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More us cattle likely to have mad cow disease { February 5 2004 }

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   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13896-2004Feb4.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13896-2004Feb4.html

More U.S. Cattle Likely To Have Mad Cow Disease
Panel Warns More Must Be Done to Halt Spread

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 5, 2004; Page A02


There is a "high probability" that more American cattle are infected with mad cow disease than the one found in Washington state late last year, an international panel of experts convened by the Agriculture Department said yesterday.

The panel concluded that the mad cow agent, which came initially from Canada or Europe, has probably spread within the U.S. beef herd. The advisory group also said the American government and beef industry need to do more to keep the disease contained.

The head of the panel, Swiss professor Ulrich Kihm, told reporters that based on his experience in Europe, the United States could see as many as one new mad cow case per month in the future. The panel report was immediately attacked by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, which called it "misguided" and "nonscientific" and based on European circumstances very different from those here. USDA officials stressed that even if more infected cattle are found, procedures in place will keep the contaminated beef out of the food supply.

The panel's report, however, could have significant implications for beef exports, because Japan, South Korea, Mexico and other governments have said they would look to the expert findings for guidance on whether to resume importing American beef. The price of beef declined by the maximum allowed yesterday on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

The expert panel was commissioned by USDA to analyze the response to the first known American case of mad cow disease. It now goes to a standing advisory panel before being presented to Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman for possible action.

The report's central conclusion is that "it is probable that other infected animals have been imported from Canada and possibly also from Europe." Because those infected cattle were not detected, the experts said, their contaminated parts have been rendered and possibly fed years ago to cattle and other animals here, eventually spreading through the American cattle population.

The disease is believed to be caused by a deformed protein that spreads when cattle consume feed supplemented with brain and central nervous system parts from infected animals. About 150 Europeans have died of a similar brain-destroying disease, called variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, linked to eating meat from infected animals. No one is known to have contracted the disease from American beef.

The expert panel made recommendations that it said were necessary to keep the disease from spreading -- some involving significant changes to current U.S. policy. The group said, for instance, that the government must ban the feeding of beef brains and central nervous system tissue to pigs, poultry and pets. The Food and Drug Administration prohibited the feeding of cattle parts to other cattle in 1997 and recently broadened the ban to include goats and sheep. Yesterday, the panel said the ban should cover all animals because of the risk that infected tissue might inadvertently make its way into the feed given to cattle.

Industry officials said it would cost $700 million a year to meet that standard.

The panel also recommended significantly expanding the testing for animals showing any signs of mad cow disease. While the USDA now tests a sample of animals that have died on a farm, cannot stand up or show signs of neurological disease, the panel said that all animals in those categories -- which beef industry officials say could number as many as 195,000 a year -- should be tested.

"Now that it has been established that the [mad cow] agent is circulating in North America, the surveillance program in the USA must be significantly extended in order to measure the magnitude of the problem," the report said.

The panel consists of the same five experts -- three Europeans, one American and a New Zealander -- who analyzed Canada's response to its discovery of an infected cow last May. The group's work has been embraced by the Canadian government as it tries to convince other nations that it is taking the steps necessary to keep mad cow disease from becoming a major public health problem.

The beef industry reaction to the panel's conclusions was far more critical, and it signaled that there will be pressure on Veneman to reject the recommendations.

"Clearly, some members of the panel do not have a full understanding of the systems we have in place in the U.S.," said Gary Weber, the beef association's executive director of regulatory affairs. "Many of the panel's recommendations are based on the European model and overlook scientific evidence that clearly demonstrates the long-standing firewalls in place in our country have been effective."

The group's vice president, Chandler Keys, took strong exception to panel chairman Kihm's remark, quoted by Reuters, that the United States "could have a case a month" of mad cow disease. Kihm said he based that estimate on "logical thinking" and the experience of such nations as Denmark and Italy.

"That was a pretty irresponsible remark from the scientist," Keys said.

© 2004 The Washington Post Company



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