Is the U.S. Importing Mad Cow Disease?

[Guest guest]

Is the U.S. Importing Mad Cow Disease?

July

30, 2008 on 11:50 am | By beth | In Food Safety |

A

recent audit of the USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)

revealed that cows from Canada have been entering the country without being

properly inspected.  Consequently, concerns have been raised that mad cow

disease may have been imported along with the undocumented cows.   And because

the Bush Administration does not want meatpackers conducting their own private

testing for mad cow disease, this threat to public health/food safety is simply

a disaster waiting to happen.*  Further complicating matters, the under-funded

and understaffed USDA has no idea where these cows have ended up because of

record-keeping errors made by APHIS.

While

this story is newsworthy, it should not come as a surprise to anyone. This last

year has been an extremely embarrassing and frightening one for United States

agriculture.  With the recent Humane Slaughter Act violations, the widespread

distribution of downer cattle meat for children’s school lunches and the

largest meat recall in American history all occurring in the last seven months,

it has become clear that major changes have to made within the American

agricultural industry.

Prior

to this news about Canadian cattle being lost in the US without proper

inspection, US interest groups had already been calling for bans on cattle

imports, wary of the threat to their own livestock and to the beef industry in

general. R-Calf USA, a national cattle producer association, recently sued the

USDA for allowing the importation of older Canadian cattle into the US.  This rule

is now being reconsidered thanks to a federal judge in South Dakota. (Click

here To read the full news story about the lost Canadian cattle.)

Now

with this revelation about the cracks in our inspection system, the push

against foreign imports will be even stronger.

However,

even if potentially infected animals continue to be imported, American

consumers can protect themselves by making smart food choices.  Consumers can

reduce their risk considerably by buying their meat, dairy, and eggs from

farmers who adhere to high welfare standards.

Animal

welfare improvements can increase food safety by reducing stress.  When animals

are stressed, this can suppress their immune systems and leave them vulnerable

to disease. High welfare practices reduce stress, and consequently reduce the

incidence of infectious disease that can harm humans.  High welfare farms have

also significantly reduced or completely eliminated the need for routine

antibiotics.  This reduces the risk of antibiotic resistance in humans from

chronic overuse in food animal production.**

More

and more research has shown that the health and well-being of the animal

directly relates to the safety of the consumer.  When consumers buy food with

the Animal Welfare Approved seal they can be assured that the animals lived

under the highest welfare conditions, which put them at a much lower risk of

contracting disease.  Consequently, Animal Welfare Approved food is one of the

safest choices for the American consumer.

*Wasserman,

B. (2008, May 13). U.S. to stop private mad cow testing. Food Consumer.org. 

**De

Passillé, A.M. and Rushen, J. (2005).  Food safety and environmental issues in

animal welfare.  Rev. Sci. Tech. Off. Int. Epiz., 24 (2), 757-766. 

http://www.animalwelfareapproved.org/blog/2008/07/30/is-the-us-importing-mad-cow-disease/

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Is the U.S. Importing Mad Cow Disease?

They already did. Why do you suppose that military members from the first Gulf War Era cannot donate blood? C

[Guest guest]

Britain manufactured tons and tons of madcow contaminated feed and distributed

it worlwide including the US. This despite agreeing to a moratorium. So this

is why we see animals wasting away here. It was in the last year or two that

they found a young calf BORN here that had madcow. Go figure how?

 

Melly