- WASHINGTON (UPI) -- A key
witness in the criminal investigation announced by the U.S. Department
of Agriculture Inspector General Wednesday likely will be the agency veterinarian
who inspected the cow infected with mad cow disease in Washington last
December.
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- The veterinarian, Rodney Thompson, is the only witness
the USDA has who says the cow in Washington was a downer, meaning it was
unable to stand or walk. Three other witnesses who saw the cow the day
it was slaughtered -- on Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses Lake Meat Co. in Moses
Lake, Wash. -- have said the cow was walking.
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- So far, Thompson has not publicly divulged his side of
the story and it is uncertain whether under questioning he will maintain
the cow was a downer. USDA spokespeople have kept Thompson sequestered
from the press and have refused to provide information about him.
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- Dave Louthan, the Vern's Moses Lake employee who slaughtered
the cow in question, alleges Thompson changed his inspection sheet under
duress from USDA management to indicate the animal was a downer after it
tested positive for mad cow disease. The alteration was done, Louthan contends,
to support the agency's official position that their detection of the infected
cow shows their surveillance program -- which is based primarily on testing
downer animals -- is effective.
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- The USDA Office of Inspector General launched an investigation
into the matter in early February, and Inspector General Phyllis K. Fong
told a House appropriations subcommittee Wednesday the investigation was
focused on "possible alteration of official records."
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- Thompson has not spoken publicly about the issue, but
USDA officers have distributed to reporters the Dec. 9 inspection sheet
he filled out. It indicates the cow was a downer, although Thompson's signature
on the sheet is blacked out.
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- OIG spokesman Austin Chadwick told United Press International
the investigation was spurred by a Feb. 3 New York Times article, in which
Louthan said the cow was not a downer and alleged the inspection sheet
had been changed.
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- "The USDA made (Thompson) do it," Louthan told
UPI, emphasizing Thompson was "a good and honorable man" who
would never forge records on his own.
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- If the cow was not a downer, it would raise the larger
issue of whether USDA's mad cow surveillance program is based on faulty
premises. Fong said her office had launched a separate investigation that
will involve "an audit to review various aspects of USDA's response
to the discovery of BSE, including the BSE response and surveillance plans."
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- The USDA's mad cow surveillance program has been in question
since the mad cow was first reported Dec. 23, 2003. The agency tests so
few animals -- only about 20,000 out of the 35 million slaughtered each
year -- some critics have said it is unlikely it could detect mad cow even
if it was prevalent in the U.S. herd.
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- UPI reported in January that mad cow testing records
for the past two years, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act,
reveal the agency had not tested any animals in Washington state for the
first seven months of 2003.
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- If the three eyewitnesses -- Louthan, the driver of the
trailer that delivered the cow and the co-manager of Vern's -- are correct
and the cow was walking, it raises the possibility that other seemingly
healthy but infected cows went undetected and were approved for human consumption.
This is theoretically possible because hundreds of cows in Europe have
tested positive but showed no apparent symptoms of the disease.
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- Thompson's inspection sheet shows he did not conduct
two screening tests -- body temperature and illegal antibiotic residue
-- that, according to USDA regulations, are considered mandatory for all
downers, as previously reported by UPI.
-
- Former USDA veterinarians -- including Lester Friedlander,
who acted as a chief inspector at Taylor Packing in Wyalusing, Pa. -- said
this indicates the cow was either not a downer or Thompson failed to follow
proper protocol. The veterinarians added they thought the latter possibility
was unlikely because they never had encountered a situation where they
could not get a body temperature and antibiotic residue test on a downer.
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- In addition, USDA regulations stipulate the cow carcass
should have been retained since a mad cow test was being conducted. However,
the carcass was processed and sent out to grocery stores more than a week
before the positive test results came back.
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- Louthan said he knew Thompson well and often worked "less
than a foot away" from him during his four-and-a-half years at Vern's.
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- "He's a really good veterinarian. I really liked
him," said Louthan, who was laid off from Vern's shortly after telling
reporters the cow in question was not a downer -- contrary to Secretary
Veneman's statements at the time.
-
- "If Doc Thompson made a mistake, he's the kind of
person who would step up and admit to it," he said.
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- That is the reason the USDA has not allowed him to talk
to the press -- because he would be honest and tell the truth -- Louthan
contended. "If he's the same Rodney I've always known, he's going
to admit to it and say 'Yeah, I forged the paperwork,'" he said.
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- Thompson did not respond to e-mails sent by UPI two weeks
ago, and attempts to reach him by phone last week at Vern's were unsuccessful.
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- Although plant management said Thompson was on the job
last Friday, a meat inspector, who later was identified as Donald West,
answered the phone line reserved for USDA officials at the plant and told
UPI that Thompson had left for the day. West declined to identify himself
or comment on the case and abruptly ended the conversation.
-
- Louthan said West previously had told him Thompson was
given a promotion and bumped up three pay grades in an effort to keep him
silent.
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- UPI has been unable to verify any of Louthan's allegations,
in part because the USDA has refused to give out any information on Thompson.
In fact, agency officials will not even verify if Thompson is still a USDA
employee, saying they cannot comment on an ongoing investigation.
-
- Asked about the promotion and pay-raise allegations,
USDA spokeswoman Alisa Harrison said, "I haven't heard of that at
all ...I'm sure that's part of what the (Inspector General) is taking a
look at."
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- Asked whether USDA officials pressured Thompson to alter
documents, Harrison replied: "I cannot fathom that would happen ...
I would assure you that's not something Secretary Veneman would do."
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- Harrison declined to comment on the actions that would
be taken if the OIG investigation found records had been forged. "I'm
not going to speculate or answer any hypothetical questions," she
said. "It's important to let the investigation proceed."
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- Thompson may soon have to give his account of the mad
cow case whether USDA officials want him to or not. The House Government
Reform Committee has opened its own investigation into the matter and requested
in a Feb. 17 letter to Veneman that she "make available for interviews
with our staff the USDA officials who are familiar with the operations
at Vern's," which presumably would include Thompson.
-
- Harrison said the agency would comply with the committee's
request and make Thompson available.
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- "We intend to fully cooperate with information requests
made by the committee," she said.
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- A source close to the committee's investigation who requested
they not be identified, told UPI: "There haven't been any new interviews
to date, but the investigation is definitely still ongoing and we're still
interested in talking to people."
-
- The source added that Thompson is "certainly an
interesting part of the investigation."
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- - Steve Mitchell is UPI's Medical Correspondent. E-mail
sciencemail@upi.com
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