• Sleeping watchdogs Sleeping watchdogs Shortly after North America’s first case of mad cow disease was discovered last May, the House Agriculture Committee was asked to ban the sale of meat from “downers” — animals too sick to walk into
• Sleeping watchdogs
Sleeping watchdogs
Shortly after North America’s first case of mad cow disease was discovered last May, the House Agriculture Committee was asked to ban the sale of meat from “downers” — animals too sick to walk into a slaughterhouse on their own.
The dairy industry opposed that ban. So did 28 of the committee’s 33 members. Political influence trumped public health and downer cows continued to be used for meat. Last week, the first U.S. case of mad cow disease was diagnosed in a downer cow in Washington.
On Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman belatedly shut the barn door, banning the use of downers for meat. She also vowed to improve the beef tracking system — a step she had previously resisted.
Any case of mad cow disease in North America is a threat to U.S. consumers because cattle move freely between our country and Canada. The Alberta cow diagnosed in May came into Canada from the United States. Alberta exported at least 500,000 cows to our country last year.
To protect consumers, federal officials must immediately:
Test more animals. In Europe, about 10 million cows were tested last year out of a population of about 40 million. In America, just 20,000 animals were tested out of 43 million cattle. Cattle that die on a ranch are never tested, though doing so could help spot other cattle that look healthy but are infected.
Enforce and broaden an existing ban on feeding ground-up cattle to other cows – a major source of transmission. Six years after the ban went into effect, federal regulators have yet to identify, let alone visit, an estimated 1,200 feed makers and sellers that should be subject to inspection. One-quarter of those that have been inspected were found in violation, but the toughest enforcement action was a written warning. Risky practices, such as using cow blood as a milk substitute for calves, should also be banned.
Strictly enforce an existing prohibition against central nervous system tissue in beef products. Mechanical extracting machines, which are widely used, frequently cause such contamination. The Agriculture Department hasn’t cracked down because it considered this a labeling issue, not a food safety problem. Now Ms. Veneman belatedly has announced stricter controls on these machines.
The Agriculture Department has two sometimes-conflicting responsibilities – promoting agriculture and protecting consumers. It has been quick to tackle the promotions job. Last week, Ms. Veneman promised to serve beef at her holiday dinner, as British officials did seven years earlier. More recently, the department announced that the Washington cow originally came from Canada, and was born before the feed ban went into effect.
Those reassurances might help shore up the U.S. cattle industry, but do nothing to protect the public health. We need scientific objectivity and candor, not salesmanship.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
