THE FUTURE AND MAD COWS

The United States now joins a host of other countries who have identified a mad cow in their herd population. One thing is for sure. The beef business has changed and the mad cow event will foreshadow many changes that will impact how all beef is produced in this country.  The disappointing aspect of the discovery of a mad cow is the wide gulf between the economic damage and the risk to beef eaters. Statisticians and epidemiologist judge the risk to be almost imperceptible to beef consumers yet the hysteria of the disease continues and the economic impact devastates.  Most people continue to believe BSE is contagious and can be passed from one cow to another and from beef muscle to humans.

The market signals of 2003 were historically high prices reflecting continuing growth in demand for beef products. After a 8 year decline in cattle numbers, 2004 was to be a year of rebuilding the herd in response to newly won consumer demand. That will now change and the expansion of the herd will be delayed once again.

The future will surely see the following developments:

• EDUCATION. It will be the responsibility of the beef industry, the government and the media to educate beef consumers about the disease and the risks. If more mad cows are discovered then it would be sad to find each event surrounded by the same media hype.

• MANDATORY IDENTIFICATION FOR ALL CATTLE. No step is more important to confidence building than individual animal identification which will allow immediate traceback to the identified animal and its origin and movements. DONE

• DOWNER BAN. All non-ambulatory animals should not be allowed to enter the food chain. Those animals should be designated for non-edible rendering. DONE

• TESTING.  The number of tests will likely increase. Much more important will be the timing of tests on tissue samples sent to the lab.  The lag time between slaughter and test results should be narrowed in order to prevent any threat of contaminated meat entering the beef chain. Tests should be performed the day the tissue arrives at the lab.  It is doubtful if testing every animal is necessary or reasonable. Animals under 30 months of age have not been known to host the disease. DONE

USDA HAS NOW ANNOUNCED THE FOLLOWING REGULATORY CHANGES

·         Effective immediately, all downed animals are banned from the human food supply

·         Effective immediately, carcasses from all animals tested for BSE will be held pending receipt of test results. USDA will move to use of a rapid test to screen for BSE in tested animals with results that can be available within 36 hours. If a rapid test finds a positive, the samples must then be sent for a confirmatory test such as the current immunohistochemistry test used by USDA.

·         USDA will implement new regulations which will become effective upon publication. These new regulations will result in the following:

o        Specified Risk Material (SRM) from cattle over 30 months of age will be banned from entering the human food chain. The list of SRM will be consistent with the SRM specified by Canada following its finding of a case of BSE in May 2003.

o        The small intestine will be removed from all cattle and banned from the human food chain.

o        The rules for Advanced Meat Recovery will be broadened and will ensure that central nervous system tissue and dorsal root ganglia (potentially infective nerve tissue) will not be present in human food.

o        The use of air-injection stunning devices for cattle slaughter will be prohibited.

·         USDA will aggressively work to accelerate the development of a national animal identification system

·         USDA will appoint an international team of experts to review its investigation of this case and to review U.S. systems for food safety. This will be similar to the international team appointed by Canada and, indeed, members of the Canadian team will serve on the U.S. team.