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Slow Reaction on Mad Cow Disease |
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Consumers charge that the Bush administration is giving in to pressure from the beef industry, opposed to instituting stricter controls at the slaughterhouse.
WASHINGTON - A group of activists and consumer advocates is accusing the U.S. government of doing too little to stop the spread of mad cow disease in the country because of pressure from the powerful beef industry.
They also say that a number of senior employees in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) come from the meat and dairy industries and might have loyalties to their former employers.
Last week, U.S. officials said they would immediately implement a new set of safeguards to protect the nation's beef supply against bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) also known as "mad cow" disease, after an infected animal was found Dec. 9 in Washington state.
The cattle at risk of contracting BSE are those that have consumed feed that contains animal proteins. The disease is deadly, and its first symptoms are problems with normal movement.
The cause is not a virus or bacteria, but an agent known as a prion, which modifies the proteins of the brain, giving the tissue a spongy consistency.
A human form of the disease known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease or vCJD, a rare but fatal brain disorder, can result from consuming contaminated cattle products.
Since the 1990s, 153 people have died of vCJD, mostly in Europe.
The safeguards include removing non-ambulatory or "downer" animals from the human food chain, along with all brain, spinal cord and nervous-system tissue that could carry BSE; adding protections to mechanized meat processing; and instituting a national animal identification program.
Downers are animals that are unable to walk to slaughter because of disease or broken legs and other injuries.
But the announced measures failed to allay consumers' fears both in the United States and abroad.
Cattle-futures prices have fallen sharply, and none of the more than 30 nations that have required import bans on U.S. beef are reportedly moving to ease their restrictions. The controls have already cost the U.S. beef industry millions of dollars in exports.
"The USDA's latest steps on mad cow disease are pathetic," said John Stauber co-author of the book 'Mad Cow USA'.
"Today in the U.S. farmers legally feed billions of pounds of slaughterhouse waste to cattle, and even wean calves on cattle blood protein."
Farmers in the United States routinely feed animal remains, blood and manure -- particularly chicken feces -- to cattle.
In Europe, where one of every four cows is tested, and Japan, where authorities test 100 percent of cattle bound for human consumption, officials have found a number of cases of mad cow disease in animals that appeared perfectly healthy.
Over the past two years, the USDA has tested only about 20,000 cattle, or less than 10 percent of the downer animals, for mad cow disease annually.
"I suspect the recent cases of mad cow disease in the U.S. and Canada are just the tip of an iceberg, one that will continue to grow until dangerous feeding practices are completely banned," said Stauber.
The activists charge that the U.S. beef industry is behind the lukewarm testing here as it fears increased examination could unearth more cases, which could further harm beef sales.
"The industry has been fighting tooth and nail against testing ever since I got involved with this back in 1993, because the last thing they want to do is something that would find a case," said Michael Greger, of the Organic Consumers Association.
"Now that a case has been found, they don't want to find case number two or case number three or case number four."
Consumer groups fear the government's position is dangerous -- as it tries to simultaneously protect the industry and maintain public health.
"Three years ago, we submitted a list of recommendations to the U.S. government regarding mad cow disease -- none were implemented," said Simon Chaitowitz of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a Washington-based non-profit group that promotes preventive medicine.
"We believe the USDA has not instituted these protections because many of its top staffers come from the meat and dairy industries, and they care more about protecting cattle industry profits than public safety."
USDA press secretary Alisa Harrison, Deputy Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Chuck Lambert and Senior Advisor on Food and Nutrition Issues Elizabeth Johnson all previously worked for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, a powerful lobby group.
U.S. officials defended their record, saying that tests have been targeted mainly at high-risk animals, those showing symptoms of nervous system disorder or inability to walk.
The measures failed to satisfy at least one former official, who said the USDA controls created "a voluntary or piecemeal system" that was not sufficient to protect either public health or consumer confidence.
Carol Tucker Foreman, chief of the agriculture department's food safety programs during the administration of former president Jimmy Carter (1977-81), acknowledged the new USDA moves as positive but said "industry pressure has kept the Bush administration from taking all of the steps necessary to protect the public".
"FDA did not expand the feed ban to preclude the use of all ruminants in animal feed. Nor did FDA announce the assignment of enforcement resources sufficient to assure the ban on feeding ruminant material to bovines is effective," she said in a statement.
* Emad Mekay is an IPS correspondent
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