"Non-Definitive" Cow Tests Negative For BSE

[farmers_son]

http://www.cattlenetwork.com/content.asp?contentid=7099

AMI: "Non-Definitive" Sample Tests Negative For BSE In Both U.S. & England

Industry Reminds Consumers that Regardless, Food Supply Never at Risk

Test results taken from an animal suspected of having BSE were confirmed negative today by both the U.S. Department of Agriculture and laboratories in Weybridge, England. The simultaneous tests were conducted after earlier "non-definitive" results were reported on July 27.

"The initial non-definitive result was caused by artifactual (artificial or untrue) staining and, while this staining did not resemble BSE, we felt the prudent course was to conduct the additional tests," said Dr. John Clifford, Deputy Administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Industry officials, although pleased, were quick to note that the animal in question never entered the food supply and was destroyed after testing. "The beef we eat, like roasts, ground beef and steak, is safe. These various products have never been associated with a BSE-related human illness," said J. Patrick Boyle, President and CEO of the American Meat Institute.

BSE is an animal disease that is identifed primarily in older cattle. Despite that fact that the U.S. Government has been testing "higher risk" cattle for BSE since 1990, including more than 420,000 in the past year, only 2 cases have been confirmed positive for BSE. "Higher risk" cattle are older animals exhibiting signs of a central nervous system disorder or those showing outward symptoms of the illness.

[grassfarmer]

While the link between any beef products and vCJD has never been definatively proven Mr Boyles statement isn't really on too sound a footing. "The beef we eat, like roasts, ground beef and steak, is safe. These various products have never been associated with a BSE-related human illness"
The suspected connection between beef and vCJD, if proven correct,certainly implicates ground beef as a higher risk product than steaks or roasts. There is a strong correlation between UK vCJD cases and hamburger / manufactured meat products - IF beef is ever proven the cause of vCJD these would be the likely products to spead it. Mr Boyles is either reckless or dishonest to suggest otherwise in my opinion.

[cattleman2]

So are you suggesting that we don't eat any ground beef anymore? I think that it is wrong to imply that our beef (ground, roasts, or otherwise) is not safe.

Until proven otherwise we have to say our beef is safe as we are safegaurding the supply chain by the best way we know how to by removing the SRM's and limiting the Advance Meat Recovery system from use along the spinal column to reduce the chance of spinal tissue being in the ground beef.

[cattleman2]

I agree with your comments cattleman2. Negative comments coming from producers certainl will not increase public confidence.
We are fortunate in Canada that the public has never lost confidence or questioned the safety of our beef, so we need to continue to project a positive image.

[grassfarmer]

I did point out 3 times in my brief post IF there is ever any connection proven between any beef products and vCJD - of which I am by no means convinced. I do not believe our beef in Canada is unsafe but equally in countries where there have been BSE cases identified that didn't enter the food chain or where beef safety was protected by SRM removal you cannot categorically state that a BSE animal did not enter the food chain, or did not enter the foodchain without it's SRMs removed prior to the implementation of the current rules and standards.
I was merely highlighting the factual inaccuracy of the gentlemans statement that steaks, roasts and ground beef contain the same risk potential in the event of a BSE animal entering the human food chain. Contrary to his claims ground beef certainly has been linked to BSE related diseases in humans in Europe. Again I reitterate - however to date no link has ever been proven between BSE in cattle and vCJD in humans.

[farmers_son]

No need to get too excited if Grassfarmer muses about the safety of a hamburger in the UK. Opra Winfrey said she had eaten her last hamburger back in 1996 on her infamous Mad Cow episode yet the demand for beef in the United States is higher than ever.

I think we need to keep first and foremost the point that North America is not the UK. When Patrick Boyle, President and CEO of the American Meat Institute makes a comment like this about the safety of beef he is referring to North American beef.

The best information we have available tells us that removing the SRMs provides food safety. It is a fact that there has never been a case of nvCJD in North America that was not traced back to Britain. That suggests to me that our beef was safe even without the removal of the SRMs. Still we have taken the extra steps to assure food safety.

[rkaiser]

If we are on the topic of truth.

Should we not include the FACT that not one case of vCJD has ever been conclusively BLAMED BSE contaminated beef.

This is the most important FACT that is being missed in this whole debacle.
Along with the FACT that no BSE contaminated bovine has ever been conclusively linked to feed transmission, and oral transmission has NEVER been proven. We can all tell stories like the Rcalf one or the USDA one, but the truth has never ever been told.

Now let's go back to the circle of influence that we may have a bit of control over, as Steven Covey says.

[cattleman2]

If you had to mention IF THERE IS A LINK 3 times in your post, why even bring the subject up.

It seems to me that it is sounding like an RCALF statement trying to strech to the very ends of what MAY heppen to say it is true. Sorry to link with RCALF but it is the same positioning as the RCALF briefs and the Cebull ruling, about the science not ruling out the potential infectivity 100%, therefore it must be there...

[grassfarmer]

Remind me again what our circle of influence is rkaiser - growing grass and breeding cattle?

[greybeard]

The following is a paste of part of the article “Madness of Herds” that appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

"More to the point, the suspected link between eating infected tissue and acquiring the human form of mad cow disease (known as vCJD) is in doubt. The first case of mad cow disease was detected in Britain in the 1980s, during which an estimated 700,000 infected animals were thought to have entered the human food stream. Epidemiological evidence suggests that vCJD has a very long incubation period, in the range of five to 25 years. Thus we should now be witnessing skyrocketing rates of infection. Instead, as the nearby table shows, cases of vCJD peaked in 2000 at 28 (yes, only 28) worldwide and have been declining ever since, with just 9 cases in 2004. Epidemiologist now believes the ultimate toll from the disease will not exceed 200.

Epidemic?
Worldwide cases of vCJD
1995---3
1996---10
1997---10
1998---18
1999---15
2000---28
2001---20
2002---17
2003---18
2004---9
2005---2 "

The 2005 number indicates deaths to date I think.
These numbers may be open for dispute, but they are all I have to work with. If you consider approximately 2000 – ¼ pound burgers per annimal, doesn’t that mean if you dine on BSE infected cows with no SRM’s removed, your chances of contracting vCJD are one in 7 million?

[grassfarmer]

Oh the odds are miniscule - it has often been said the risk in the UK was a lot less than the risk of being killed by lightening, which incidentally was more likely to happen than for you to become a millionaire through winning a lottery.
None the less over 140 human beings have died of vCJD and until we can prove decisively that this is not related to eating any beef products we have a responsibility to consumers. We must get it right and to me part of that is being accurate in what we say which Mr Boyle of AMI was not.

[farmers_son]

Grassfarmer: When Canada had its first BSE positive in May 2003 the federal government invited an International Review Committee to make recommendations regarding BSE and set out required food safety procedures. These people are world class scientists and experts in their field. Canada has followed their recommendations, part of which was removal of SRMs.

If these experts had seen any potential risks associated with eating hamburger from Canadian cows they would have made recommendations to correct any problems. It is very unlikely that armchair observers like us can provide any further useful information regarding BSE that these international experts did not already know. These scientists were confident that the measures that they recommended and which have been put in place would provide food safety for our consumers and consumer in other countries.

The Report of the International Review Panel can be seen at:

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/anima/heasan/disemala/bseesb/internate.shtml

The Canadian cow herd’s very, very low incidence of BSE provides further assurance that all our beef, including hamburger, is wholesome and is the safest beef in the world.

[silverback]

And how many have died from salmonella or E coli in the same time frame?

It is so unbelievably ridiculous how the media (and everyone for that matter) will concentrate on something that sounds good on the TV instead of putting some truth out there.

[grassfarmer]

I'll withdraw from this thread as everyone seems to think I am saying Canadian beef is unsafe - which I'm not. I'm merely trying to highlight some potential pitfalls in a post BSE environment. Just don't get too cocky -we're not out of the BSE woods yet.
One thing that might stand looking at for example is the SRM removal standards. A recurring problem in Europe has been small lengths of spinal cord turning up in shipments of beef imported into the UK from Germany, Holland and France among others. Given that slaughter line speeds are many times faster in N. America than in Europe I just hope that the job is being done properly here. This is the kind of thing that can lead to problems if someone cuts corners and the story comes to media attention.

[cowman]

Well science is science, and snakeoil is snakeoil and sometimes its hard to tell the difference?
When you have groups like R-CALF doing their best to smear the science and say the product is unsafe, what can you do? A lot of people don't buy into the concept of all knowing "experts"...in fact they tend to take everything with a grain of salt? So when you have a group of cattlemen saying the "science" is flawed who can you believe?
Consumers are swayed fairly easily? They tend to believe the National Enquirer more than the government?
I'm with grassfarmer on this one...test the OTM cattle! Being squeaky clean is never wrong in the eyes of the consumer?