MAD COW BACKGROUND

 

 

MAD COW IDENTIFIED IN WASHINGTON STATE

The threat of BSE in this country hung like a pall over the industry for years. Rumors and suspicions roiled the markets and captured headlines with each new whisper of the disease. It was always considered likely to happen sometime and it was probably a blessing to happen now. It is necessary for both the public and the industry to deal rationally with the issue and the management of this event will allow future events to suffer less from emotional hysteria. 

BSE probably exists sporadically in nature and in any cattle population.  This means one in several millions of cattle are randomly infected with the disease without cause. This is the case in humans with the human form of mad cow called Creutzfeld-Jakob [CJD]disease.  The disease exists randomly and infrequently in our human population in one in several million people.  It grows when misshapen proteins called prions replicated in a folding behavior causing the brain to turn to sponge like matter. It is this image that causes the emotional reaction in the public to the disease.

It is possible a BSE animal has previously existed in the U.S. herd and was undetected.  Because of stringent and well observed precautions by the industry, risks to the public or other cattle has virtually been eliminated. BSE is not an infectious disease. The government and a special task force of veterinarians test all suspect animals. The prime method for transmission to other animals is the feeding of rendered tissues back to other animals and that practice has been banned since 1997.  All spinal and brain tissues from BSE suspects are removed from the human food chain.

Mad cow is a animal health issue and not a human health issue in this country. No known case of new variant CJD, the human form of mad cow, has been identified in this country.

In Britain 200,000 cattle were infected with BSE and brain tissue from infected cows was regularly sold as a delicacy in restaurants and stores.  The result was the possible transmission of the disease to 150 humans in a form of new variant CJD over the past 15 years with the occurrences declining in recent years. Six people are known to have been infected elsewhere in the world.  All died from the disease.

In sheep a brain wasting disease called scrapie has existed for 200 years. In this country 350 cases of scrapie were reported last year and not one captured a headline. Experts are attempting to breed the disease out of sheep through a selective process of breeding only those sheep having DNA resistant to the disease. Both elk and deer have been reported with the disease.

It is important in the U.S. to demystify both the disease and the threat to human health. The issue has become so emotionally charged with images of cows falling down and talk of holes in the brain, that fear, rather than reason, becomes the driver in responses to a mad cow. The USDA properly characterized the reality of identifying one mad cow by saying "while unfortunate, the discovery poses no additional risks to beef consumers".  Secretary Veneman re-emphasized the point when she announced she would having beef for Christmas dinner. 

A well designed surveillance program for BSE has been in place since 1990.  Last year over 20,000 cattle were tested from a pool of animals whose behavior suggested the disease.  This number was three times the number tested in 2002 probably a result of the identification of a mad cow in Canada earlier this year.

A recent Harvard study forecasted the likelihood of a discovery of a mad cow but observed that because of protective measures put in place by USDA, there appeared little risk to human health or contamination of the cattle herd.  George Gray, executive director of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health, said: "While this animal is cause for concern, to me it does not in and of itself raise a major alarm for animal and human health."

The fallout to the livestock markets will be most observable result.  The largest purchasers of U.S. beef, Japan, Mexico and Korea, announced bans on the import of American beef and were joined by most of the remaining trading partners of the U.S. beef industry. Our export markets represent 10% of our beef sales.

The Canadian mad cow provides some prospective.  Domestic consumption actually went up after the mad cow.  Canada depends on foreign markets including the U.S. for 30% of the market for its beef. Canadian exports to the United States and Japan were halted resulting in a rapid and dramatic crash of the Canadian cattle markets.

USDA has long held a plan in place for the discovery of a mad cow.  Apart from reassuring American consumers, the plan is a very comprehensive approach and rapid response to issues surrounding the animal. These include isolating both the current herd and any other herds associated with this animal. It also includes trace forward of any meat products and recalls of any beef products linked to this animal. There are no known risks from eating beef muscle from an infected animal.

A more difficult task for USDA will be a compensation program for the thousands of beef producers in this country who will be affected by the event.  The economic damage will be hard to forecast but government help was necessary in both Britain and Canada for producers devastated by the effects of the disease.

The discovery of a mad cow in this country will likely improve our procedures managing the national herd.  Likely outcomes:

The long term impact will be favorable both to the consumers and beef producers.  Consumers of beef products will slowly recognize the discovery of one mad cow creates little risk to their beef eating habits. Beef producers will recognize the importance of constant vigilance in protecting the herd from disease or contamination in the case of the discovery of an isolated animal.