Will R-Calf Do the Honourable Thing?

[farmers_son]

Will R-Calf withdraw their lawsuit against the USDA and Canadian cattle producers now that the U.S. has finally admitted to having their own domestic BSE problem.

R-Calf is saying imports of Canadian beef and live cattle will endanger their indigenous cattle population and the health of U.S. citizens. R-Calf says the USDA rules to allow Canadian beef and live cattle imports are whimsical. It says the USDA is subjecting American cattlemen and the public to unnecessary risks by allowing Canadian live cattle under 30 months into the U.S. And so on and so on...

Why continue with this farce any longer. If this was PETA it might be understandable but not cattle producers. There must be tremendous pressure on R-Calf to withdraw their court action that will see the safety of North American beef dragged through the mud. After all we are talking about a multi billion dollar industry. There are no arguments R-Calf can make against the Canadian situation that is not clearly reflected back on all American producers. This court action should just quietly go away. They have lost already, why make it worse by going through the motions.

Surely the American cattle producer has more pride than to keep beating what is now clearly a dead horse. It is high time we all rolled up our sleeves and got back to work, back to the business of raising cattle. There are bigger fish to fry.

[JD4ME]

Yes and if they were reasonable honorable intelligent people that could see the world beyond their front porch they might. They aren't, they can't and they won't.

[farmers_son]

If R-Calf does not drop this law suit then it occurred to me that they are the suicide bombers of the cattle industry willing to sacrifice all for protectionism.

[Willowcreek]

June 29, 2005



World’s Preeminent BSE Scientist and 1997 Nobel Prize Winner Prepares Declaration in Support of R-CALF USA


(Billings, Mont.) – R-CALF USA today filed its reply brief in its litigation against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) minimal risk region rule that would allow imports of cattle and beef from countries with BSE, specifically Canada.



The brief was filed this morning in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana. In support of its brief, R-CALF USA also submitted declarations prepared by four renowned scientists, including a declaration prepared by Stanley B. Prusiner, M.D. – winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize for medicine – and the world’s preeminent expert in the field of neurodegenerative diseases caused by prions, the infectious protein that causes BSE. Prusiner’s 10-page declaration provides clear scientific evidence in support of R-CALF USA’s position in its litigation against USDA.



Currently, Prusiner is the director of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, a neurology professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and founder of InPro Biotechnology, Inc.



In 1997, Prusiner was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his discovery of the infectious protein agents (which he named “prions”) that cause fatal neurodegenerative diseases such as BSE in cattle, scrapie in sheep, chronic wasting disease in deer and elk, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) in humans, as well as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) in humans. The human prion disease vCJD is caused by ingestion of BSE-infected beef and beef products.



“Policy makers need to take immediate and aggressive measures to minimize and mitigate the risk of prion transmission between animals and humans,” Prusiner noted in his declaration. “In doing so, this will ensure the safety of our food supply.”



Other scientists joining Prusiner in support of R-CALF USA’s litigation and whose written declarations also were filed today with R-CALF USA’s reply brief were: Louis Anthony Cox, Jr., Ph.D., a Colorado statistician who examined the BSE risk to the United States by resuming beef imports from Canada; Gail Charnley, Ph.D., an internationally recognized scientist specializing in environmental health risk assessment and risk management science and policy; and, Gary A. Weaver, D.V.M., Ph.D., Esq., a Senior Fellow at the Center for Food and Nutrition Policy at Virginia Tech, whose areas of expertise include agroterrorism, bioterrorism, animal health, food safety and security.



“USDA is working to relax longstanding health and safety standards designed to prevent the introduction and spread of BSE, contrary to the advice of scientists like Prusiner, Cox, Charnley and Weaver,” said R-CALF USA President and Co-Founder Leo McDonnell. “R-CALF is doing what USDA should have done before it published its Final Rule – we are consulting with scientific experts to determine what should be the appropriate BSE prevention policy for the United States.”



Note: R-CALF USA’s reply brief, along with the declarations prepared by Prusiner, Cox, Charnley and Weaver, are available in their entirety by logging on to: www.r-calfusa.com and clicking “BSE-Litigation.”

[grassfarmer]

R-CALF should also try and recruit Professor Richard Lacey, described as a "leading microbiologist" from the UK. He has been scaring consumers for a decade with his half-assed theories that hundreds of thousands of UK citizins would die of vCJD as a result of eating beef. He has no credibility and can probably be bought - he should fit right in with R-CALF.

[Joe-2]

The good Dr. Prusiner stands to make a LOT OF MONEY if 100% testing is mandated. He holds several patents on test kits and equipment as well owning other related manufacturing companies.
But of course, just like R-calf, his motives are purely "food safety and animal health".
Gotta be!!!

[cowman]

I suspect the USDA and the Whitehouse have just about had enough of these clowns and are ready to put an end to this garbage?
The drivel about how the courts must decide these things will probably end?
I wonder how other countries, other than Taiwan, have reacted to this revelation that yes the USA does have BSE...and no, they can't blame Canada this time?
All the smearing and fearmongering by R-CALF should come back to haunt them? If that border doesn't open in July, the CCA/ABP should take the position that we need an agressive approach to marketing our beef as a safer product than the USA product? We have a better system in place and we should promote that fact to our consumers south of the border? And if, by laying out the facts, we might hurt the image of US beef...then so be it! In fact we could join R-CALF in pointing out how rotten and corrupt the USDA is! LOL
And also make sure every piece of meat from Canada is labeled "product of Canada"!

[kato]

Joe, you've got a good point there.

Looks like someone is cashing in.... I see nothing wrong with a scientist receiving benefits from their work by patents, but I have a problem with promoting fringe groups and unreasonable scare tactics to obtain the resulting profits.

I sure hope the lawyers on the side of reason use this information in their arguments.

For the whole detailed story, check out http://www.priondata.org/data/A_codiagPQ.html#Prusiner

Here's some bits and pieces ....

"It should be noted that Prusiner has access to specific antibodies and he also has access the large numbers of patents (see below). Most of these do not seem to be of specific value but have been taken out anyway. However, his diagnostic test system, Conformation Dependent Immunoassay (CDI-5) does seem to have become remarkably useful quickly, if only because of Prusiner's international standing.

The method is being sold through InPro and is being tested through LGC (Laboratory of the Government Chemist in Teddington in UK). The most important factor is that it is now given the OK for use in the EC and will be ready for sale in February 2004 (in Europe). In general if licensed in EC then other countries are likely to accept this as valid for their own validation.



Diagnostics in a commercial manner were not Prusiner's direction for a long period but it should be noted that large numbers of patents were put together by his group. The dramatic decrease in discussion between the scientists in the field recently suggest that many of the findings are being patented rather than published.
For example

United States Patent 6,008,435 Prusiner (plus Telling, and Scott). December 28, 1999: Detecting cow, sheep and human prions in a sample and transgenic mice used for same.

United States Patent 5,977,324 Prusiner (plus Safar and Jiri) November 2, 1999 Process for concentrating protein with disease-related conformation (using phosphotungstic acid to presipitate the prion)

United States Patent 5,908,969 Prusiner (plus Scott and Telling) June 1, 1999 Method of detecting prions in a sample and transgenic animal used for same

United States Patent 5,891,641 Prusiner (plus Safar and Jiri) April 6, 1999 Assay for disease related conformation of a protein. (This method uses the change of the uptake of an antibody as a result of prion interaction with a compound that changes its conformation)

United States Patent 5,834,593 Prusiner (plus Scott and Telling) November 10, 1998 Soluble form of PrP.sup.SC which is insoluble in native form. (Using transgenic mice).

United States Patent 5,763,740 Prusiner (plus Scott and Telling) June 9, 1998
Method of detecting prions in a sample and transgenic animal used for same (Using transgenic mice).

United States Patent 5,565,186 Prusiner (plus Scott and Telling) October 15, 1996 Method of detecting prions in a sample and transgenic animal used for same (Using transgenic mice).

US Patent 5,846,533 Prusiner (plus Williamson and Burton) Antibodies specific for native PrP.sup.Sc.

InPro's directors: Stanley B. Prusiner, M.D. is Founder and Chairman of the Board of InPro Biotechnology, Scott D. McKinlay is President and Chief Operating Officer of InPro Biotechnology. Mr. McKinlay has occupied key business roles in a variety of organizations. From 1993 to 2000, he was Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Ford Motor Company's financial institution. I could not find all the director names.

News: It should be noted that InPro have got out with the news about US BSE very fast and they have been in contact with the newsgroups very quickly. For anstance, see http://www.freep.com/news/health/cside30_20031230.htm The worry must be that InPro's results are unlikely to be any better or faster than those from Idexx and they must work fast!"

Scaring consumers appears to be good for some people's business. And it sure isn't ours.