Posted on 05/06/2004 5:10:08 AM PDT by PolitBase
Calls for Federal Inquiry Over Untested Cow By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
Published: May 6, 2004
onsumer groups called for a Congressional investigation yesterday into the death of a cow with symptoms of brain damage at a Texas slaughterhouse last week.
The cow, which staggered and collapsed after passing an initial visual inspection at Lone Star Beef in San Angelo, Tex., was condemned as unfit for human consumption and under federal regulations should have been tested for mad cow disease.
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Instead, it was sent to a rendering plant to be made into animal food and byproducts.
The Consumers Union, the Center for Food Safety and the Government Accountability Project said yesterday that they wanted Congress to look into why the cow was not tested and the possibility that federal officials ordered that no test be done.
Consumer groups have regularly accused the Agriculture Department of trying to avoid finding more mad cow disease because of the damage it would do to the beef industry. Former beef industry officials hold high positions in the department.
The department said yesterday that failing to take a sample was a mistake and that it would investigate. Its inspector general's office said it would do its own inquiry.
The consumer groups were reacting to an article published yesterday by meatingplace.com, a meat industry Web site. Citing two anonymous sources, it said it had firsthand knowledge of the events, one in government and one in industry. The article said a federal inspector had started to take a brain sample but was ordered not to by the regional headquarters of the Agriculture Department in Austin, Tex.
Ed Loyd, a department spokesman, said he could not comment on the report.
A spokeswoman for the slaughterhouse said yesterday that the federal inspectors had discussed taking a sample but decided against it. The spokeswoman, Rosemary Mucklow, executive director of the National Meat Association, which represents meatpackers, said they did not explain why or describe a discussion with the Austin office.
The federal inspectors instructed the plant to slash the carcass and paint it with green dye before putting it on the regular 3 p.m. rendering truck, Ms. Mucklow said.
Felicia Nestor, director of food safety at the Government Accountability Project, which protects federal whistle-blowers, said she had heard of several recent instances in which inspectors had been told by regional offices not to bother testing cows with signs of brain damage. Ms. Nestor said the whistle-blowers did not want to come forward.
Staggering and collapse by a cow can be caused by head injuries, rabies, agricultural poisons or cancer, but mad cow disease can be detected only by cutting off the animal's head, taking a sample from the base of the brain and doing laboratory tests that are not now performed in slaughterhouses.
Ms. Nestor said she had been told that some tests were skipped because they were inconvenient. In a state like Texas, she said, the drive to the regional office with samples could be several hundred miles. But, she noted, other slaughterhouse inspectors have shipped frozen heads or brains to the U.S.D.A. testing laboratory in Ames, Iowa.
Mr. Loyd said he did not know the shipping procedures.
The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates rendering plants, said Tuesday that it had tracked the slaughterhouse's shipment and would require that it all be destroyed or made into pig feed. Swine are thought not to be susceptible to mad cow disease.
Lone Star Beef is the country's 18th-largest slaughterhouse and specializes in older dairy cattle, which are at highest risk of the disease.
According to Steve Mitchell, a United Press International medical reporter who has collected thousands of 2002 and 2003 slaughterhouse records under the Freedom of Information Act, Lone Star Beef slaughtered about 350,000 animals in those years and tested only three.
Mr. Loyd confirmed that but explained that the animals normally tested were those unable to walk, or "downers." Lone Star does not accept downers because it is a supplier to McDonald's, which forbids them.
"The other plant in town had 90 tests," he said. "They accepted downers."
Oh, did you see test results?
It was a trio of Agriculture Department staff — two veterinarians and one technician — who were supposed to follow agency protocol by testing what they determined was an older cow that likely had a central nervous system disorder when it arrived April 27 at the Lone Star Beef plant in San Angelo, Texas.
One government source and another within the industry, both of whom say they have firsthand knowledge of events that day, said the final call on not to test the animal was made by an APHIS supervisor in Austin, Texas, after an APHIS technician at the plant advised her supervisor she was preparing to take a tissue sample from the culled animal for BSE testing. Both sources spoke to Meatingplace.com on condition of anonymity, and USDA officials did not return telephone calls Tuesday seeking comment and confirmation of the allegations.
What USDA has confirmed is that the agency's standard operating procedures call for animals condemned due to a possible CNS disorder be kept until APHIS officials can collect samples for testing. That clearly was done in this case. The animal sat for more than 90 minutes and less than two hours after it was condemned, stunned and killed before the APHIS tech told Lone Star Beef management to dispose of the animal "in a routine manner."
As a condemned cow, there was never any chance that the meat from the animal would enter the food chain. What is less clear is what went wrong at USDA and why.
USDA spokesman Ed Loyd said the agency was conducting an investigation into the issue — attempting to establish a timeline and chronology of who was involved and who made the decisions last week in San Angelo.
What is clear, in the mind of the two sources who spoke to Meatingplace.com, is that all three of USDA's key decision makers on the ground at the San Angelo plant were overruled by a staffer with more authority in Austin.
"Everybody expected a test, and then the word came that there wasn't going to be any test," one source said. "I'm not sure why that decision was made, and I'm not going to speculate about the reasons for it. But I think what USDA is going to find is that the final decision was made up the food chain, and I think a lot of people will be interested in why that decision was made."
I have an agricultural ping list I use. Thanks for the flag, related article also posted.
it was sent to a rendering plant to be made into animal food and byproducts.
The article said a federal inspector had started to take a brain sample but was ordered not to by the regional headquarters of the Agriculture Department in Austin, Tex.
It would appear that the evidence has been , er, processed. The industry cannot afford another hit. They're running scared.
Are you sure that the downer cow mentioned was not processed into poultry feed?
There are several ranches & distributors which specialize in grass fed / grass finished beef. It is safer than commercial poultry.
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