US and BSE Testing

[pandiana]

I think the following US approach to testing has a great deal of merit. If I interpret this correctly, they are doing a mass testing to try to establish whether or not BSE is endemic in their cattle population. If it turns out that the incidence is rare, this would confirm that they are a low risk country. If several more are found, this would alleviate the liability they would encure if , like the British, the original animals to test positive were only the tip of the iceberg. This seems to me to be a brave and responsible approach to the problem.


"Yesterday the United States Department of Agriculture announced a one-time targeted BSE surveillance project that will see up to 268,000 head of high-risk cattle tested for BSE, plus an additional 20,000 head of randomly selected older animals."


View Bulletin http://www.info-cca.ca/index.cfm?app=bulletins&fuseaction=bulletin&bullet inid=166

[rsomer]

pandiana: you said "This seems to me to be a brave and responsible approach to the problem."
I don't believe the U.S decision to do more testing is brave, they are doing it because the International Review Panel made them do it.
The International Review Panel made the following recommendation to remove the SRMs from all animals over 12 months of age unless the USA undertook an aggressive surveillance program.

"Unless aggressive surveillance proves the BSE risk in the USA to be minimal according to OIE standards, the subcommittee recommends that the SRM identified below be excluded from both the human food and animal feed chains:
Brain and spinal cord of all cattle over 12 months of age
Skull and vertebral column of cattle over 12 months of age – these are not inherently infected, but cannot be separated from dorsal root/trigeminal ganglia or from residual contamination with CNS tissue
Intestine – from pylorus to anus – from all cattle.
In the mean time, until the level of BSE risk has been established, the subcommittee concedes that exclusion of CNS, skull, and vertebral column from cattle over 30 months, and intestines from cattle of all ages, for use in human food is a reasonable temporary compromise."

[cowman]

Now maybe I'm not being a trusting soul but I suspect this will largely be a smoke and mirrors trick and the US will never find another BSE positive animal...well unless she has a Canadian eartag!
Testing suspect animals? Oh really? They banned the slaughter of downers! No test there.
I would think 220,000 15 month old steers would be more like it, if you know what I mean? Shoot, shovel, and shut up will be the order of the day!

[johnboy555]

I think its time for cowboys to stop sending dieing old crocks to the auction markets and packin houses and start shootin, shovelin, and shutin.

[pandiana]

rsomer, has does this compare with current Canadian standards? Are they parallel? I haven't been following lately.

I am still nervous that there hasn't been enough testing to determine if there is a real problem or if these 2 cases where spontaneous, and found only because we test. By talking a much larger sample such as proposed in US we would get a better idea statistically, at least. It seems to me the best way to deal with unpleasant problems is head on.

[rsomer]

Although I thought the International Panel that looked in our May 20 cow recommended removing SRMs from all animals over 30 months, when I check I see it was not that specific, no particular age was mentioned. I have pasted the panels recommendations below:

"The list of material considered as SRM and the age of animals included must be based on science to ensure that potentially infected material does not enter the feed and food chains. The list of SRM must be based on knowledge derived from the extensive studies on cattle, which have demonstrated that BSE infectivity may be present in brain, spinal cord, trigeminal ganglia, dorsal root ganglia, terminal ileum, eyes, and tonsils. The age of the cattle included in the ban should be determined by science and practical aspects of implementation must also be considered. The timely and full national implementation of this measure should be a priority. Its adoption will greatly influence the relative scope of other measures."

On testing in Canada they said:

"Surveillance

Adjustments to surveillance approaches are warranted in the new environment in order to determine the current prevalence and to judge the effectiveness of measures implemented over time."