Feds Fail to Step Up Mad Cow Surveillance

[Guest guest]

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/04/cspi_mad_cow_promises.html

 

Feds Fail to Step Up Mad Cow Surveillance

Discovery of Third Case in U.S. Can't Compete with Industry Lobbying

 

 

April 9, 2006

 

 

Despite the discovery of three cows infected with bovine spongiform

encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, long overdue measures to

ensure the safety of the food supply and to keep foreign markets open

to American beef have been stalled, according to the Center for

Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).

 

In a report coauthored with OMB Watch and Consumer Federation of

America, CSPI says special-interest lobbying at federal agencies and

at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) helped keep reforms, such

as a nationwide animal identification system and a strong regulation

governing cattle feed, from being finalized.

 

The report identifies 10 closed-door meetings that staff at OMB, which

is part of the Executive Office of the President, have held with the

meat and feed industry, and points out that the senior levels of the

Bush Administration's Department of Agriculture are filled with former

industry insiders.

 

The groups are calling on Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns to jump

start the stalled animal identification system and the Food and Drug

Administration to finalize a rule preventing animal feed from being

contaminated with mammalian blood, so-called " chicken litter, " and

other animal-containing products that could pass on the prions that

cause BSE.

 

" We don't need another mad cow to tell us how weak the United States'

cattle tracking system is, " said CSPI food safety director Caroline

Smith DeWaal. " While Canada can quickly track all cattle that may have

eaten infected feed, USDA has refused to mandate a similar system in

the U.S. "

 

" Once again, we see the Bush administration putting corporate special

interests over the public interest, when it comes to mad cow disease, "

said J. Robert Shull, director of regulatory policy at OMB Watch. " We

can expect more broken promises and weak protections as long as the

administration continues to put foxes in the henhouse and give special

interests a hotline that goes straight to the White House. "

 

OMB officials met with the North American Casing Association, National

By-Products, the National Renderers Association, the American Feed

Industry Association, the Pet Food Industry association, the American

Meat Institute, the National Grain and Feed Assocition, and other

meat-related companies and trade associations, on BSE-related policies

from August 2002 to October 2005.

 

In addition to the animal identification system and the feed rule, the

groups also recommend increasing survillance by testing all cattle

showing signs of central nervous system disease, as well as cattle 30

months or older. Healthy cattle 20 to 30 months old should be

randomly, but less intensively, screened for BSE, the groups say.