- WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Only
three cows have been tested for mad cow disease over the past two years
at the Texas plant where federal testing policies for the deadly disease
were breached last week, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture testing
records obtained by United Press International.
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- The small number of tests occurred despite the fact that
the plant, Lone Star Beef in San Angelo, Texas, processes older, dairy
cows, which are considered to hold a high risk of being infected. The only
confirmed mad cow infection in U.S. herds occurred last December in a 6
1/2-year-old dairy cow in Washington state.
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- Lone Star is the 18th largest slaughterhouse in the country
and processed about 350,000 animals over the two-year period. Its low testing
rate is particularly relevant, a USDA veterinarian and a consumer advocate
told UPI, because an animal with symptoms consistent with mad cow disease
appeared at the plant last week but was never tested.
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- On April 27, a USDA veterinarian stationed at Lone Star
condemned a cow because it exhibited signs of a central nervous system
disorder, a possible indication of mad cow disease or other conditions,
such as poisoning or rabies.
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- USDA policy is all animals with CNS signs should be tested
for mad cow because they are considered the most likely to be infected
with the deadly disorder. However, for reasons that remain unclear, the
animal was sent to a rendering plant before a sample of its brain could
be retained. This means it can no longer be tested and no one can know
for certain whether the cow was infected.
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- USDA officials last week announced the testing protocol
had been breached and that it is investigating the incident, but in the
meantime it said the animal was kept out of the human food supply and poses
no risk to people. The concern is humans can contract an incurable, fatal
brain disease called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease from eating meat
infected with the mad cow pathogen.
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- Ron DeHaven, administrator at USDA's Animal & Plant
Health Inspection Service, which oversees the agency's mad cow testing
program, declined a request from UPI to comment on the lack of testing
at Lone Star.
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- "USDA is currently investigating the situation in
Texas," agency spokesman Jim Rogers told UPI. "Due to this investigation,
I must decline your request for an interview," Rogers added.
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- All three animals tested at Lone Star Beef over the past
two years were screened within about a two-week period in fiscal year 2003,
according to the USDA's mad-cow testing records for 2002 and the first
10 months of 2003 that UPI obtained via the Freedom of Information Act.
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- One animal was tested on Dec. 20, 2002, and two were
tested on Jan. 3, 2003. No animals from the plant were tested in fiscal
year 2002. The USDA follows the federal government's fiscal year, which
runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.
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- The three tested animals were 60, 72 and 96 months old,
respectively -- all elderly by cow standards -- and all were downers, or
unable to stand, an indication the plant was processing both older and
high-risk animals. Downer cows are considered by the USDA to be among those
most likely to test positive for mad cow.
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- Lone Star Beef did not respond to a request by UPI for
comment.
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- A 1998 issue of Cattle Buyer's Weekly magazine listed
the plant's primary product as boneless cow products, such as ground beef.
This generally consists of meat from culled cows -- those removed from
dairy herds because they are injured, sick or have stopped producing milk,
Lester Friedlander, a former veterinarian with the USDA's Food Safety and
Inspection Service, told UPI.
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- This would make it one of the highest-risk plants in
the country for receiving a mad cow, Friedlander said. The low number of
mad-cow tests at a high-risk plant such as Lone Star, indicates "the
USDA doesn't want to find the disease," he charged.
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- This type of plant "would be number one on my list"
to establish a mad cow surveillance program, Friedlander added. "This
should be investigated by Congress. It's about time Congress woke up and
started being a little more active in this."
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- UPI previously has reported the USDA's records show no
tests had been conducted from 2002 through July of 2003 at Vern's Moses
Lake Meats in Mabton, Wash., where the nation's only confirmed case of
mad cow was detected last December. Vern's Moses Lake, like Lone Star,
processes culled dairy cows.
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- Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, one of the most vocal USDA critics
in Congress, called the failure to test the animal in Texas "inexcusable."
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- Regarding the small number of tests at Lone Star, Harkin's
spokesman Matt Hartwig told UPI, "Senator Harkin will take this incident
in Texas very seriously and will take a look at our efforts to test animals
as they come through the processing facilities."
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- A Senate staff member, who requested anonymity, told
UPI, "I'm sure this issue won't go away anytime soon." Although
the mad-cow issue has quieted down on Capitol Hill in recent months, the
aide said, "I think this will cause people to pay attention and make
sure we are taking the necessary safeguards."
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- Felicia Nestor, senior policy adviser to the Government
Accountability Project in Washington, D.C., a group that works with federal
whistleblowers, said, "It's always surprising when you look at this
data -- just the gaps in what would seem sensible."
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- Nestor, who has followed the USDA's mad cow program closely
for several years, suggested there is an institutional barrier that makes
it difficult for APHIS employees to obtain samples. In many cases, APHIS
personnel pick up brain samples from the plants and send them to a USDA
lab in Ames, Iowa, to be tested.
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- Nestor said she has heard from USDA inspectors there
are instances where the APHIS veterinarian is located hundreds of miles
from some plants and therefore is inconvenienced by the distance when collecting
brain samples.
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- "The circumstantial evidence would suggest that's
the situation here (at Lone Star Beef)," she said.
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- USDA's Rogers said he would look into how close the nearest
APHIS veterinarian is to Lone Star, but he did not respond by UPI's publication
time.
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- Nestor also expressed skepticism about the USDA's expanded
mad cow surveillance program, which is slated to begin on June 1.
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- "It really suggests we're not going to have adequate
coverage under the new surveillance system unless the agency explicitly
states how they're going to fix this problem," she said.
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- - Steve Mitchell is UPI's Medical Correspondent. E-mail
sciencemail@upi.com
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- Copyright 2004 United Press International
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- http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040504-062108-3791r
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