Official Tells of Investigation Into Mad Cow Discrepancies

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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/04/politics/04COW.html?th

 

Official Tells of Investigation Into Mad Cow DiscrepanciesBy DONALD G. McNEIL

Jr.

 

Published: March 4, 2004

 

 

The government has begun a criminal investigation into whether documents were

falsified in the lone case of mad cow disease found in the United States, the

Agriculture Department's inspector general said yesterday.

 

The official, Phyllis K. Fong, told a House appropriations subcommittee that the

investigation focused on whether the Holstein dairy cow was a " downer " — a cow

too sick or injured to walk — when it was slaughtered on Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses

Lake Meats in Washington State.

 

 

 

The inquiry was " based on allegations that were reported in the media in early

February concerning possible alteration of official records, " Ms. Fong said. She

declined to identify any targets of the investigation.

 

The official records of the veterinarian at the slaughterhouse, released by the

Agriculture Department in January, said the animal was " sternal, alert, " meaning

that it was conscious but down on its sternum, or chest, before it was killed.

 

But three witnesses — the worker who killed the animal, the trucker who hauled

it to the slaughterhouse and an owner of the slaughterhouse — have all said

publicly that it was walking.

 

Dave Louthan, the slaughterer at Vern's, said in a February interview that the

cow walked to the edge of the truck when he killed it with a " knocking gun " to

keep it from doubling back and trampling the downed cattle inside.

 

At the time, Mr. Louthan said he believed that the slaughterhouse veterinarian

had falsified the records. He repeated that assertion yesterday in more detail.

 

On Dec. 23, the day it became known that a cow from Vern's had tested positive

for bovine spongiform encephalopathy and a team from the Agriculture Department

arrived, he barged into the office of the veterinarian, Rodney D. Thompson, and

found him " hip deep in the paperwork and writing like a madman, " Mr. Louthan

said.

 

The paperwork included the slips a veterinarian fills out on each animal in

which illness is suspected.

 

" I said, `Hey, this is wrong, that cow was a walker,' " Mr. Louthan said. " And

he got mad at me and said, `Then why the hell do I have him down as a suspect?'

" ( " Suspect " describes any animal suspected of being seriously ill, including

downers.)

 

Dr. Thompson did not respond to phone calls or e-mail messages left for him

yesterday and has not spoken to the press.

 

The Agriculture Department tested fewer than 21,000 cows last year — compared

with millions in Europe — but Secretary of Agriculture Ann M. Veneman has

repeatedly said that amount is enough to assure that the country's beef is safe

because it focuses on downers, which were more likely to be diseased. If the

disease was found in a walking cow, the premise behind the testing system would

be undermined.

 

Asked yesterday whether it was possible that someone in the top ranks of the

department could have ordered Dr. Thompson to forge a report, Alisa Harrison,

the department's chief spokeswoman, repeated five times: " I cannot fathom that

that would happen. "

 

Asked several times if she was saying it did not happen, Ms. Harrison said Ms.

Veneman did not order it. Asked if someone else in the top ranks could have, she

repeated, " I'm saying I cannot fathom it. "

 

Mr. Louthan noted that the cow in question was the only one on the downer record

not having a temperature recorded that day. It was marked " unable to get temp. "

It is easy to get a rectal temperature from a downed cow, he said, but difficult

to do so in a moving, upset one. He called the absence of such a reading the

" smoking gun " showing that the records were changed.

 

A very low temperature indicates an animal is dying. A very high one suggests it

has a systemic infection. Both make it unfit for human consumption.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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