of our food: media hysteria will be inversely proportional to actual risks. Alfred Hitchcock knew a shadowy figure was far more terrifying than a well-lit known villain. Nothing haunts us more than our own imaginations, said Frank Furedi, sociologist at the University of Kent in Canterbury and author of The Culture of Fear (Continuum Publishing, 2002). Likewise today's newspapers and television networks have found that fictitious, sensationalized, "what-if?" scares of hidden dangers lurking in our foods make the juiciest stories guaranteed to capture audiences and sell papers. The mania surrounding mad cow is already proving this point...Editorial: Lax rules and testing put public, cattle industry at risk When mad cow disease was discovered in Canada earlier this year, the cattle industry and the U.S. Agriculture Department shrugged off the incident as regrettable, but unlikely to affect beef in the United States. Resisting calls for more testing of animals and new restrictions on how they are raised and slaughtered, the industry boasted the safest beef supply in the world. Cattlemen and meat packers have fought calls for more frequent inspections, and tighter feeding and slaughtering rules. Such measures have long been identified as necessary to fully protect U.S. beef. The laissez-faire approach to inspections and opposition to regulations might help cattlemen save money in the short run, but it exposes them to far greater losses over time through damage to the reputation of U.S. beef. Already, U.S. beef bans by 28 countries risk shutting off as much as $6 billion in annual exports. Experts see beef prices domestically dropping by 20% or more. And with the announcement on Sunday that meat from the sick Holstein has reached retail markets in eight states and Guam, concern is spreading in spite of assurances by Agriculture Department officials that the public faces no health risk. The dearth of cattle inspections is hardly the only example of industry-friendly beef regulations that expose the nation's food supply to avoidable dangers:...Cattle prices set to plunge again The unprecedented rout in prices for live-cattle futures is set to accelerate Monday, further pummelling Canadian and U.S. ranchers already reeling from the second confirmed case of mad-cow disease on the continent. Futures contracts for live cattle and for feeder cattle have fallen by the maximum daily allowed in the past two sessions on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange — with trading shutting down within minutes as a result — despite the CME doubling that daily limit on Friday to $3 (U.S.) a hundredweight, or 3 cents a pound. The trading limit will be increased even more Monday, allowing prices to drop by 5 cents a pound, more than triple the amount of the original collar...
Permalink
MAD COW NEWS
Meat recall system is plagued by gaps, a low recovery rate Four days after the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a recall of meat that may have come from a Holstein infected with mad-cow disease, investigators and company officials were still working to locate much of it and conceded some likely has been eaten already. Although federal regulators say eating the beef poses little health risk, the situation is typical of a system that generally recovers less than a quarter of tainted meat that is recalled, a Knight Ridder analysis of recall data found. Besides Washington and Oregon, the meat from the infected cow is now believed to have been distributed to some small retailers in California and Nevada, USDA officials said Saturday. They were not ruling out that other states may have gotten some of the meat...Editorial: Case shows beef inspection system works To all of those who are incessantly beating the drums decrying the state of the U.S. beef industry in the wake of one cow being detected with mad cow disease this week: back off. The system worked. America is blessed with the best food preparation system in the world. The beef industry in particular has a tightly controlled and highly monitored inspection system that focuses on delivering fresh, disease-proof products to the public. The recent discovery of a sick cow in Washington state is a credit to the beef industry's vigilance, as well as a testimony to the government's inspection controls. The fact that a diseased animal was discovered should be a source of congratulations to those involved in the inspection process...Canada, U.S. at odds over mad cow origin But in Ottawa, chief Canadian veterinarian Dr Brian Evans told a news conference: "It would be premature to draw such a conclusion at this time... As yet, there is no definitive evidence that confirms that the BSE-infected cow originated in Canada." Evans said Canadian and U.S. authorities were cooperating closely to track the origins of the cow, but the United States needed to carry out a full scientific probe which could be submitted to international experts for peer review. "It is imperative that all the evidence be weighed and verified before anyone jumps to any predetermination," he said. "There is still much investigative work to be done... we have concerns that we feel need to be worked through and verified."...Mad Cow Case Clouds Bush's Political Outlook The discovery of mad cow disease in the United States could shift the political landscape at the start of President Bush's reelection year by injecting uncertainty into a fragile economy and drawing scrutiny to his handling of an industry that was a financial and political ally in the last election, analysts in both parties said yesterday. Bush has closer ties to ranching than to any other industry besides oil, and Democrats seized on this new avenue for attacking Bush as a captive of business. Howard Dean, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, said that it showed "the complete lack of foresight by the Bush administration once again."...Early Weaning May Increase Risk of Disease The coldly regimented process of raising a dairy cow in North America forces it at a very early age to depend on dietary supplements that in rare instances can spread mad cow disease, according to livestock experts. In addition, the frequent shuffling of young dairy cows between specialized feedlots and milking farms -- a routine part of large dairy operations -- can also make it difficult to track an infected animal back to the herd into which it was born, these experts say. When these cattle move -- even between Canada and the United States -- they are not necessarily individually identified, said Mary Beth Lang, a spokeswoman for the Washington State Department of Agriculture. "There are ear tags," she said. "But they can fall off."...Beef industry eager to resume trade with Mexico At Northern Beef Industries in Corpus Christi, the telephone kept ringing Friday morning. On the line: Mexican suppliers concerned about how they would meet demand after their country banned imports of U.S. beef products amid fears about a suspected case of mad cow disease. "They don't know anything more than we do," David Hausman, the worldwide meat distributor's president, said of the callers. "They just know the border has been shut off." Mexico closed its border to American beef Tuesday after the U.S. Agriculture Department revealed that a Holstein dairy cow on a Washington state farm had tested positive for mad cow disease. British scientists confirmed the diagnosis on Thursday. Relief for suppliers on both sides of the borders could come soon now that investigators have tentatively traced the first U.S. cow with mad cow disease to Canada...USDA to Rethink Opening Border to Canadian Cattle The United States will take another look at its proposal to reopen the border to some Canadian cattle after finding mad cow disease in Washington state, a U.S. Agriculture Department spokeswoman told Reuters on Saturday. The USDA said it believed the infected Holstein cow was likely one of a herd of 74 dairy cows imported to Idaho from Alberta, Canada, in August 2001. The USDA, which has proposed resuming imports of Canadian cattle under 30 months of age, said it would take another look at its proposal in light of the discovery of mad cow disease in the border state. "New information from the investigation will be taken into consideration," said USDA spokeswoman Julie Quick, referring to the USDA proposal...Beef Stacking Up at Port of Oakland Due to Mad Cow Case Beef is piling up at the Port of Oakland after the United States lost many of its beef exports because of the fears over Mad Cow disease. Every year more than 200,000 metric tons of American raised beef leaves the Port of Oakland destined for Asian nations like China, Japan and Indonesia...
Permalink
Meat recall system is plagued by gaps, a low recovery rate Four days after the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a recall of meat that may have come from a Holstein infected with mad-cow disease, investigators and company officials were still working to locate much of it and conceded some likely has been eaten already. Although federal regulators say eating the beef poses little health risk, the situation is typical of a system that generally recovers less than a quarter of tainted meat that is recalled, a Knight Ridder analysis of recall data found. Besides Washington and Oregon, the meat from the infected cow is now believed to have been distributed to some small retailers in California and Nevada, USDA officials said Saturday. They were not ruling out that other states may have gotten some of the meat...Editorial: Case shows beef inspection system works To all of those who are incessantly beating the drums decrying the state of the U.S. beef industry in the wake of one cow being detected with mad cow disease this week: back off. The system worked. America is blessed with the best food preparation system in the world. The beef industry in particular has a tightly controlled and highly monitored inspection system that focuses on delivering fresh, disease-proof products to the public. The recent discovery of a sick cow in Washington state is a credit to the beef industry's vigilance, as well as a testimony to the government's inspection controls. The fact that a diseased animal was discovered should be a source of congratulations to those involved in the inspection process...Canada, U.S. at odds over mad cow origin But in Ottawa, chief Canadian veterinarian Dr Brian Evans told a news conference: "It would be premature to draw such a conclusion at this time... As yet, there is no definitive evidence that confirms that the BSE-infected cow originated in Canada." Evans said Canadian and U.S. authorities were cooperating closely to track the origins of the cow, but the United States needed to carry out a full scientific probe which could be submitted to international experts for peer review. "It is imperative that all the evidence be weighed and verified before anyone jumps to any predetermination," he said. "There is still much investigative work to be done... we have concerns that we feel need to be worked through and verified."...Mad Cow Case Clouds Bush's Political Outlook The discovery of mad cow disease in the United States could shift the political landscape at the start of President Bush's reelection year by injecting uncertainty into a fragile economy and drawing scrutiny to his handling of an industry that was a financial and political ally in the last election, analysts in both parties said yesterday. Bush has closer ties to ranching than to any other industry besides oil, and Democrats seized on this new avenue for attacking Bush as a captive of business. Howard Dean, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, said that it showed "the complete lack of foresight by the Bush administration once again."...Early Weaning May Increase Risk of Disease The coldly regimented process of raising a dairy cow in North America forces it at a very early age to depend on dietary supplements that in rare instances can spread mad cow disease, according to livestock experts. In addition, the frequent shuffling of young dairy cows between specialized feedlots and milking farms -- a routine part of large dairy operations -- can also make it difficult to track an infected animal back to the herd into which it was born, these experts say. When these cattle move -- even between Canada and the United States -- they are not necessarily individually identified, said Mary Beth Lang, a spokeswoman for the Washington State Department of Agriculture. "There are ear tags," she said. "But they can fall off."...Beef industry eager to resume trade with Mexico At Northern Beef Industries in Corpus Christi, the telephone kept ringing Friday morning. On the line: Mexican suppliers concerned about how they would meet demand after their country banned imports of U.S. beef products amid fears about a suspected case of mad cow disease. "They don't know anything more than we do," David Hausman, the worldwide meat distributor's president, said of the callers. "They just know the border has been shut off." Mexico closed its border to American beef Tuesday after the U.S. Agriculture Department revealed that a Holstein dairy cow on a Washington state farm had tested positive for mad cow disease. British scientists confirmed the diagnosis on Thursday. Relief for suppliers on both sides of the borders could come soon now that investigators have tentatively traced the first U.S. cow with mad cow disease to Canada...USDA to Rethink Opening Border to Canadian Cattle The United States will take another look at its proposal to reopen the border to some Canadian cattle after finding mad cow disease in Washington state, a U.S. Agriculture Department spokeswoman told Reuters on Saturday. The USDA said it believed the infected Holstein cow was likely one of a herd of 74 dairy cows imported to Idaho from Alberta, Canada, in August 2001. The USDA, which has proposed resuming imports of Canadian cattle under 30 months of age, said it would take another look at its proposal in light of the discovery of mad cow disease in the border state. "New information from the investigation will be taken into consideration," said USDA spokeswoman Julie Quick, referring to the USDA proposal...Beef Stacking Up at Port of Oakland Due to Mad Cow Case Beef is piling up at the Port of Oakland after the United States lost many of its beef exports because of the fears over Mad Cow disease. Every year more than 200,000 metric tons of American raised beef leaves the Port of Oakland destined for Asian nations like China, Japan and Indonesia...
Permalink
NCBA Statement Regarding USDA Announcement of the Origin of the BSE-positive Dairy Cow in Washington State
Terry Stokes, Chief Executive Officer, National Cattlemen's Beef Association
December 27, 2003
With today's announcement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that records indicate the Washington state dairy cow testing positive for BSE was imported from Canada, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association strongly urges our trading partners to reopen their borders to U.S. beef exports.
In five short days and despite the holiday, USDA has traced this animal through ear-tag identification to Canadian records. These records suggest this cow is more than six-years-old and entered the United States with 73 other animals that are being traced by USDA.
Again, USDA authorities have confirmed the central nervous system tissue from this animal never entered the human food chain. Rather, it was sent to rendering for non-human food uses. In new developments, the Food and Drug Administration also announced today that they have "under control" all the rendered product from this Washington state cow.
Scientists agree these central nervous system tissues, such as spinal cord and brain, are the carrier of BSE. The BSE agent is not found in muscle meat, like steaks, roasts or ground beef.
We applaud USDA for their rapid progress on this investigation and their collaborative efforts with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to seek its swift conclusion. We also applaud the Washington state dairy and cattle producers who have cooperated fully with U.S. investigators.
This investigation must be USDA's top priority. To that end, we are requesting an indefinite extension on the final comments regarding the opening of the Canadian border to live animal trade until the investigation is complete. This will allow us to gather all the information from the investigation so we can comment accordingly on behalf of our members.
Just like we expect from our trading partners, importation into the United States from Canada of boneless beef from animals under 30 months of age presents no public health risk and should continue.
All decisions concerning re-establishment of trade for beef exports must be based on sound science. As USDA announced today, standards set by the international animal health body (OIE) recognize that meat can be safely traded from countries that have identified cases of BSE.
If U.S. trading partners require additional and precautionary assurances, USDA's Beef Export Verification program put into place after the May 20, 2003, Canadian BSE announcement allows our trading partners to isolate product from Canadian animals. While BSE is not found in muscle meat and the central nervous system tissue from this cow did not enter the human food chain, we do export variety meats, including central nervous system tissue, to other countries where these products are diet staples or delicacies. The Beef Export Verification program allows our trading partners to be assured that U.S. beef products remain safe for their consumers, just like it is for American consumers.
The National Cattlemen's Beef Association expects trade to be the Administration's top priority. Beef exports represent approximately 10 percent of U.S. beef production and were valued at $2.6 billion to the U.S. industry in 2002.
Permalink
Terry Stokes, Chief Executive Officer, National Cattlemen's Beef Association
December 27, 2003
With today's announcement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that records indicate the Washington state dairy cow testing positive for BSE was imported from Canada, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association strongly urges our trading partners to reopen their borders to U.S. beef exports.
In five short days and despite the holiday, USDA has traced this animal through ear-tag identification to Canadian records. These records suggest this cow is more than six-years-old and entered the United States with 73 other animals that are being traced by USDA.
Again, USDA authorities have confirmed the central nervous system tissue from this animal never entered the human food chain. Rather, it was sent to rendering for non-human food uses. In new developments, the Food and Drug Administration also announced today that they have "under control" all the rendered product from this Washington state cow.
Scientists agree these central nervous system tissues, such as spinal cord and brain, are the carrier of BSE. The BSE agent is not found in muscle meat, like steaks, roasts or ground beef.
We applaud USDA for their rapid progress on this investigation and their collaborative efforts with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to seek its swift conclusion. We also applaud the Washington state dairy and cattle producers who have cooperated fully with U.S. investigators.
This investigation must be USDA's top priority. To that end, we are requesting an indefinite extension on the final comments regarding the opening of the Canadian border to live animal trade until the investigation is complete. This will allow us to gather all the information from the investigation so we can comment accordingly on behalf of our members.
Just like we expect from our trading partners, importation into the United States from Canada of boneless beef from animals under 30 months of age presents no public health risk and should continue.
All decisions concerning re-establishment of trade for beef exports must be based on sound science. As USDA announced today, standards set by the international animal health body (OIE) recognize that meat can be safely traded from countries that have identified cases of BSE.
If U.S. trading partners require additional and precautionary assurances, USDA's Beef Export Verification program put into place after the May 20, 2003, Canadian BSE announcement allows our trading partners to isolate product from Canadian animals. While BSE is not found in muscle meat and the central nervous system tissue from this cow did not enter the human food chain, we do export variety meats, including central nervous system tissue, to other countries where these products are diet staples or delicacies. The Beef Export Verification program allows our trading partners to be assured that U.S. beef products remain safe for their consumers, just like it is for American consumers.
The National Cattlemen's Beef Association expects trade to be the Administration's top priority. Beef exports represent approximately 10 percent of U.S. beef production and were valued at $2.6 billion to the U.S. industry in 2002.
Permalink
NCBA Advisory
December 27, 2003
To: NCBA Member Organizations
Contact: Rick McCarty, NCBA Denver 303-694-0305
Kendal Frazier 303-694-0305
Subject: BSE Update
December 27, 2003 BSE Update
USDA announced today that its epidemiological investigation of the BSE-infected cow found in Washington State has indicated the animal was imported from Canada. Further, Canadian records indicate the animal is 6 ½ years old, not 4 ½ as originally thought.
Here are details on the USDA teleconference briefing held at 11 am ET on December 27, 2003.
--Information received by USDA at approximately midnight on Dec. 26 indicated the infected dairy cow was born in April 1997, before the Canadian feed ban was in effect. According to the Canadian records the cow is 6 ½ years old, not 4 ½ years as indicted by U.S. records.
--Records indicate the animal entered the U.S. in August 2001 via the Eastport, ID, port along with 73 other dairy animals from a dairy herd in southern Alberta.
DNA test results will confirm whether the index cow matches Canadian records associated with the ear tag taken at slaughter. These results are expected within a week.
--USDA has not definitively identified the dairy cow's birth herd but expects to confirm that soon.
--It is likely that the other 73 imported dairy animals are still alive and these animals also will be traced and tested.
--USDA noted that the relative risk of any of the other 73 animals being infected is low; even in England at the height of BSE infectivity the usual incidence of BSE within a particular herd was no more than one or two animals.
--USDA has not yet made any decision regarding depopulation of animals within the index herd. The USDA TSE Working Group is reviewing the situation and will make a recommendation on any animals that need to be depopulated and tested.
--USDA said, given this incident, it would be prudent for the agency to reconsider its overall program in regard to BSE. This would include looking at the surveillance program in terms of increasing testing and how that might be accomplished. In addition, it would be prudent to consider modifying its policy to specify that product from downer animals that are tested would be held until test results are available.
--FSIS reported that the recall of meat associated with the index cow is making good progress. The meat has been traced to a number of distribution points and final sellers. A significant amount of the meat was not distributed and has been identified and held.
--FDA-CVM reported that all the byproducts from the infected animal have been found and identified and are, according to the government, under control.
Permalink
December 27, 2003
To: NCBA Member Organizations
Contact: Rick McCarty, NCBA Denver 303-694-0305
Kendal Frazier 303-694-0305
Subject: BSE Update
December 27, 2003 BSE Update
USDA announced today that its epidemiological investigation of the BSE-infected cow found in Washington State has indicated the animal was imported from Canada. Further, Canadian records indicate the animal is 6 ½ years old, not 4 ½ as originally thought.
Here are details on the USDA teleconference briefing held at 11 am ET on December 27, 2003.
--Information received by USDA at approximately midnight on Dec. 26 indicated the infected dairy cow was born in April 1997, before the Canadian feed ban was in effect. According to the Canadian records the cow is 6 ½ years old, not 4 ½ years as indicted by U.S. records.
--Records indicate the animal entered the U.S. in August 2001 via the Eastport, ID, port along with 73 other dairy animals from a dairy herd in southern Alberta.
DNA test results will confirm whether the index cow matches Canadian records associated with the ear tag taken at slaughter. These results are expected within a week.
--USDA has not definitively identified the dairy cow's birth herd but expects to confirm that soon.
--It is likely that the other 73 imported dairy animals are still alive and these animals also will be traced and tested.
--USDA noted that the relative risk of any of the other 73 animals being infected is low; even in England at the height of BSE infectivity the usual incidence of BSE within a particular herd was no more than one or two animals.
--USDA has not yet made any decision regarding depopulation of animals within the index herd. The USDA TSE Working Group is reviewing the situation and will make a recommendation on any animals that need to be depopulated and tested.
--USDA said, given this incident, it would be prudent for the agency to reconsider its overall program in regard to BSE. This would include looking at the surveillance program in terms of increasing testing and how that might be accomplished. In addition, it would be prudent to consider modifying its policy to specify that product from downer animals that are tested would be held until test results are available.
--FSIS reported that the recall of meat associated with the index cow is making good progress. The meat has been traced to a number of distribution points and final sellers. A significant amount of the meat was not distributed and has been identified and held.
--FDA-CVM reported that all the byproducts from the infected animal have been found and identified and are, according to the government, under control.
Permalink
