Mad Cow: Concerns raised about 1997 U.S. mad cow tests

[Guest guest]

One of the ways that the US govenment lies to you about Mad Cow disease.

 

 

http://sask.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=mad-cow-concerns050413

 

 

 

Concerns raised about 1997 U.S. mad cow tests

Last Updated Apr 13 2005 02:30 PM CDT

 

 

CBC News

GENEVA, N.Y. – The United States did not properly analyze two

suspected cases of mad cow disease in 1997, years before it showed up

in Canada and devastated this country's beef industry, a CBC News

investigation suggests.

 

* INDEPTH: Mad Cow Disease

 

Dr. Masuo Doi, the U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarian who

initially investigated both 1997 cases, says he is haunted by fears

that the right tests were not done and that his own department did not

properly investigate whether the cow had BSE.

 

Doi is now retired and speaking for the first time about his concerns.

 

" I don't want to carry on off to my retirement, " he told CBC's

Investigative Unit. " I want to hand it over to someone to continue, to

find out. I think it's very, very important ...

 

" How many did we miss? "

 

Doi's concerns are echoed by Dr. Karl Langheindrich, the chief

scientist at a U.S. Department of Agriculture lab in Athens, Ga., that

ran the early tests on one of the cows.

 

Documents obtained by CBC show that the samples tested by the

department did not contain parts of the animal's brain critical for an

accurate diagnosis.

 

Langheindrich told CBC that the department will never be able to say

for sure what was wrong with the cow, though at the time it publicly

ruled out bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

 

" Based on the clinical symptoms and the description given by the

veterinarian, you can verify, yes, this animal had CNS, central

nervous system disease, but you can't specify it in your findings

further than that, " he said.

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is refusing to talk about the

cases, saying the documents provided to CBC speak for themselves.

 

1997 video from New York shows stricken cow

 

The scientists' comments raise new questions about how the U.S.

industry has been able to essentially escape BSE when Canada's much

smaller industry, observing almost identical safety and testing

practices, has had four cases in the past two years.

 

Part of the answer could be in a slaughterhouse in Oriskany Falls,

N.Y., which eight years ago may have become the home of the first

American case of mad cow.

 

Bobby Godfrey, who worked at the plant, remembers a cow that arrived

one day in May 1997.

 

" I thought it was a mad dog, to tell you the truth, " he told CBC.

" Didn't know what the hell it was. Never seen a cow act like that in

all the cows I saw go through there. There was definitely something

wrong with it. "

 

The suspect cow was recorded on USDA videotape, which has been

obtained by CBC News. It shows the animal trembling, hunching its back

and charging plant workers.

 

" Me and my vet, including our inspector, they thought [the cow] was

quite different, " Doi told CBC. " They thought it was the BSE. "

 

Key areas of brain not tested: documents

 

Documents obtained by CBC News show that the U.S. government was

preparing for the worst. Initial signs pointed to its first case of

mad cow disease, which would have immediate impacts on U.S. beef

exports to countries around the world.

 

But further tests on the animal came back negative, the USDA later

reported.

 

Dr. Masuo Doi, a retired USDA veterinarian.

The final conclusion from an independent university lab: The cow had a

rare brain disorder never reported in that breed of cattle either

before or since – not the dreaded bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

 

CBC News has now learned that key areas of the brain where signs of

BSE would be most noticeable were never tested. The most important

samples somehow went missing.

 

That information was contained in a USDA lab report that was left out

of the documents officially released by the department. It proves that

the scientist in charge of the case knew his investigation was limited

because of the missing brain tissue.

 

Second suspected case surfaces at same plant

 

With questions about the first cow still lingering, a second American

cow showed up at the same plant three months later with suspicious

symptoms. Videotape of that animal shows its head was bobbing and it

was unable to rise to its feet, setting off warning bells for mad cow

disease.

 

The second cow's brain was also sent for testing. Officials were later

told verbally that the samples had tested negative for BSE.

 

Doi made repeated requests for documentary proof of the negative

tests. To this day, he has seen nothing.

 

" How many are buried? " he wonders of other possible cases of BSE in

the United States. " Can you really trust our inspection [system]? "

 

For weeks, the USDA told CBC that it had no records for the second cow

suspected of having BSE in 1997. Then just a few days ago, it suddenly

produced documents that it says proves that a cow was tested and that

the tests were negative for mad cow disease.

 

But the documents also prove, once again, that there were problems

with the testing. This time, so much brain tissue was missing that it

compromised the examination.

 

2nd suspected mad cow, from a USDA video.

The problems were so severe that one USDA scientist wrote that his own

examination was of " questionable validity " because he couldn't tell

what part of the cow's brain he was looking at.

 

Felicia Nestor, a lawyer who represents U.S. government

whistle-blowers, says she isn't surprised by what this CBC News

investigation uncovered.

 

" There have been too many times where information or tissues or other

evidence has just sort of disappeared, fallen through the cracks, "

said Nestor, who has been handling USDA-related cases for nearly 10 years.

 

" There are a lot of holes. There are a lot of holes. "

 

Commons committee hears coverup allegations

 

The results of the CBC investigation were broadcast on the same day

that a former U.S. agriculture inspector, during testimony at a House

of Commons committee, accused his own government of covering up

suspected cases of BSE.

 

On Tuesday, Lester Friedlander repeated a claim he has made before –

that cases of BSE surfaced in the U.S. long before the disease showed

up in Canada.

 

Friedlander, who was fired from his job as head of inspections at a

meat-packing plant in Philadelphia in 1995 after criticizing what he

called unsafe practices, says he is willing to take a lie detector

test to prove he is telling the truth.

 

The U.S. government has denied his allegations.

 

 

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