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Suspected case of mad cow { June 12 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/12/national/12cow.html http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/12/national/12cow.html June 12, 2005 More Tests Planned in Suspected Case of Mad Cow Disease By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO CHICAGO, June 11 - The Agriculture Department said Saturday that it would conduct further tests on an animal suspected of having mad cow disease before confirming the results, which if positive would indicate the second case of the disease to be found in a cow in the United States in the past two years. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns confirmed late Friday that an older animal had tested positive for the brain-wasting disease, sparking fears that foreign countries would shun American beef again, at a time Mr. Johanns is making a strong push to reassure export markets that the nation's beef is safe. Officials from the Agriculture Department said Saturday that a series of tests would be carried out on the cow's brain tissue at a department laboratory in Ames, Iowa, and at an internationally known facility in Weybridge, Britain, to determine if the animal is infected with mad cow disease, clinically known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. The tests could take up to two weeks, Reuters reported a department spokesman saying. So far, the department has revealed few details about the origin of the cow. A spokesman said Friday that the animal was first tested in November, and that initial results were inconclusive. Another test was applied, and results were negative. Then the Agriculture Department's inspector general, in reviewing the department's mad cow testing program, requested that the cow, along with two other previously suspect animals, be tested again using a different technology, known as "Western blot," that is used in Europe and Japan. The cow tested positive on Friday. Uncertainty about the same cow has caused beef prices to dip before, said Bill Bullard, chief executive of R-Calf U.S.A., a cattle group that has been critical of the department's mad cow testing program. After the department announced that tests on the animal in November were inconclusive, cattle prices fell $70 per head on animals costing about $1,000, resulting in $126 million in losses to the cattle industry over a three-week period, Mr. Bullard said. "This uncertainty causes volatility in the marketplace that is detrimental to U.S. cattle producers," Mr. Bullard said. "We need to get to the bottom of this quickly." Confirmation that the animal had mad cow would make it more difficult for Mr. Johanns to reopen the border to live cattle from Canada, which he has said is a top priority. The United States closed the border after mad cow disease was discovered in a Canadian cow in May 2003. Two additional cases were confirmed in Canada last year. Mr. Johanns tried to reopen the border in March to cattle younger than 30 months old. But Mr. Bullard's group won an injunction from Judge Richard F. Cebull of Federal District Court to keep it closed. A hearing on the injunction is scheduled for July 13 in federal appeals court in San Francisco, and a July 27 trial is set for Judge Cebull's courtroom in Billings, Mont. Mr. Bullard said the uncertainty around the latest potential mad cow case "reinforces the need to strengthen, not relax, the current protection measures." While Europe has struggled with mad cow disease, a fatal neurological ailment with no known cure, the United States and Canada have found fewer than a handful of cases. Since 1986, about 180,000 cases of the disease have been found worldwide, mostly in Europe. Last year, Britain found 343 cases and 535 cases were discovered across the rest of the world. The only confirmed case of mad cow in the United States - found in December 2003 in a Washington State dairy cow that was born in Alberta - dealt a huge blow to the nation's $90 billion beef industry. Within days of the discovery, 53 countries banned American beef. The industry has estimated it has lost more than $4 billion a year since then. About one-third of exports have resumed, but Japan, which represented nearly half of the exports, and South Korea, another top market, have continued to shun American beef. After the 2003 discovery, cattle prices fell by about 16 percent and consumer surveys suggested that domestic beef demand could fall by as much as 15 percent. But America's love affair with beef has prevailed thus far: prices recovered in early 2004 and demand for beef has been robust, contributing to record high prices this spring. Critics of the Agriculture Department's testing program have said that the department needs to strengthen its rules for cattle feed. Cattle in the United States are still being fed blood meal, poultry feces and plate waste from restaurants. And while high-risk tissues such as spinal cords are required to be removed from animals over 30 months old that are slaughtered for the human food supply, some scientists have recommended completely removing those items from the animal food chain, including from food for poultry, hogs and even pets. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

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