U.S. Testing for Mad Cow Disease Inadequate

Though always fatal, mad cow disease is a pussycat when compared with other maladies such as cancer, heart disease, tuberculosis and AIDS, to mention just a few. The two most feared cancers – breast and prostate cancer – kill 43,000 women and 31,000 men, respectively, every year. In contrast, 143 people have died in Great Britain from mad cow disease over the past few years.

As a reaction to the panic caused by mad cow disease in Great Britain and the European continent, control measures were put into effect, including the slaughter of millions of cattle. The disease, which is not infectious, is spread through cattle feed that has brain and spinal material from adult cattle mixed with the grain.

According to The New York Times, Great Britain and Europe now test "all cattle over two years old, all sick cattle and a small percentage of apparently healthy ones. Last year, they tested ten million cows. Japan tests all the cows it slaughters each year, 1.2 million."

Each year, 35 million cattle are slaughtered in the U.S. According to a beef industry survey, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that "only 20,526 animals were tested last year" for mad cow disease. Until the rules were changed last week, tested animals were placed in the food chain before test results were received.

It costs approximately $25 to $50 to test each cow, plus meat storage costs until results are available. "Test makers say that works out to only pennies per pound," according to The Times, referring to the whole slaughtered animal. In Europe, mad cow tests take three hours.

A recent and foolish editorial in Newsday stated that "alarm is uncalled for." Ridiculous. It is because the public was lied to and lulled into complacency by false assurances that we are where we now are – frightened and no longer believing government pronouncements on the subject.

Those in charge of regulating the food supply in every country dealing with the disease corruptly or stupidly believed their highest priority was insuring the cattle industry’s profits rather than safeguarding the public’s health. So people were told there was little or nothing to worry about, with the head regulator of each country usually promising he or she would feed beef to their children that very evening.

While we test very few animals, Japan tests every single cow upon slaughter. We know how the disease is transmitted. While we have barred by federal regulation "feeding bits of cows and other ruminants back to cows," such remnants can lawfully be fed to pigs and chickens, which are fed back to cows.

In addition, cow blood, which cannot be guaranteed to be free of disease, is widely fed to calves as a "milk replacer." Deer infected with a disease comparable to mad cow disease are rendered into cattle feed.

Meat stripped from close to cows’ spinal columns is often found in feed. According to The Times, "35% of the meat [stripped by machine] tested positive for central nervous system tissue," the kind of tissue that carries mad cow disease and ends up in hamburger meat served to the public.

Clearly, cows are not the only crazies. Government regulators must be nuts, and we the public even crazier, for allowing Congress to be at the beck and call of the cattle owners and meatpackers. According to The Times, "Europe, Canada and Japan have instituted government regulated mandatory systems to trace animals from their birth to the grocery." These countries "also require extensive testing of cattle herds, not the small risks assessment used in the U.S. that tests 20,000 to 30,000 cows or about 0.03 percent of the herds."

The U.S. does not have a national registry. The Department of Agriculture has now announced that it intends to create a voluntary national database to trace animals. In other countries, this is already compulsory.

Ann M. Veneman, secretary of agriculture, responding to the boycott of American beef by 30 countries which buy 10 percent of our slaughtered cows, is implementing regulations to satisfy those countries. I have no confidence in her or her agency. As of last week, the new regulation requires that any cow tested is not to be put into the food chain. Good, but not good enough. Test every cow.

Many ask why cows which are herbivores, not carnivores, are being fed meat in any form. This may be an old-fashioned reference, but it surely applies here: "It is against nature’s law."

I have not discussed the alleged carrier of the disease, the misfolded protein (called a prion) which causes bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), because it is too technical for my brain cells to digest. And there is a dispute among scientists as to whether the prion is the carrier, somewhat similar to the disputed view of a small number of AIDS researchers who still believe that HIV is not the cause of AIDS.

But I know we aren’t doing enough to protect our meat supply. What should American consumers, worried that our legislators are not taking sufficient action, do? Organize a beef boycott for one day to show our concern and numbers. On that day, let not a single rib steak (my cut of choice) or pound of hamburger be purchased or eaten in the U.S. Let the president, himself a cattle rancher, appoint a blue ribbon committee to oversee Secretary of Agriculture Veneman.

Surely, in this country of nearly 300 million citizens, there are 10 outstanding women and men willing to step forward and offer their service pro bono to protect the food supply and stand up to an industry that is willing to sacrifice its consumers in pursuit of the almighty dollar. If we can’t be protected, then we should all consider becoming vegetarians or vegans.

Edward I. Koch is the former mayor of New York City. His commentary for Bloomberg radio is republished here ...

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In contrast, 143 people have died in Great Britain from mad cow disease over the past few years.

As far as this was worth reading.

Another uninformed politician. Most cattle 99%+ are slaughtered before they are 30 months old. Mad cow does not show up in cattle less than 30 months old.

Does this mean they cannot carry the disease? I suggest not. This article deals in facts, not spin. Refute the facts, please, and avoid ad hominem attack ("uninformed politician").

... 143 people have died in Great Britain from mad cow disease over the past few years.

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but people don't get "mad cow disease." What they get is a human variant called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, which produces similar symptoms and occurs naturally in the population at the rate of one case per million people. The fact that 143 people have died in Great Britain over the course of a few years doesn't imply a cause and effect--143 cases is just what ought to have been expected, with or without BSE. There were, I believe, around eight million infected cattle discovered in Britain, which means that millions of people ate beef from infected animals. The rates of human infection from Creutzfeldt-Jakob should have risen dramatically--but they haven't.

As far as this was worth reading.

Good to know that you're better informed than all of Europe, Canada and Japan. If we keep our heads firmly implanted in the sand, surely the problem will go away. Surely Ann Veneman will protect us. We have become a nation of dreamers.

There were, I believe, around eight million infected cattle discovered in Britain, which means that millions of people ate beef from infected animals. The rates of human infection from Creutzfeldt-Jakob should have risen dramatically--but they haven't.

Source, please, on the 8 million citation. Does this mean we should not test widely? Does this mean we should not ban feeding animal parts of any sort to other animals? In both cases, I suggest not. We have lost the $3.0 billion export market. Surely the cost of testing can be recouped if we are able to regain that market. Where is all this is there any applied common sense on the part of the USDA? Koch is making sense. Why don't you all want to hear it?

Why aren't we testing every cow for BSE, Foot and Mouth, Vesicular Stomatitis, Rinderpest, Trypanosomiasis, Heartwater or Lumpy Skin disease? Because they are Foreign Animal Diseases. Until last month BSE was A foreign animal disease and we were surveying animals to see if we could even pick it up here in the US. Now its been found. Not indiginous, not because there was an outbreak but because it got here via a foreign trade. Now do you wish to test every animal slaughtered in the US for these diseases and pay $150 for a hamburger? We have the safest food supply in the US and the BSE was picked up on a survey from an animal that exhibited no/nein/nada symptoms of BSE. We got it really fast. Testing every animal in the US is impractical but increased surveillance is warranted. Those that are calling for across the board testing for every disease in the world are living in la la land.

So inadequate are the USA standards that we had ONE sick cow out of untold MILLIONS of healthy cattle....!!

It's just like this recent law making LEGAL herbs into ILLEGAL drugs per ignorant politicians and scum-of-the-earth lawyers.

This Mad Cow rampage is from ELF, ALF, PETA, and other left-wing radical extremists groups who are also MOST likely to be the source of this infected cow.

At first, I thought the article was about a lack of testing being done on Hitlery, Coward Dean and the other nine midgets.

However, the article is about our beef supply. There do seem to be a lot of unanswered questions about the problem.

"The first North American case of mad cow probably appeared in 1985, on a Wisconsin mink farm. That's when Richard Marsh, a veterinary pathologist at the University of Wisconsin, discovered that mink fed "downer cattle" (technically any cow that has difficulty walking) from local dairy farms, went crazy and died. Prof. Marsh took samples of these mink brains and inoculated and fed them to bull calves. Each bull developed holes in the brain. He then fed infected cattle-bits back to mink, which developed more spongy brains."

See An Issue Comes to a Head.

... and pay $150 for a hamburger?

Give me a break. Cents per pound of beef would be required for testing. Read the article.

We have the safest food supply in the US and the BSE was picked up on a survey from an animal that exhibited no/nein/nada symptoms of BSE.

How can you possibly know this if testing is so meager (which it is)?

Testing every animal in the US is impractical ...

Why? Japan does it.

So inadequate are the USA standards that we had ONE sick cow out of untold MILLIONS of healthy cattle....!!

You just do not know this and the only way to know is to test.

This Mad Cow rampage is from ELF, ALF, PETA, and other left-wing radical extremists groups who are also MOST likely to be the source of this infected cow.

This is not about politics. It's about applied common sense. The left is right on this one and the right had best get a clue. My politics are right of Attila The Hun and Rush Limbaugh.

There do seem to be a lot of unanswered questions about the problem.

Thank you. Some Freepers don't want to hear it. That attitude doesn't solve problems and there IS a problem.

I lived in Japan, you likely have no idea of the cost of beef raised in Japan. Japan imports the majority of its beef from NZ, Austrailia, and the US. A steak from Japanese beef is over $100. As a member of the inspection service, I know that our supply is well tested and regulated. It is a helluva lot better here than in the Socialist countries and the EU. Survey...Foreign Animal Disease....the USDA is vigilant, moreso than the average reader and politician like Koch state.

Deer infected with a disease comparable to mad cow disease...

This is the part that confounds me. How are wild deer (such as the animals in SW Wisconsin) ingesting this prion?

I've yet to hear a satisfactory answer to that question.

As a member of the inspection service, I know that our supply is well tested and regulated.

Well this is just nonsense -- 20,000 cattle out of a total of some 35 million slaughtered annually is "well tested and regulated"? The USDA is behaving like an arm of the cattle industry and all we're getting is lip action.

It is a helluva lot better here than in the Socialist countries and the EU. Survey...Foreign Animal Disease....the USDA is vigilant, moreso than the average reader and politician like Koch state.

More nonsense. Where are your facts? The USDA and the beef industry are playing fast and loose with the food supply most likely for political reasons and that's the truth. All the rest is rhetoric.

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