Originally published July 21 2005
British tests show U.S. steer had mad cow disease
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A U.S.-born steer tested positive for mad cow in a British laboratory and the Food and Drug Administration says the fact the bovine didn't reach the U.S. food supply shows safeguards are working, but critics say the FDA is just keeping their fingers crossed that mad cow infected meat doesn't reach Americans.
"Since the United States does not have a mandatory animal tracking system, USDA's strategy is basically to cross its fingers and hope that beef from a BSE-infected animal doesn't end up on Americans' dinner plates," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, Food Safety Director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).
Government officials say the system is working properly to prevent the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease.
Our safeguards are working exactly as they should," U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns told a news conference.
But DeWaal said that in fact the USDA has done very little to step up surveillance of the American beef supply and, in particular, is not moving quickly enough to adopt mandatory tracking of each animal in the system.
Johanns put national animal identification on a slow boat and delayed implementation (of mandatory animal tracking) until 2009," she said.
Earlier this week, CU formally petitioned Johanns asking that the USDA test all cattle over 20 months of age at slaughter and adopt the most accurate and sensitive "Western blot" test as part of its testing protocol in suspected mad cow cases.
Johanns said the department is investigating where the animal with BSE originally came from.
He said he has directed USDA scientists to develop a new protocol to deal with "inconclusive" screening tests.
The infected animal had tested "inconclusive" in at least one test before follow-up testing found evidence of infection.
The previous U.S. confirmed case of mad cow disease was found in December 2003 in a Washington state dairy cow.
That discovery halted billions of dollars worth of American beef exports and raised questions about the safety of the U.S. food supply.
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