U.S. accused of covering up mad cow cases
Last Updated Tue, 12 Apr 2005 21:26:58 EDT
CBC News
OTTAWA - There was testimony on Tuesday before a House of Commons committee alleging that the United States has covered up cases of mad cow disease – allegations that are supported by a CBC News investigation.
The testimony raises a question that has been asked many times: how has the U.S. been able to essentially escape bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease, when Canada has had four cases?
Part of the answer could be in a slaughterhouse in Oriskany Falls, N.Y., which eight years ago may have become the home of the first American case of mad cow.
Bobby Godfrey who worked at the plant remembers a cow that arrived.
"I thought it was a mad dog, to tell you the truth. Didn't know what the hell it was. Never seen a cow act like that in all the cows I saw go through there. There was definitely something wrong with it," said Godfrey.
The suspect cow, which was recorded on video obtained by CBC News, was suspected of being the first American case of BSE.
Dr. Masuo Doi was the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) veterinarian in charge of investigating the cow. "Me and my vet, including our inspector, they thought it [the cow] was quite different. They thought it was the BSE," he said.
Doi, recently retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, says he's haunted by fears the right tests were not done and that the case was not properly investigated by his own department.
"I don't want to carry on off to my retirement. I want to hand it over to someone to continue, to find out. I think it's very, very important," said Doi, who has never spoken out publicly about his concerns, until now.
Documents obtained by CBC News show that the U.S. government was preparing for the worst. Initial signs pointed to mad cow disease. But further tests were negative.
The final conclusion: a rare brain disorder never reported in that breed of cattle either before or since.
The conclusion, from an independent university lab, seemed to leave no doubt that this was not a case of BSE.
But CBC News has learned that key areas of the brain were never tested. The most important samples somehow went missing.
It's all in a USDA lab report that was left out of the documents officially released by the department. It proves the scientist in charge knew his investigation of the case was limited.
Without the samples, the question remains: could scientists really rule out mad cow disease?
Dr. Karl Langheindrich was the chief scientist at a USDA lab in Athens, Ga., the lab that ran some of the early tests on the cow. Now retired, he too has never spoken publicly about this case before. Without the missing brain tissue, he says, the USDA will never be able to say for sure what was wrong with the cow.
"Based on the clinical symptoms and the description given by the veterinarian you can verify, yes this animal had CNS, central nervous system disease, but you can't specify it in your findings further than that," he said.
With questions about the first cow still lingering, three months later at the same meat plant there was a second American cow with suspicious symptoms.
The second cow's brain was sent for testing and officials were told verbally the tests were negative.
Dr. Doi made repeated requests for documentary proof of the negative tests. To this day he's seen nothing. "How many are buried ... can you really trust our inspection [system?]
For weeks the USDA insisted it had no records for the second cow. Then just a few days ago it suddenly produced documents that it says proves that a cow was tested and that the tests were negative for mad cow disease.
But the documents also prove, once again, there were problems with the testing. This time so much brain tissue was missing it compromised the examination.
The problems were so severe one USDA scientist wrote that his own examination was of "questionable validity" because he couldn't tell what part of the cow's brain he was looking at.
On Tuesday, a former U.S. agriculture inspector repeated a claim before a House of Commons committee that the U.S. has covered up cases of mad cow disease. He says he's willing to take a lie detector test to prove it.
Washington has denied the allegations.
Leslie Friedlander was fired from his job as head of inspections at a meat-packing plant in Philadelphia in 1995 after criticizing what he called unsafe practices.
Last Updated Tue, 12 Apr 2005 21:26:58 EDT
CBC News
OTTAWA - There was testimony on Tuesday before a House of Commons committee alleging that the United States has covered up cases of mad cow disease – allegations that are supported by a CBC News investigation.
The testimony raises a question that has been asked many times: how has the U.S. been able to essentially escape bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease, when Canada has had four cases?
Part of the answer could be in a slaughterhouse in Oriskany Falls, N.Y., which eight years ago may have become the home of the first American case of mad cow.
Bobby Godfrey who worked at the plant remembers a cow that arrived.
"I thought it was a mad dog, to tell you the truth. Didn't know what the hell it was. Never seen a cow act like that in all the cows I saw go through there. There was definitely something wrong with it," said Godfrey.
The suspect cow, which was recorded on video obtained by CBC News, was suspected of being the first American case of BSE.
Dr. Masuo Doi was the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) veterinarian in charge of investigating the cow. "Me and my vet, including our inspector, they thought it [the cow] was quite different. They thought it was the BSE," he said.
Doi, recently retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, says he's haunted by fears the right tests were not done and that the case was not properly investigated by his own department.
"I don't want to carry on off to my retirement. I want to hand it over to someone to continue, to find out. I think it's very, very important," said Doi, who has never spoken out publicly about his concerns, until now.
Documents obtained by CBC News show that the U.S. government was preparing for the worst. Initial signs pointed to mad cow disease. But further tests were negative.
The final conclusion: a rare brain disorder never reported in that breed of cattle either before or since.
The conclusion, from an independent university lab, seemed to leave no doubt that this was not a case of BSE.
But CBC News has learned that key areas of the brain were never tested. The most important samples somehow went missing.
It's all in a USDA lab report that was left out of the documents officially released by the department. It proves the scientist in charge knew his investigation of the case was limited.
Without the samples, the question remains: could scientists really rule out mad cow disease?
Dr. Karl Langheindrich was the chief scientist at a USDA lab in Athens, Ga., the lab that ran some of the early tests on the cow. Now retired, he too has never spoken publicly about this case before. Without the missing brain tissue, he says, the USDA will never be able to say for sure what was wrong with the cow.
"Based on the clinical symptoms and the description given by the veterinarian you can verify, yes this animal had CNS, central nervous system disease, but you can't specify it in your findings further than that," he said.
With questions about the first cow still lingering, three months later at the same meat plant there was a second American cow with suspicious symptoms.
The second cow's brain was sent for testing and officials were told verbally the tests were negative.
Dr. Doi made repeated requests for documentary proof of the negative tests. To this day he's seen nothing. "How many are buried ... can you really trust our inspection [system?]
For weeks the USDA insisted it had no records for the second cow. Then just a few days ago it suddenly produced documents that it says proves that a cow was tested and that the tests were negative for mad cow disease.
But the documents also prove, once again, there were problems with the testing. This time so much brain tissue was missing it compromised the examination.
The problems were so severe one USDA scientist wrote that his own examination was of "questionable validity" because he couldn't tell what part of the cow's brain he was looking at.
On Tuesday, a former U.S. agriculture inspector repeated a claim before a House of Commons committee that the U.S. has covered up cases of mad cow disease. He says he's willing to take a lie detector test to prove it.
Washington has denied the allegations.
Leslie Friedlander was fired from his job as head of inspections at a meat-packing plant in Philadelphia in 1995 after criticizing what he called unsafe practices.
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