Response
from National Cattlemen's Beef Association to Article About Mad
Cow Testing
We received
a response to our recent article entitled "USDA
Mad Cow Strategy: Don't Look, Don't Find" from a representative
of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), Mr. Gary Weber.
VegSource
very much wants to give the cattle industry the opportunity to make
their views known on this subject. Anything
the cattle industry wants to send us we are more than happy to share
with the many many people who read our website each month.
Here is the
unedited response from Gary Weber of the NCBA:
April
3, 2001
I rarely
take time to comment on articles I see...but I must make an
exception to one you recently published. I found your article
quite off track and full of gross errors and obvious biased..
You extensive use of information and opinion provided by Moser
is one example.
"Dr.
Markus Moser, a molecular biologist and guest researcher at
Oxford University in England, heads the Swiss company Prionics,
which developed a rapid-response test for BSE, called the
Prionics Check Test. The Check Test costs about $40 per cow,
and Moser says it has found cases of mad cow in tests of "healthy"
cattle which otherwise would have entered the food chain."
Come
on ..of course a guy who is set to make millions off selling
"his" test...is going to bash what we do...here are the facts..
The IHC
test being used by APHIS was the first such test fully tested
and verified in the world. It is as sensitive as the prionics
test...it just takes more time. In fact..it provides less
false positives...an error that requires many more confirmatory
steps..time and expense. Pit our IHC test against the prionics..side
by side and the only difference will be lots of false positives..extra
tests with Prionics...no difference in true ability to detect
the prion protein. It seems you were victimized by a sales
pitch.
Long
before Moser even knew what BSE was...the U.S. had already
started surveillance..already banned the importation of cattle
and products that could carry the BSE agent.
You need
to be more suspicious of the views of so called "European
Experts." If they were so "smart" why did they continue to
import live cattle and contaminated feed from the UK after
we banned it in 1989..ask Moser that!
Why did
Europe continue to sell BSE contaminated feed to 3rd world
countries long after we banned the importation of cattle and
all feeds that could carry BSE from ALL of Europe into the
US in 1997?
Why was
PCB/dioxin contaminated feed fed to pigs and chickens in Europe
and why did the government cover it up??
Why did
FMD [foot and mouth disease] spread across the UK and then
Europe?
If you
want to do a story that is objective...ask these questions.
What
you will find is Europeans have lost sight of how to regulate
agriculture... their arrogance and failure to invest in and
apply science in agriculture is outrageous. It is even more
outrageous that anyone from Europe would have the guts to
criticize what we have done here. Dr. Moser and European officials
should be embarrassed at their behavior and their consumer
constituents outraged.
In the
US we have never cut corners on BSE prevention..we have aggressively
pursued prevention...LONG before Europe ever did.
You might
say "sure Dr. Weber takes this position...he works for the
cattle industry." The fact is, I eat beef, my wife and 4 children
eat beef...my 107 year old great aunt eats it...neither I
nor any of our members will tolerate anything other than strict
regulations and enforcement of BSE prevention strategies.
The fact
we ARE BSE FREE is no accident...the fact Europe is NOT is
no surprise to any of us who know how they do business.
Gary Weber
National Cattlemen's Beef Association
1301 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Suite 300
Washington DC 20004-1701
202-347-0228 http://hill.beef.org
VegSource
comments:
I would like
to clarify one point in the article about the sensitivity of the
Prionics and other rapid testing techniques, versus the Immunohistochemistry
Test (IHC), used by the USDA to test for BSE.
No one I spoke
with in researching my article said the IHC test was not highly
accurate. As I noted, it is used by governments in Europe to confirm
positive results when a positive is generated by the rapid BSE tests.
What I learned
is that there are problems inherent to the IHC test, the principal
one having to do with the interpretive nature of the test, which
can be impacted by how hard the person doing the test actually works.
Moser explained
that with the IHC test, you can take 100 sections of cow brain to
examine for prions...or you can take only 2 or 3. How much effort
goes into the actual test may determine whether or not an accurate
result comes back. If you take 2 or 3 sections, and don't see BSE,
you can conclude there is no BSE. But if a rapid test comes back
positive, and you look at a few sections using IHC and see no prions,
further sectioning may subsequently reveal prions are indeed present.
This was what Mr. O'Connor also said occurs in Ireland with the
IHC. In the US, there is no positive result from a rapid test which
might prompt the IHC technician to continue looking in a given sample,
where infection might otherwise be missed.
Also, in downer
cows which die and lay there for a day, the prionics test WILL catch
prions, while IHC never will -- because the brain has turned too
liquidy if it hasn't been preserved properly. When they test on
degraded downer cows in Switzerland and Germany and get a positive,
the government lab doesn't even bother trying to do an IHC test
to confirm it because they know they will never find prions in a
watery brain sample of that condition, even when it's filled with
them, according to Moser.
Moser also says
that issues can be further complicated because prions are not necessarily
evenly distributed across the brain or spinal material. This makes
it possible for one test to get a positive result, signaling the
presence of prions, but sending a different part of the same brain
to another lab to for IHC confirmation testing may not find anything.
Going back and sectioning more parts of the brain, if you're doing
ICH, may reveal a positive BSE sample after all -- if the government
examiners wish to go back and look again.
I thought it
was interesting that Mr. Weber of the NCBA does not comment on many
of the points in the article about the enormous disparity in testing
between Europe and the US. The sheer number of BSE tests as well
as the types of animals being tested as "fallen" is troubling.
Rather than
discuss these points, Mr. Weber makes observations about what he
believes are Dr. Moser's personal motivations for speaking with
me. (This seems an ironic charge coming from Mr. Weber, who is paid
a spokesman for the Cattlemen's Association.)
Mr. Weber also
charges the European agricultural industry is highly inferior to
that of the U.S. That may or may not be so, but that is not the
issue I set out to examine. My article is about BSE-testing. Dr.
Moser is an expert in this field.
While I am not
Dr. Moser's defender, from all I have learned in speaking to various
experts, he is someone to be praised for the role his company played
in forcing BSE out into the open in Europe. I'm sure he is not any
more popular with the European meat industry than he is with Mr.
Weber.
Mr. Weber's
suggestion that I should ask Dr. Moser questions about policy set
by European governments seems at best a weak defense, at worst a
deflection from the real issue. Moser did not control agricultural
policy in Europe at any time that I am aware of.
It seems that
Mr. Weber, as the NCBA's representative, is the one who should be
answering some very critical questions: Why
aren't we taking the same precautions as the Europeans who, when
they took them, learned to their shock that they did have mad cow
after all?
And if Weber's
answer is "Because we don't have it here," it's obvious
to anyone who has looked into this that this is far from being proven
from a scientific standpoint.
It seems apparent
Europe learned from their mistakes, including mistakes in testing.
Why shouldn't the U.S. benefit from the expertise they acquired?
Mr. Weber of
the NCBA says in his letter above,
"In the
US we have never cut corners on BSE prvention..we have aggressively
pursued prevention...LONG before Europe ever did."
However, Mr.
Weber appeared on an episode of Oprah Winfrey in 1996 during which
it was pointed out that the US was still feeding cattle to cattle,
while the practice had been banned in the UK.
When Oprah Winfrey
asked Mr. Weber if this was true, whether the cows were still being
fed to cows in the US, Mr. Weber acknowledged it was, responding
"There
is a limited amount of that done in the United States."
It wasn't until
over a year later, in June of 1997, that the USDA actually issued
a rule placing a ban on feeding cows to cows in the US, as had already
been done in Europe.
According to
a very recent GAO study, the rules set out in 1997 to help prevent
the spread of mad cow in the US by changing feed practices -- have
been largely ignored by over two-thirds of feed mills in the US
-- several thousand -- during the past 4 years. Compliance is still
far from being achieved as of mid-March 2001.
Additionally,
in Europe it is illegal to feed chickens, pigs and cows' blood to
cows, as recent research suggests it may be possible to recycle
mad cow disease back into cattle this way. This practice, however,
is still legal in the US, and widely done.
This is at odds
with Mr. Weber's assertions that the US is keeping "ahead of
Europe" or "never cutting corners on BSE prevention."
Another guest
who appeared on the Oprah show with Mr. Weber in 1996 was former
cattle rancher, Howard Lyman. At that time, Lyman was urging that
the US adopt the kinds of measures Europe had embraced to help prevent
BSE in the US
Lyman and Oprah
were subsequently sued by cattle ranchers after this TV appearance,
with the apparent support of Mr. Weber's organization, the NCBA.
The cattlemen claimed Lyman was "disparaging" beef and
telling lies when he spoke about possible safety problems vis-a-vis
mad cow and American meat.
But the cattle
industry lost their trial against Lyman and Oprah. And the Fifth
Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict, concluding that Lyman's
statements and opinions about meat industry practices were "based
on truthful, established fact." (The court further admonished the
cattlemen saying, "Defamation law should not be used as a threat
of force individuals to muzzle their truthful, reasonable opinions
and beliefs.")
I keep this
in mind when I read statements like the above from Mr. Weber and
the NCBA smearing someone and claiming they are lying or uninformed.
History shows
the cattlemen's claims do not hold up under the scrutiny of a truth-finding
setting of judge and jury.
There is nothing
you can do in the slaughterhouse or kitchen to prevent the transmission
of mad cow, says Dr. Philip Monk, a British epidemiologist who is
leading a new investigation into the spread of mad cow. That's because
the disease is untreatable and always fatal. "The only thing you
can do is to make sure that you don't get exposed to it."
That is what
makes the stakes so high in the mad cow debate.
Mr. Weber says
above: " Pit our IHC test against the prionics..side by side
and the only difference will be lots of false positives..extra tests
with Prionics...no difference in true ability to detect the prion
protein."
Is the cattle
industry willing to pit the European testing system side by side
with the current US testing system, and see what the difference
is? Will the NCBA call for the same side by side measures taken
here as were taken in what once were other "BSE-free"
countries, and see if we can stand up?
I asked one
of the BSE researchers consulted in the article if he wished to
see the comments of Mr. Weber and possibly respond to the criticisms.
Here is this researcher's response:
"Thank
you, but I am not interested in the comments of Mr. Weber of the
US cattle industry. He may attack Dr. Moser, me or European countries,
but he can't change the facts. For me personally, it is only important
that we in Germany now have the most complete feed ban against possibly
spongiform disease infective materials, as well as the best BSE
testing program worldwide. These measures only came as a reaction
to the first BSE case in a German cow. You in the US are now in
a situation very similar to what we had before our first BSE case."
Mr. Weber's background may be as a veterinarian
from the USDA. On SwinePro, Dr. Gary Weber represented USDA
Extension Service. Since 1997 at least he has been
Executive Director, Regulatory Affairs, National Cattlemen's
Beef Association. "We've had BSE on our issues radar screen
since 1986," said Dr. Gary Weber, NCBA's Director of Regulatory
Affairs Feb. 28, 1997.
Mr. Weber wrote in his letter above:
"Long before Moser even knew what BSE was...the
U.S. had already started surveillance.. already banned the
importation of cattle and products that could carry the
BSE agent."
Actually, this is typically misleading.
Below is what turned up for publications on
Markus Moser and Bruno Oesch, the founders of Prionics. Their
published work goes back to April 1985 on prions -- which
in fact is a year before Weber, the USDA, or the Cattlemen's
association even knew what BSE was.
1: Oesch B, Doherr M, Heim D, Fischer K,
Egli S, Bolliger S, Biffiger K,
Schaller O, Vandevelde M, Moser M.
Application of Prionics Western blotting procedure to screen
for BSE in cattle
regularly slaughtered at Swiss abattoirs.
Arch Virol Suppl. 2000;(16):189-95.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 11214922
2: Schaller O, Fatzer R, Stack M, Clark J, Cooley W, Biffiger
K, Egli S, Doherr
M, Vandevelde M, Heim D, Oesch B, Moser M.
Validation of a western immunoblotting procedure for bovine
PrP(Sc) detection
and its use as a rapid surveillance method for the diagnosis
of bovine
spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
Acta Neuropathol (Berl). 1999 Nov;98(5):437-43.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 10541864
3: Korth C, Stierli B, Streit P, Moser M, Schaller O, Fischer
R,
Schulz-Schaeffer W, Kretzschmar H, Raeber A, Braun U, Ehrensperger
F, Hornemann
S, Glockshuber R, Riek R, Billeter M, Wuthrich K, Oesch B.
Prion (PrPSc)-specific epitope defined by a monoclonal antibody.
Nature. 1997 Nov 6;390(6655):74-7.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 9363892
4: Tobler I, Gaus SE, Deboer T, Achermann P, Fischer M, Rulicke
T, Moser M,
Oesch B, McBride PA, Manson JC.
Altered circadian activity rhythms and sleep in mice devoid
of prion protein.
Nature. 1996 Apr 18;380(6575):639-42.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 8602267
5: Fischer M, Rulicke T, Raeber A, Sailer A, Moser M, Oesch
B, Brandner S,
Aguzzi A, Weissmann C.
Prion protein (PrP) with amino-proximal deletions restoring
susceptibility of
PrP knockout mice to scrapie.
EMBO J. 1996 Mar 15;15(6):1255-64.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 8635458
6: Moser M, Colello RJ, Pott U, Oesch B.
Developmental expression of the prion protein gene in glial
cells.
Neuron. 1995 Mar;14(3):509-17.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 7695897
7: Moser M, Oesch B, Bueler H.
An anti-prion protein?
Nature. 1993 Mar 18;362(6417):213-4. No abstract available.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 8096326
-=-=-=-=-=-
1: Oesch B, Doherr M, Heim D, Fischer K, Egli S, Bolliger
S, Biffiger K,
Schaller O, Vandevelde M, Moser M.
Application of Prionics Western blotting procedure to screen
for BSE in cattle
regularly slaughtered at Swiss abattoirs.
Arch Virol Suppl. 2000;(16):189-95.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 11214922
2: Meyer RK, Lustig A, Oesch B, Fatzer R, Zurbriggen A, Vandevelde
M.
A monomer-dimer equilibrium of a cellular prion protein (PrPC)
not observed
with
recombinant PrP.
J Biol Chem. 2000 Dec 1;275(48):38081-7.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 10967124
3: Lang NP, Hammerle C, Oesch B, Schenk RK.
Risk of transmission of agents associated with Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease and
bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
Plast Reconstr Surg. 2000 May;105(6):2273-5. No abstract available.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 10839438
4: Schaller O, Fatzer R, Stack M, Clark J, Cooley W, Biffiger
K, Egli S, Doherr
M, Vandevelde M, Heim D, Oesch B, Moser M.
Validation of a western immunoblotting procedure for bovine
PrP(Sc) detection
and its use as a rapid surveillance method for the diagnosis
of bovine
spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
Acta Neuropathol (Berl). 1999 Nov;98(5):437-43.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 10541864
5: Meyer RK, Oesch B, Fatzer R, Zurbriggen A, Vandevelde M.
Detection of bovine spongiform encephalopathy-specific PrP(Sc)
by treatment
with
heat and guanidine thiocyanate.
J Virol. 1999 Nov;73(11):9386-92.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 10516047
6: Korth C, Streit P, Oesch B.
Monoclonal antibodies specific for the native, disease-associated
isoform
of the
prion protein.
Methods Enzymol. 1999;309:106-22.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 10507020
7: Korth C, Stierli B, Streit P, Moser M, Schaller O, Fischer
R,
Schulz-Schaeffer W, Kretzschmar H, Raeber A, Braun U, Ehrensperger
F, Hornemann
S, Glockshuber R, Riek R, Billeter M, Wuthrich K, Oesch B.
Prion (PrPSc)-specific epitope defined by a monoclonal antibody.
Nature. 1997 Nov 6;390(6655):74-7.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 9363892
8: Hornemann S, Korth C, Oesch B, Riek R, Wider G, Wuthrich
K, Glockshuber R.
Recombinant full-length murine prion protein, mPrP(23-231):
purification and
spectroscopic characterization.
FEBS Lett. 1997 Aug 18;413(2):277-81.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 9280297
9: Tobler I, Gaus SE, Deboer T, Achermann P, Fischer M, Rulicke
T, Moser M,
Oesch B, McBride PA, Manson JC.
Altered circadian activity rhythms and sleep in mice devoid
of prion protein.
Nature. 1996 Apr 18;380(6575):639-42.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 8602267
10: Fischer M, Rulicke T, Raeber A, Sailer A, Moser M, Oesch
B, Brandner S,
Aguzzi A, Weissmann C.
Prion protein (PrP) with amino-proximal deletions restoring
susceptibility of
PrP knockout mice to scrapie.
EMBO J. 1996 Mar 15;15(6):1255-64.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 8635458
11: Moser M, Colello RJ, Pott U, Oesch B.
Developmental expression of the prion protein gene in glial
cells.
Neuron. 1995 Mar;14(3):509-17.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 7695897
12: Oesch B, Jensen M, Nilsson P, Fogh J.
Properties of the scrapie prion protein: quantitative analysis
of protease
resistance.
Biochemistry. 1994 May 17;33(19):5926-31.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 7910036
13: Oesch B.
Characterization of PrP binding proteins.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1994 Mar 29;343(1306):443-5.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 7913764
14: Moser M, Oesch B, Bueler H.
An anti-prion protein?
Nature. 1993 Mar 18;362(6417):213-4. No abstract available.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 8096326
15: Brenner HR, Herczeg A, Oesch B.
Normal development of nerve-muscle synapses in mice lacking
the prion protein
gene.
Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1992 Nov 23;250(1328):151-5.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 1282260
16: Gabriel JM, Oesch B, Kretzschmar H, Scott M, Prusiner
SB.
Molecular cloning of a candidate chicken prion protein.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1992 Oct 1;89(19):9097-101.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 1409608
17: Carlson GA, Hsiao K, Oesch B, Westaway D, Prusiner SB.
Genetics of prion infections.
Trends Genet. 1991 Feb;7(2):61-5. Review.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 1903568
18: Oesch B, Westaway D, Prusiner SB.
Prion protein genes: evolutionary and functional aspects.
Curr Top Microbiol Immunol. 1991;172:109-24. Review. No abstract
available.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 1687379
19: Oesch B, Teplow DB, Stahl N, Serban D, Hood LE, Prusiner
SB.
Identification of cellular proteins binding to the scrapie
prion protein.
Biochemistry. 1990 Jun 19;29(24):5848-55.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 1974464
20: Oesch B, Groth DF, Prusiner SB, Weissmann C.
Search for a scrapie-specific nucleic acid: a progress report.
Ciba Found Symp. 1988;135:209-23. Review.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 3137001
21: Basler K, Oesch B, Scott M, Westaway D, Walchli M, Groth
DF, McKinley MP,
Prusiner SB, Weissmann C.
Scrapie and cellular PrP isoforms are encoded by the same
chromosomal gene.
Cell. 1986 Aug 1;46(3):417-28.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 2873895
22: Oesch B, Westaway D, Walchli M, McKinley MP, Kent SB,
Aebersold R,
Barry RA,
Tempst P, Teplow DB, Hood LE, et al.
A cellular gene encodes scrapie PrP 27-30 protein.
Cell. 1985 Apr;40(4):735-46.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMID: 2859120
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