i'm not mad, i'm differently prioned

[Guest guest]

INSPECTORS LET SUSPECT MAD COWS INTO FOOD CHAIN

 

 

Feb. 2, 2006, 9:20PM

Cattle checks called flawed

Inspectors let suspect animals into food chain

 

 

By DAVID IVANOVICH and PURVA PATEL

Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

 

WASHINGTON - Federal inspectors on the watch for mad cow disease have

permitted animals unable to walk to enter the food chain, despite fears that

such animals could harbor the dread illness.

 

 

Investigators for the Agriculture Department's Inspector General's Office

found records at two unidentified slaughterhouses that showed inspectors for

the Food Safety and Inspection Service had allowed 29 nonambulatory, or

" downer, " cows to be slaughtered between June 2004 and April 2005.

 

The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service had issued rules that allowed

its inspectors to give the green light to slaughter downer cows, if those

animals were known to have suffered an acute injury after passing a previous

inspection, the Inspector General noted in a report released Thursday.

 

But the investigators could find no records for 20 of the 29 animals that

indicated the animals in question had suffered severe injuries.

 

The Inspector General's Office went further, saying that by allowing any of

these animals into the food chain, the agency was not abiding by its own

regulations.

 

The Food Safety and Inspection Service's policy states that all animals that

are unable to walk will be kept out of the food chain " regardless of the

reason for their nonambulatory status or the time at which they became

nonambulatory, " the Inspector General's report said.

 

USDA officials have promised to clarify their rules regarding the slaughter

of nonambulatory animals.

 

In a review of 12 facilities across the country, investigators also learned

that some downer animals were not tested for mad cow by USDA inspectors

stationed at slaughterhouses, because the potentially diseased cows were

separated out from healthier animals on premises adjacent to the slaughter

facilities.

 

Agency inspectors " stated they did not believe that they had the authority

to go into these sorting ... areas and require that the rejected animals be

provided ... for sampling, " the report noted.

 

Bill Hyman, executive director of the Independent Cattlemen's Association of

Texas, said his organization's members were " disappointed to hear they're

not abiding by their own rules. As cattle producers, we attempt to abide by

the rules, and we would expect the USDA to abide by the same rules. "

 

USDA rules also ban certain parts where mad cow, or bovine spongiform

encephalopathy, is most likely to develop.

 

Investigators found no evidence such materials entered the food chain, but

they could not determine whether proper procedures were followed to ensure

that was not happening in nine of the 12 facilities visited as part of the

probe.

 

The Inspector General's report represents another black eye for the

Agriculture Department and its efforts to assure the world American beef is

safe.

 

The report comes two weeks after Japan again closed its borders to U.S. beef

products after inspectors there discovered pieces of backbone in a veal

shipment.

 

While such meat products would be deemed safe for human consumption in the

United States, Japan has forbidden their import because of mad cow concerns.

A USDA inspector had approved that shipment.

 

As a safeguard, the USDA requires removal of so-called specified risk

materials, or SRM, such as brains and spinal cords, from older cattle.

 

" If you look at any audit that was ever done, we have found we have never

had SRMs get in the food supply, " Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns told

Reuters on Thursday.

 

 

david.ivanovich purva.patel

 

 

 

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/3632798.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

" Naturally the common people don't want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England,

nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the

leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter

to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship,

or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. ... Voice or no voice, the people

can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have

to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for

lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any

country. "

- General Herman Goering, President of German Reichstag & Nazi Party, Commander

of Luftwaffe