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From: TSS (216-119-144-40.ipset24.wt.net)
Subject: Re: "EFSA publishes new report on the Geographical BSE Risk Assessment" (GAIN report E34050)
Date: September 1, 2004 at 7:17 pm PST
In Reply to: Re: "EFSA publishes new report on the Geographical BSE Risk Assessment" (GAIN report E34050) posted by TSS on September 1, 2004 at 11:14 am:
######## Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy #########Between 1998 and August 2001, 99 samples were analyzed under this directive.
This is a pitifilly small number, considering that 45 million pounds of
beef paste was
produced by AMR systems in just 1998.57 Out of these 99 samples, nine
were positive
for CNS tissue, and peripheral nerve tissue was found in other samples
as well.
Independent testing also indicates that USDA's directive has not been fully
effective. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association hired Glenn
Schmidt, a meat
scientist from Colorado State University, to test meat at eight major
AMR plants.
Although Schmidt did not give CSPI his test results, he told us that he
is finding spinal
cord in some of his samples.58
This evidence demonstrates that FSIS's directive is not sufficient to
protect
consumers if BSE is present in or spreads to U.S. cattle. The best way
to ensure that
AMR meat is free of CNS tissue is to prohibit the use of the spinal
columns and neck
bones in the AMR systems... "AMR Lab Reports: Pathology Report, completed 6/3/97 by Scott Hafher,
D.V.M., M.S. Diplomate, A.C.V.P.
Internal Lab No. A39557, Serial No. 728124; Pathology Report, completed
8/4/97 by S. Mark Hall, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Internal Lab No. A40179, Serial No. 104017 and USDA FSIS Process
Deficiency Record No. 309-97, 8/14/97;
Pathology Report, completed by Scott Haher, D.V.M., M.S. Diplomate,
A.C.V.P., Internal Lab No. A40579, Serial
No. 108899.
56AMRLab Reports: Pathology Specimen Submission by John A. Best, Jr.,
D.V.M. on 4/17/97, letter to USDA-
FSIS-Eastern Lab from John A. Best, Jr., D.V.M. dated 4/16/97, and
Pathology Report completed 4/25/97 by Mary T.
Sutton, D.V.M., M.S., Internal Lab No. A38869, Serial No. 075297;
Domestic Chemical Laboratory Report by R.
Tmdeau, D.V.M and Pathology Report completed 6110197 by S. Mark Hall,
D.V.M., Ph.D., Internal Lab No. A39706,
Serial No. 900755; Pathology Specimen Submission for sample taken on
8/8/97 and Pathology Report completed
8/15/97 by Scott Hafher, D.V.M., M.S. Diplomate, A.C.V.P., Internal Lab
No. A40580, Serial No. 108900.
57Sparks Report, p. 10. snip... IV. Conclusion
While BSE has never been found in U.S. cattle herds, the recent
discovery that
BSE is much more widespread in Europe than previously thought makes
clear that
precautionary measures are needed to prevent meat products contaminated
with infective
tissue from ever posing a serious health threat. Unfortunately, the
existing regulatory
system does not minimize that threat.
USDA should act immediately to eliminate meat containing spinal cord and
other
potentially infective material from the school lunch program and other
federal feeding
programs. Second, USDA should develop and enforce regulations that ban
potentially
infective tissues from the human food supply, including meat produced by
the MSM and
AMR systems. CSPI and the co-signers to this petition urge the agency to
take that step
without further delay, before the first "mad cow" is discovered in the
U.S. Protecting the
human food supply after BSE is discovered would be like locking the barn
door after the
cows have already left. (29 pages...TSS) http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Frame/FrameRedirect.asp?main=/oppde/rdad/frpubs/03-038if/cspi.pdf In the matter of:
NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
ANIMAL PRODUCTION FOOD SAFETY
Grand Ballroom, A-C, E and F
Hyatt Regency
One St. Louis Union Station
St. Louis, Missouri
Wednesday,
September 6, 2000
The conference was convened at 8:00 a.m. snip... And one of the criticisms they have received is
7 that, although they have a central authority, they have no
8 direct enforcement authority. And that involves the
9 individual member countries of the European Union. And that
10 is somewhat unsettling to the public.
11 Through cooperation, though, we have had some
12 very successful programs to prevent food safety outbreaks
13 that we've seen in other places. The BSE prevention program
14 is an example of this.
15 And in this program, we work heavily with our
16 state partners in getting out there and inspecting all the
17 rendering facilities, all of the protein blenders and
18 distributors, all of the commercial feed mills, and many on-
19 farm operations, as well, to make sure that they were in
20 compliance with our new feed laws that prohibited the
21 feeding of mammalian proteins back to ruminants.
22 And in the first go-round we decided that this
23 would be an educational. If we found violations of the
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1 regulation, we would first try and take an educational
2 approach to get people into compliance, then come back on
3 the second go-round and determine whether or not that had
4 been effective.
5 And in most cases, it has been effective in
6 bringing people into compliance merely through educational
7 efforts. snip... Lately TSE's have been receiving a great deal of
11 media attention. I won't talk about Vermont today. These
12 degenerative neurological diseases, which include scrapie
13 and bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or Mad Cow Disease,
14 are characterized by very long incubation periods and 100
15 percent mortality.
16 In Great Britain, BSE has been linked to the
17 deaths of at least 48 people from New Variant Kreutzfeld-
18 Jacov disease and has caused over $6 billion damage to the
19 livestock industry.
20 Right now in Vermont our agency is working hard
21 to acquire the last two flocks of three after four animals
22 were confirmed positive for TSE.
23 Unfortunately, when we did our Western Blood
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1 analysis, Western Blood indicated it wasn't quite scrapie,
2 and it wasn't quite BSE.
http://www.vegsource.com/talk/madcow/messages/92691.html
3 If it was just scrapie, we would have handled it
4 strictly as an animal disease, but we're seizing the flocks
5 to make sure that nothing gets into the human food chain.
6 Our agency also works with ARS to learn more
7 about TSE so we can enhance current diagnostics and develop
8 new diagnostics for live animals.
9 Since the mid-'90s, when Mad Cow Disease came
10 onto the national scene, we have been performing
11 surveillance and exclusion activities for TSE's.
12 Our scientists have trained employees of state
13 labs across the country in diagnosing these diseases, and we
14 have provided samples from high risk or affected flocks to
15 research scientists.
16 We have also helped researchers determine if
17 certain tests are practical or if they detect a certain
18 percentage of cases.
19 NVSL, along with our Centers for Epidemiology and
20 Animal Health, which I will talk more about shortly, have
21 played an instrumental part in testing two experimental
22 diagnostic procedures that may become standard soon, the
23 third eyelid test used for diagnosing scrapie, and the
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1 capillary electrophoresis test used in diagnosing BSE.
2 By providing such support to ARS researchers, we
3 are helping to enhance testing and diagnostic methods. We
4 believe this will lead to healthier animals and ultimately a
5 safer food supply.
6 In addition to the work we do with TSE's, NVSL
7 has also cooperated with researchers studying salmonella in
8 poultry.......... snip If you've heard of the acronyms VRE or MRSA, they
17 stand for Vancomycin-resistant enterococcus and Methicillin-
18 resistant staph aureus.
19 In some of these cases, these bacteria are
20 resistant to almost every single antimicrobial we have. So
21 it's almost returning back to a pre-antibiotic era where, if
22 you do come down with that in a bacteremia, the only way to
23 survive is to pray.{oh hell, i can vouch for that too MRSA...TSS)
{http://www.prwatch.org/forum/showthread.php?t=4599}
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Frame/FrameRedirect.asp?main=/oppde/animalprod/activities/september%206.pdf
TSS Terry S. Singeltary Sr. wrote: ######## Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
#########
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