Posted on 01/20/2006 4:47:49 AM PST by prairiebreeze
TOKYO Jan 20, 2006 — Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday said Japan would completely halt imports of U.S. beef after a recent shipment was found that may contain material considered at risk for mad cow disease
"This is a pity given that imports had just resumed," Koizumi told reporters. "I received the agriculture minister's report with his recommendation that the imports be halted and I think it is a good idea."
Mad cow disease is the common name for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, a degenerative nerve disease in cattle that is linked to a rare but fatal nerve disorder in humans, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.
I can post what is being said/speculated in the industry as to what happened. Please note this is preliminary and unconfirmed.
Market rumor has it that a bone-in piece of veal may have been included in a sample shipment to a Japanese supplier. Since no bone-in products are allowed for beef, that would apply as well to veal. The political lobby stepping in and at this point word is the entire market is closed again.
If the above scenario is true, you can bet that diplomatic channels are scrambling.
A factoid I can post that's true is that imports were currently only 4% of what they were in 2003 before the BSE ban was implemented.
Yesterday, I posted this thread, not sure if too many people followed what I was trying to say.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1561077/posts
Animal Tagging and SCHOOL LUNCHES???
The NAIS is actually a nongovernmental organization of healthypeople.gov. The program has been enacting 'partnerships' with agencies such as the USDA, CDC, FDA, etc, etc. I stress, the NAIS itself is not a government entity. But they use the partnership to front themselves as a government initiative.
NAIS is a nongovernmental organization of HEALTHY PEOPLE 2010
They are an entity of the World Health Organization that offer grant incentives to enact Global Health for All.
Under the NAIS, there is a lot of language being used that is very worrysome. Text such as ..."maintain the health of the national herd" and referring to the producers as 'Stakeholders'.
Even with public funding, there will be costs to producers. Both public and private funding will be required for the NAIS to become fully operational. The Federal government is providing the standards, information for national databases, and basic infrastructure. Please note, the database is not a FEDERAL database; but a NATIONAL database. And since the initiative is not sourced from the USA, I question as to whether it is national or international.
The NAIS is trying to force all the livestock producers into using Optibrand. Japan is already using Optibrand. I can't help but wonder if this meat halt is a way of forcing the NAIS issue because producers are currently fighting it.
I keep remembering this article:
http://www.hs.fi/english/article/1101820799720
Two veterinarians face charges for BSE test sample switch
>>> Two slaughterhouse veterinarians in Pietarsaari are on trial for deliberately using the wrong samples for a BSE, or Mad Cow Disease, test. The charges are related to events at the Snellman slaughterhouse in this west coast city.<<<<
That must be hurting the industry terribly, prairie. I hope the lobbying is successful and this gets turned around. And quick.
Look at my post here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1561077/posts
Animal Tagging and SCHOOL LUNCHES???
Food Safety Network
The tracking methods of health and nutrition and animal tracking are both going to be using a Nationally Interactive Database.
Livestock
http://www.optibrand.com/uploadedfiles/Animal_ID.pdf
Tracking Healthy People 2010
http://www.healthypeople.gov/Document/html/tracking/THP_PartA.htm
Both of these efforts claim to be a product of the:
Food Safety Network at the University of Guelph
bookmark for later printing.
>>>>Market rumor has it that a bone-in piece of veal may have been included in a sample shipment to a Japanese supplier.
http://www.hs.fi/english/article/1101820799720
Two veterinarians face charges for BSE test sample switch
Two slaughterhouse veterinarians in Pietarsaari are on trial for deliberately using the wrong samples for a BSE, or Mad Cow Disease, test. The charges are related to events at the Snellman slaughterhouse in this west coast city.
According to the indictment, the veterinarians, who worked as inspectors for the National Food Agency, had switched damaged samples from animals undergoing tests for ones that had been taken from younger animals and frozen.
It was feared that the National Veterinary and Food Research Institute of Finland (EELA) would have rejected the damaged samples. If this had happened, the carcass that the bad sample was taken from, and three others, might have been destroyed.
One of the two veterinarians admitted to having switched two damaged samples for ones that had been taken from other animals as part of training for laboratory assistants.
The practice samples were then stored in the slaughterhouse’s freezer, and some of them were used when more recent samples were not seen to be good enough.
Three witnesses were heard at the trial in Pietarsaari: an inspector veterinarian who had informed authorities about the sample-switching, a veterinary student, and the laboratory assistant who had taken samples. All three confirmed the practice of sample switching.
The laboratory assistant refused to switch samples, but went on sick leave. The inspector veterinarian reported the practice, and was sacked. The student felt that the practice was wrong, but obeyed the orders.
Finland’s only case of BSE was found on a cattle farm in Kärsämäki in December 2001. Since then all cattle over 30 months of age that are slaughtered for meat have been inspected for BSE.
Each year EELA checks 130,000 samples for signs of the feared disease.
If there's a bright side to the U.S. mad cow scare, it's that it could speed the nation's move to a centralized system that electronically tracks animals as they move from fields to feed lots to food stores.
Efforts to create a centralized database, which exist in some countries, have been slowed so far by disputes over who would maintain the database and who would bear its cost.
(snip)
One company, Optibrand Ltd., further tightens the process with retinal scans of cattle to confirm their identity. Optibrand's scans are performed with readers that have global-positioning chips to record the animal's location.
Optibrand, based in Fort Collins, Colo., announced a five-year deal Tuesday to supply its technology to Swift & Co., a leading meat producer. Swift spokesman Jim Herlihy said the company will use the retinal scans in its feedlots and encourage its suppliers to embrace them as well, to make the entire life of livestock more easily traced.
(snip)
Apparently the initial report is bearing out. A veal/lamb packer in New York sent over a sample package that had one strip of bone-in veal product. As of right now that plant is barred from shipping product to Japan. Extra USDA inspectors are en route to packing plants in this country to see that restrictions are followed.
US beef packers are livid.
I honestly don't see the connection between this episode and 2 vets in Finland who switched some samples. Am I missing a point?
Also as to who will pay for an animal ID program (which has merits and drawbacks that I have no time to go into right now) ....that's easy. The consumer will pay for it.
Now saying it was 3 out of 41 boxes that had the bone-in product. All the veal and beef in the entire shipment was destroyed.
I'm implying 'forcing a need'.
"One company, Optibrand Ltd., further tightens the process with retinal scans of cattle to confirm their identity. Optibrand's scans are performed with readers that have global-positioning chips to record the animal's location."
Okay...tin foil time...what a great way to test technology that can be used to track humans. You force/induce/manipulate farmers into participating with this "chipping" scanning system which allows researchers to optimize data and refine the process for use in humans. Research costs are low because the company doesn't have to maintain large herds of millions of cattle, the farmers fund the research/developments costs by simply caring for their live-stock. Plus you watch and catalogue side effects and redesign accordingly.
The GPS tracking is the final piece of the puzzle, optimize that and the technology becomes available for the tracking of all humans!
Uh oh. Is it just that plant that is prohibited from shipping to Japan; I thought it was all plants in the US.
bump
Well, while it's possible that individual(s) might be bribed to undertake such an illegal activity, MOST producers and packers know how foolish this would be in the long run nor would condone it.
I certainly don't let that scenario cost my any sleep.
Well, at this point all shipments of US beef and products are being denied. My reading on that particular piece of newswire was it pertained to the NY plant.
japan tests every single cow for BSE. The USA does not.
The US banned canadian beef after 1 tested positive for BSE.
I wasn't broad sweeping producers and packers.
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