For Crying out loud!

[kato]

SAN ANGELO, Texas, May 03, 2004 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- A cow that was ordered destroyed at a West Texas meatpacking plant was sent to rendering before the U.S. Department of Agriculture could collect samples to test it for a possible central nervous system disorder, USDA officials said Monday.

The rendered product from the animal did not enter the human food chain and presents no risk to human health, said a joint statement by Ron Dehaven, administrator for animal and plant health inspection, and Barbara Masters, acting administrator for food safety and inspection.

The cow was taken to slaughter Wednesday at Lone Star Beef in San Angelo. The statement said a veterinarian condemned the animal after seeing the cow stagger and fall, indicting either an injury or a potential central nervous system disorder, one of the signs of mad cow disease.

"Standard procedures call for animals condemned due to a possible (central nervous system) disorder to be kept until (USDA) officials can collect samples for testing," the statement said. "However, this did not occur in this case and the animal was sent to rendering."

"We don't know why" the animal was rendered before samples were taken, said Susan Holl, spokeswoman with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, an agency of the USDA. "We're looking into that."

"It looks as if there was some misunderstanding," said Andrea McNally, a USDA spokeswoman.

USDA officials are investigating the circumstances and "will take appropriate actions once all information is available," Dehaven and Masters said.

Downed animals still can be processed at rendering plants which prepare animal byproducts for use in consumer goods, from cosmetics to gelatin for drug capsules. The government believes such items pose no risk to human health.

Last year, inspectors tested 20,000 animals in the United States and 500 of them exhibited signs of central nervous system disorder, USDA spokesman Ed Loyd said. None tested positive for mad cow disease.

The only case of mad cow detected in the United States was in Washington state in December.

On June 1, USDA inspectors will increase the number of cattle tested for mad cow disease to help reassure Americans that their meat supply is safe and win back vital exports markets, the agency said.

[kato]

It gets worse.

check out http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N03663252.htm

The alarming part of this is...

Lone Star Beef said in a statement that it was "instructed by the USDA to dispose of the animal" and immediately sent the suspicious cow to rendering.

"At Lone Star Beef, food safety is our top priority at all times," the company said. "We are cooperating with federal officials as they review this situation."

Has no one down there learned anything from what happened to us?

[whiteface]

As was said before, if no one had a Canadian tag to slam into an ear the animal must be disposed of as quickly as possible. Sure as hell wouldn't want to detect an American born BSE case, my God, the economy, their reputation, all their preaching how American meat is safe. Must implement COOL immediatly, save their exports. Not a hint of sarcasm in my writing I know, I like the topic kato, for crying out loud. But none of you are surprised.

[CattleAnnie]

The situation reported stinks to high heaven of a cover-up. Hate to be labelled a conspiracy theorist, but it's almighty difficult not to be suspicious faced with what's reported thus far.
If this proves to be true, the USDA's credibility will be irrevocably shot to Hell.
Must say we definately live in interesting times.....

[kato]

This could be where R-Calf's ranting blows up in their faces.

[grassfarmer]

Why ? do you hear the Canadian Government, CFIA or ABP raising a stink about this? It seems this event will slip by unnoticed on current coverage.

[Smithy]

I thought this was interesting...

"Meat from the suspicious cow did not enter the food chain, but was processed into animal feed.

The FDA said all of the feed, which is now meat and bone meal, was found and was being held at a rendering facility in San Angelo. About 200,000 pounds of feed were suspected of containing traces of the cow.

The FDA is allowing the meal to be used only as swine feed. Otherwise, it must be destroyed, it said."

If there is any concern about BSE it seems like a bad idea to let that feed wind up on farms that may have runminants as well. The FDA seems to have a lot slacker way of dealing with it than the CFIA did under similar circumstances. To be fair they don't have a confirmed case, but this still seems a little lax.

[CattleAnnie]

More smoke and mirrors... and sit back and watch the fingers point back and forth in the responsibility game.

You know what is really unnerving?
What do you suppose will happen to our industry WHEN the US finally gets nailed with a homeborn and bred positive?

[kato]

All the arguments used to keep the border closed will come back and haunt our neighbours to the south.

Then, border open or not, the price will hit the dumpster.

The scary thing is it will take them soooo much longer to respond to it. Even with all that has happened in the last year, they are STILL arguing over a national ID program. If that's not up and functioning when and if they get a cow of their own, and they can't traceback, boy, you don't want to think about it. I would suspect USDA has figured that out, and would like to have new rules in place to diminish the damage.

But then again, we are already years ahead of the Americans in a lot of things, and I would think we could react a lot quicker up here. We've all learned the hard lessons already, and will be quick to embrace whatever change is needed to dig our way out. The only missing piece of the puzzle here is the testing, and the will is there among many of us to get at that as quickly as needed. You gotta do what you gotta do.

[cakadu]

Two explanations as to why the animal was not tested. Things that make you go hmmmm.

Statement on Texas cow with central nervous system symptoms
May 4, 2004
U.S. FDA Press Release
http://www.fda.gov:80/bbs/topics/news/2004/NEW01061.html
On Friday, April 30 th , the Food and Drug Administration learned that a cow with central nervous system symptoms had been killed and shipped to a processor for rendering into animal protein for use in animal feed.
FDA, which is responsible for the safety of animal feed, immediately began an investigation. On Friday and throughout the weekend, FDA investigators inspected the slaughterhouse, the rendering facility, the farm where the animal came from, and the processor that initially received the cow from the slaughterhouse.
FDA's investigation showed that the animal in question had already been rendered into "meat and bone meal" (a type of protein animal feed). Over the weekend FDA was able to track down all the implicated material. That material is being held by the firm, which is cooperating fully with FDA.
Cattle with central nervous system symptoms are of particular interest because cattle with bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE, also known as "mad cow disease," can exhibit such symptoms. In this case, there is no way now to test for BSE. But even if the cow had BSE, FDA's animal feed rule would prohibit the feeding of its rendered protein to other ruminant animals (e.g., cows, goats, sheep, bison).
FDA is sending a letter to the firm summarizing its findings and informing the firm that FDA will not object to use of this material in swine feed only. If it is not used in swine feed, this material will be destroyed. Pigs have been shown not to be susceptible to BSE. If the firm agrees to use the material for swine feed only, FDA will track the material all the way through the supply chain from the processor to the farm to ensure that the feed is properly monitored and used only as feed for pigs.
To protect the U.S. against BSE, FDA works to keep certain mammalian protein out of animal feed for cattle and other ruminant animals. FDA established its animal feed rule in 1997 after the BSE epidemic in the U.K. showed that the disease spreads by feeding infected ruminant protein to cattle.
Under the current regulation, the material from this Texas cow is not allowed in feed for cattle or other ruminant animals. FDA's action specifying that the material go only into swine feed means also that it will not be fed to poultry.
FDA is committed to protecting the U.S. from BSE and collaborates closely with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on all BSE issues. The animal feed rule provides crucial protection against the spread of BSE, but it is only one of several such firewalls. FDA will soon be improving the animal feed rule, to make this strong system even stronger.




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USDA's San Angelo vets and techs ordered not to test suspect cow
May 5, 2004
Meatingplace.com
Daniel Yovich
http://www.meatingplace.com/
It was a trio of Agriculture Department staff ? two veterinarians and one technician ? who were supposed to follow agency protocol by testing what they determined was an older cow that likely had a central nervous system disorder when it arrived April 27 at the Lone Star Beef plant in San Angelo, Texas.
One government source and another within the industry, both of whom say they have firsthand knowledge of events that day, said the final call on not to test the animal was made by an APHIS supervisor in Austin, Texas, after an APHIS technician at the plant advised her supervisor she was preparing to take a tissue sample from the culled animal for BSE testing. Both sources spoke to Meatingplace.com on condition of anonymity, and USDA officials did not return telephone calls Tuesday seeking comment and confirmation of the allegations.
What USDA has confirmed is that the agency's standard operating procedures call for animals condemned due to a possible CNS disorder be kept until APHIS officials can collect samples for testing. That clearly was done in this case. The animal sat for more than 90 minutes and less than two hours after it was condemned, stunned and killed before the APHIS tech told Lone Star Beef management to dispose of the animal "in a routine manner."
As a condemned cow, there was never any chance that the meat from the animal would enter the food chain. What is less clear is what went wrong at USDA and why.
USDA spokesman Ed Loyd said the agency was conducting an investigation into the issue ? attempting to establish a timeline and chronology of who was involved and who made the decisions last week in San Angelo.
What is clear, in the mind of the two sources who spoke to Meatingplace.com, is that all three of USDA's key decision makers on the ground at the San Angelo plant were overruled by a staffer with more authority in Austin.
"Everybody expected a test, and then the word came that there wasn't going to be any test," one source said. "I'm not sure why that decision was made, and I'm not going to speculate about the reasons for it. But I think what USDA is going to find is that the final decision was made up the food chain, and I think a lot of people will be interested in why that decision was made."