Rense.com Cattle Mutilations Explained? End Of The Beef Industry? By Jeff Rense 12-3-2

The following discussion is meant to open the door to new research and earnest 'official' scientific scrutiny.

CJD, sCJD, nvVJD, vCJD, CWD Mad Deer Disease, BSE Mad Cow Disease, TSE, Alzheimer's and so on are all names of the SAME basic 100% fatal disease conditions caused by 'misfolded proteins' known as prions.

After studying these diseases and their frightening progress over the years, it is now clear they are all directly related to one another. These misfolded proteins seat themselves in the host brain and immediately begin to turn it into hole-filled sponge-like material.

The only appreciable difference between prions seems to be which part of the brain is turned to mush.

In the only published research of its type, the brains of approximately 65 Alzheimer's victims were analyzed. About 15 of the brains showed death by 'CJD'... classic prion disease...and not what is called 'Alzheimer's' Disease.

The point: if about 25% of Alzheimer's deaths were caused by CJD, where is it coming from?? Of course, there has never been a single, solitary case of Mad Cow disease here in the US...so cow meat couldn't possibly be the source...

What of Alzheimer's itself? What is at work destroying the brain? Prions? YES. Alzheimer's is marked by an accumulation of amyloid, an abnormally folded protein which forms fibrils. Fibrils are abnormal strings of proteins clumped together; the fibrils accumulate because they are difficult for the body's natural defenses to remove.

Here are two items from an excellent overview of prion diseases at: http://www.biology.hawaii.edu/Bio406/files/BIO406_lec_04.PDF

"Degenerative diseases of the nervous system associated with amyloid amyloid formation are frequently caused by caused by misfolded peptides (proteins)."

Neuronal degeneration associated with amyloid plaque formation:

* Alzheimer's disease

* Prion diseases

Indestructible Prions

These 'rogue' proteins - prions - are virtually indestructible. Hundreds scientific reports, studies and papers describe how prions cannot be frozen to death, do not respond to ANY antibiotics or chemical treatments and withstand temperatures of approximately 1000 degrees F.

Autoclaves, upon which medicine and dentistry rely to sterilize all reusable invasive instruments, operate at around 250 degrees...far too low to even approach destroying these killer proteins - which one leading and extremely perplexed British scientist recently described, only half in jest, as not being from this planet. There may be more truth to his offhand remark than he realized.

Mutilations And Monitoring

CJD/BSE prions are clearly being spread throughout the environment. We are now going to state, with reasonable conviction, that prions are linked to the mystery of widespread cattle, horse and many other types of animal mutilations which have been a near constant phenomenon since the late 1960's.

Is 'someone' monitoring the spread of prions in our gravely-declining environment by taking tissue samples from these animals? I now believe that to likely be at least part of the answer.

We do know that human tonsils, when biopsied, have been found to contain prions in infected patients. Further, a Nobel Laureate has just announced that prions have also now been found in the MUSCLE tissue of infected mice...but in lower concentrations than brain tissue. (see story below). How many prions does it take to become infected?

Human Pharmaceuticals Found In Some Mutilated Cattle

Most mutilated cattle, horses, etc, evidence the same precise wounds to the head, reproductive and rectal areas. There are always organs missing, most often the eyes, tongue and the rectum. As is well-known, the wounds aren't 'cuts' but are laser-like 'incisions' done at estimated temperatures of close to 400 degrees F. There is never blood at the incision sites or much, if any remaining in the corpse. It is also reported that back muscles of the animals often show internal bleeding...indicative of something that occurred from above them. Many of the dead animals also show signs of having been dropped to the ground...with broken bones and horns shoved deeply into the soil.

Researcher and former police officer Ted Oliphant visited this program on several occasions a number of years ago. He revealed in detail how, during his extensive cattle mutilation investigations in Alabama beginning in 1992, traces of human pharmaceuticals such as anti-coagulants and pain killers were found in some of the mutilated cattle. That would suggest humans were involved in SOME of the Alabama cases.

If humans were involved in some of the mutilations, they removed for apparent testing the same basic tissues and organs that are universally-reported to be taken during these mysterious cases.

But what about the rest of the mutilations in North and South America and elsewhere...going back nearly four decades... and including the very recent deaths of scores of cattle, horses, llamas and wild boar, etc, in Argentina? Many of those cases were accompanied by unambiguous sightings of UFOs by dozens of eyewitnesses.

And how about human mutilations? In one South American case - documented with photos and complete autopsy - an adult male was found in Brazil in September, 1988, will all the hallmark signs of classic cattle mutilation. Brazilian police reported there were at least a dozen other similar unsolved human mutilation deaths at that time.

A logical conclusion to entertain might be that both ET 'visitors' and humans are monitoring the spread of prions now. It is a reasonable guess that clandestine tissue monitoring might also going on at slaughterhouses around the US.

Again: How many prions does it take to become infected?

No More Fully-Sterile Invasive Medical/Dental Instruments

We DO know that in the ONLY study ever done (or released to the public...) on invasive, reusable medical (tonsillectomy) instruments in the UK, over 50% of the instruments were found to be contaminated with deadly prions AFTER REPEATED STERILIZATIONS.

That particularly 'bad news' story disappeared VERY quickly from the UK mass media.

About the time the tonsillectomy instrument story was published, a new UK study was announced that thousands of tonsils taken from UK children and young people would be tested for prions.

To our knowledge, RESULTS of that study WERE NEVER MADE PUBLIC.

Beside the mystery tonsil tests, and tests on human brains of the deceased, no prion tests of any other human tissues have been noted in the media or mentioned in scientific reports. No prion tests of human tongues, rectal tissues, eyes, or any internal organs.

Another news story also appeared proposing that a routine biopsy of tonsil tissues in humans might be the best and quickest way to screen for prion disease. That story, too, came by once...and then vanished.

Prions, Lies And Death

Note - the first deer deaths from CWD occurred in an isolated heard in the US in the mid-1960's...something few recall. Note also, that the first 'official' animal mutilation befell 'Skippy' the horse in Colorado in the late 1967 and there have been over 10,000 reported cattle mutilations since then.

And what about those with HIV/AIDS? It is a fact that 50% of those who become HIV positive show almost immediate signs of compromised brain activity...commonly-called 'AIDS dementia'. Late stage AIDS is almost invariably marked with massive dementia. Is there a correlation between prion disease and the dementia in AIDS patients?

And remember all the lies...for years...from the British government about Mad Cow and the risks to humans? The British government finally, formally apologized to its people but only after over 100 had died from the 'human form' of mad cow prion disease. And how many Britons became infected because of those lies and are incubating prions right now but are not yet showing symptoms? Is this why the results of the tonsil biopsy tests were never, to our knowledge, released to the public?

Remember how the British officials first promised there was no danger from eating beef...but that the public should simply not eat beef brains? Then the government said the consumer should avoid both brain AND spinal tissues. And then, at long last, the British government banned ALL beef 'on the bone'. That simple progression of common sense took years to occur.

Meanwhile, about four years ago, the British government ordered all optometrists and other professionals fitting patients for contact lenses to immediately STOP USING REUSABLE CONTACT LENSES for fitting in patients' eyes. Why do you suppose that happened?

And then there was the cosmetic surgery clinic which had to notify a number of successive patients that an earlier patient turned out to have CJD and that they all might be infected with fatal prion disease.

Also, if you remember, there were patients at a birthing hospital in the UK who had to be told they might have contracted mad cow disease after a patient who had C section died from the disease. Not much information on that situation was forthcoming either. It came out once and then...gone! Never to be followed up. We wonder how many of those women and their babies contracted the disease. We wonder if the baby of the mad cow deceased mother contracted it as well.

And in that we now know prions are also found in muscle tissue - in addition to brain and spinal tissues - how can we RULE OUT the presence of these TINY killer proteins - or the agent that causes them to misfold - in the blood supply? Answer: we cannot.

"Everyone Should Be Tested"

And now comes a formal call by Dr. Stanley Pruisner that EVERYONE in

Britain be tested for prion disease and infectivity.

Here is that story: Top Nobel Scientist Wants ALL Britons Tested For CJD Nobel Laureate Warns Of Prions Found In Animal Muscle How Many Prions Does It Take To Become Infected? By Richard Woodman 12-2-2

LONDON (Reuters Health) - The scientist who won the Nobel prize for discovering prions, the abnormal proteins implicated in mad cow disease, has called for all Britons to be tested for the deadly brain ailment after finding surprisingly high prion levels in the muscles of mice infected with a similar illness, British newspapers reported Sunday.

Professor Stanley Prusiner of the University of California, San Francisco, told the Independent that the finding raised the "obvious worry" that cows and sheep could be similarly affected. Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), has been linked to a similar illness in humans who ate contaminated meat. Sheep can carry a related illness called scrapie.

Until now, levels of prions in infected cow and sheep meat and muscle tissue were always believed to be low enough not to pose a significant risk of transmission and the emphasis was to remove the brain and spinal cord, which harbor much higher levels.

However, according to the newspaper, new tests being pioneered at the University of California are far more sensitive and have discovered higher concentrations of prions in muscle than have previously been found.

While describing the findings as significant, Prusiner stressed that the levels are still 100-fold less than those found in brains.

He called for testing of everyone in Britain to establish the true extent of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), which has killed 117 people since 1995.

"A million cattle infected with BSE entered the British food chain so almost everyone in the country will have been exposed to the infectious prion proteins that cause variant CJD. Every Briton should be tested so that if they are developing the disease it can be spotted before symptoms appear," he told the Sunday Times.

Prusiner was in Britain to discuss research into the disease.

Last week scientists at University College London reported that research on mice suggested BSE caused the "sporadic" strain of CJD, as well as variant CJD, which, if confirmed, could significantly increase the number of potential victims. 

_____

From Patricia Doyle, PhD

dr_p_doyle@hotmail.com

12-3-2

Jeff - This is AMAZING! Simply amazing. When Dr. Pruisner, foremost Prionologist in the WORLD, suggests all Britons get tested for prion disease, you KNOW we have a crisis situation. I think people in the US need to be tested as well. It is not simply a matter of people eating deer meat or CWD infected meat. Many of these people who ate Deer, Elk or Moose in the US and potentially-infected, could have exposed OTHERS via blood donation or sexual contact, etc. When such a powerful main stream scientist sounds the warning regarding prion disease, this indicates much more of a problem then the CDC, the government, or anyone ever realized...or admitted. Combine this to the UK scientist who likened prion to 'alien' pathogen and an alarm should sound in the minds of all reasonable, rational people. Anyone who eats MEAT, or meat additive products, is playing Russian Roulette.

_____

Mad Deer, Elk, Moose...And How Many Other Animals?

At Rense.com, I have been carefully tracking the current, exploding,100% deadly CWD Mad Deer prion epidemic as it races across the US. Latest reports show it to be in at least 14 states and Canada. Tens of thousands of deer and elk heads have been brought to storage sites and locations to be sawn open and the brains to be checked for CWD prion infection.

Efforts announced by at least two states to go into a large designated areas where CWD deer have been found and to shoot all the deer to death to 'stop' the spread of CWD/Mad Deer disease are absurd.

No one knows exactly how Mad Deer/CWD prions are being spread through the deer population. The best guess is saliva and body fluids...BUT no one has - or can - rule out aerosolized transmission. No one knows how CWD found its way into farmed, isolated elk herds in the US and Canada, either.

There was one rather bizarre government explanation a few years ago which attempted to explain the outbreak of CWD in deer as deriving directly from foraging deer on open cattle ranches becoming infected from EATING CATTLE FEED which was dumped in the fields for the cattle, especially during the winter months.

Amazingly, the public bought this lame excuse with nary a whimper. NO ONE bothered to ask about the CATTLE!

Of course, there is no Mad Cow/BSE in the U.S. according to the Beef and Dairy Industries and the USDA. But just for speculation, let's assume there were a number of cases of mad cow discovered here in the US, what do you suppose would happen to the mega-billion dollar beef and dairy industries? Hint: remember what happened in Great Britain. Howard Lyman (madcowboy.com) regularly speculates on the issue of possible BSE in US cattle. For speaking his piece, he was named in a major lawsuit with Oprah by the beef industry. Howard and Oprah prevailed.

Keep in mind the incubation period for Mad Cow/BSE can be 5 years and longer... maybe even up to 20 years. Here in the US, beef cattle are slaughtered long before their fifth birthdays. Another note to remember: so-called 'downer cattle' - thousands and thousands of sick and dying animals...are routinely sent to slaughter. And no effort is made to check for BSE.

Back to the catastrophic slaughter of animals in the UK during the height of the Mad Cow disaster. How did the Brits get rid of the prions in the infected animal cadavers? They either buried the bodies in vast pits or they burned them in huge pyres. The corpses in the pits have largely all decomposed by now. Many express little doubt prions have made their way into nearby water tables, streams and rivers. In the case of the massive burning of corpses, there is little doubt prions were carried off into the environment in the mountains of smoke and vapors rising from the flames and fire.

What happens to road kill...from rabid raccoons to possibly CWD deer and scores of other animal types? Answer: they are picked up and usually taken to rendering plants, along with millions of bodies of pet cats and dogs, to be made into PET FOOD and commercial and garden fertilizer products. Did you know many veterinarians report increased numbers of dementia-like illnesses in dogs and cats?

Back to the estimated 200,000 deer and elk heads now - or soon to be - sitting in storage waiting to be sawed into to extract the brains for analysis. What will the government agencies do with all of these heads? Answer: they will probably burn them in crematories...and, yes, expel a certain amount of prions into the environment with each and every CWD positive head or brain they immolate.

_____

From Patricia Doyle, PhD

12-3-2

Jeff - I have to wonder if we are seeing prion disease in fish and water animals, reptiles. Remember, the reptiles that died in a 4-year span in Florida showed 'neurological symptoms.' This may be prion infection and NOT WNV. The research needs to be ongoing to find out what killed or is killing HUNDREDS of alligators. So, are other forms of life prone to prion infection? I believe the answer is YES. What about the Brant geese? We never found out what killed all of those thousands of Brant Geese last November and January. They died of symptoms which sounded very much like prion disease. If, as most of us believe, mutated prions have entered the environment, they may also be in our water and even in the air thanks to crematories. As you mentioned, the funeral crematorium could be sending out mutant prions. Birds pass over and voila. People living adjacent or even driving by with the windows done would potentially be exposed. So far, no one is testing to find out how many prions are sent skyward when burning a CJD corpse...

_____

And what about human cadavers of the people who die from 'Alzheimer's' or those who are actually diagnosed with CJD and then die?

Did you know brain biopsies are refused to patients suspected of having CJD? Did you know dozens of brain surgery patients have sued a major hospital because a prior patient was found to have had CJD and that hospital had to warn all successive patients that they may now have CJD, too? -- Because the hospital knows autoclaving reusable, invasive surgical instruments cannot sterilize them of prions.

Dentists are perhaps the most adamant about refusing to face the fact that THEIR surgical/invasive/reusable instruments might also NOT be sterilizable from prion contamination. Want to see an unhappy dentist? Take this material into the office and ask him or her to read through it. You'll get the standard line: "If there was a problem, the ADA would notify us immediately." Or, "Until they change the sterilization protocols, we will stay with the official guidelines." And if you don't like it, feel free to find another dentist...

For more than the past four years, I have been demanding a complete cessation of the reuse of invasive surgical and dental instruments. This should be considered a national priority.

Here is a recent note to Dr. Patricia Doyle, PhD and her response:

From: jr@rense.com

To: Patricia Doyle, PhD

dr_p_doyle@hotmail.com

Date: Sun, 1 Dec 2002

It is well past time we need to begin putting all of these prion diseases in the same 100% FATAL basket and stop labeling them differently...CJD, BSE, CWD, etc. This is a deception and it must end.

As we know, prions are essentially indestructible. They are a POTENTIAL mechanism by which much of the world population, human and animal, could be reduced. One of the top UK scientists said prions seem like an 'ALIEN DISEASE' recently.

From Patricia Doyle, PhD

dr_p_doyle@hotmail.com

Date: Mon, 02 Dec 2002

Hello, Jeff - I totally agree with you on the fact that prion disease is the same disease, nuances of each just affect different parts of the brain. Whether it affects or "spongifies" the cerebellum, brain stem or cebral cortex differentiates the name. The fact that the CDC and others don't recognize it makes no difference -- the disease mechanism factor is the same: the prion.

I look at it like computer "programming." Someone may have figured out how to "program" a prion or protein to misfold, and learned how that 'rogue' protein will affect the brain. That is a pretty tall order, even for our current advances in biotechnology...but for an alien culture, it could be child's play.

Jeff, do you know if there has ever been any research on those who have been abducted? I would look for changes in spinal fluid and brain tissue. I am wondering what percent of those who claim abduction, and I believe that most are telling the truth about being abducted, have brain and spinal nuance changes. What a great research project that would make.

Quite possibly, programming prion mutation, is, as the British researcher put it, is 'alien.' I doubt if this type of research will go foward in the prion community as most, like Dr. Fred Cohen of UCSF, call those of us with such opinions 'uncredible.' I have written to him on several occassions and was not given much consideration or even professional courtesy.

I do believe, and so mentioned on your program, that cattle/animal mutilations might have some bearing on the current prion disease outbreaks which are of a mass epidemic now in the North

American deer and elk populations.

Another thing I am wondering is if the chemtrails have any bearing on the spread. I wonder if any of the chemtrail investigators have tested for prion or synthetic proteins or proteins of any form in the air after heavy spraying has occurred? Just one of many possibilities.

Perhaps, "someone" either of this earth - or not - has decided to wipe out industralized first world countries? Look at those coming foward with this disease, US, UK, Europe, Japan, Australia. I don't see cases, yet, in Africa, or Latin America. Of course, they already have raging HIV/AIDS epidemics. So, we have to then ask, why?

There have been several large mutilation cases now in South and Central amercia, and it will be interesting to note if any of those countries begin to have mad cow, mad deer, mad anything disease.

Humans are very close to making this planet unlivable via pollution and raping of natural resources. Is this the environment fighting back?

Are there those forces or entities from other universes who want to void the planet Earth?

One sure way to find out if prion disease is connected with alien abductions of humans and cattle mutilations is to study the abductiees and their families for the next 20+ years. Also, one must test animals in the areas of mutilations.

It is so obvious that these "alien prions" are already in our food supply. How anyone can continue to eat meat, either deer meat or butcher meat, is beyond me.

It would also be advisable to monitor mad animal/mad people disease in areas of heavy chemtrail activity. I do not subscribe to the idea that chemtrails are the work of the Govt. trying to immunize people against biowar diseases. Immunization could not be successful administered by falling chemtrails. Too many variables. Heat, sunlight, wind dispersals, one's duration in the outdoors etc etc. I think they are more then weather control. I think it is very sinister and testing of chemtrail materials needs to include protein identification.

Well, this is just my two cents worth. I agree with you that prion disease is ONE disease (depending on programming) that affects different parts of the brain. There might even be some unidentified human factor that predisposes one to which part of the brain would spongify.

You are the only voice that has called attention to prion disease and recognized it for what it is, an epidemic that will eventually kill millions if not all on the planet.

Patty

And Another Note From Dr. Doyle

Hello, Jeff - Yes, these are all things that the CDC and others did not consider, or if they did, they did not want the information made public. Take this one step further, what about the animal crematories for Plum Island, Ames Iowa, and Ft. Detrick, etc.?

We know that there were 375 Fresian sheep from Vermont that were carrying nvTSE. Most were sent to APHIS in Newberg at Stewart Airbase to the quarantine center for "slaughter" and incineration. 21 went to Plum Island. Doubtful that any of the 21 have survived. So, where do Plum Island specimens go? The Plum will NOT answer that question clearly. Ms. Sally Hays does a two-step around that one.

At one point in time, I think it was a year or two ago, carcasses and exposed barrals were seen coming out of the pits on Plum Island. The PR people said that this was a temporary situation as the burial and dump sites were being exhumed and taken off the island. So, where does all of this red hot stuff go?

Jeff, I stated last month on your program that we have not yet begun to hear about CWD. Very very soon, we will find out that other species of animals have a prionlike disease. We have a ticking timebomb here and we are counting down to zero.

If you remember I stated on the program that I felt that Chronic Wasting Disease and nvBSE showed up about the same time that cattle mutilations became frequent. Are the cattle mutilations actually a test, searching for prions? or are they more sinister? Has "someone" been using animal tissue to develop prion disease.

It would be interesting if someone were to research the numbers of cases of CJD, sCJD, GSS, Alzheimer Disease, etc in humans around funeral and animal crematoriums. Also, it would be interesting to study the numbers of cases of BSE, nvTSE in the UK and Europe in relation to nearby crematoriums. I wonder if the numbers are highest near these places?

Finding numbers of human cases will be difficult as Alzheimer cases, I believe, are not reportable to the CDC. Still, it would be a great study and one that needs to be commenced.

Patty

Patricia A. Doyle, PhD

Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message board at:

http://www.clickitnews.com/emergingdiseases/index.shtml

So, there you have the latest on the prion threat. For further research and data,

please visit the Mad Cow/CJD DataPage on the left side of the Rense.com home page.

-- Jeff Rense

12-3-2

Comment

From Diane Harvey

merak@sedona.net

12-4-2

Dear Jeff and Patty:

This is a riveting piece of work.You are performing an incredibly valuable service in bringing this catastrophe to the attention of people who would otherwise be left in the dark. Many of us who have been following this story through your efforts over the years have long thought along these same general lines as well, in regard to the separate names for prion reactions being deliberately misleading. Yet without your strict regular accountings, I suspect that most of us would retain only a very hazy understanding of how this terrible scourge is unfolding. It would certainly not be at all surprising if the vast majority of us harbor these deadly time-bombs by now, through one means or another.

If I may, for what it's worth, I'd like to add a comment to the concept of there being a chemtrail connection in this mess. Certainly, the world is so frankly bizarre right now that even the most skeptical person is learning to think twice before dismissing any possibility. But based on all that we have seen in the way of research, I still think that chemtrails show the earmarks of being an all-too-stupidly-human operation. I do not discount the presence of aliens on this planet in the least. It is too illogical to suppose that so many reasonable and normal people would suddenly be taken with the peculiar desire to fabricate such abysmal stories as we read and hear about. And no one untampered with by such creatures, either directly or by their astonishingly successful public relations campaign, could possibly doubt their hideously parasitical nature. An alien species which would perpetrate such abominable abuses of human free will speaks loudly and clearly for itself through its own actions, despite all sophisticated efforts at disguise. It is an enormous tragedy that so many become so confused, and can no longer see the blazingly obvious in this slow stealthy nightmare. But then, that so many do not see what any human retaining free will can see is the entire point of what the Grays are doing here.

Yet chemtrails are delivered by ordinary aircraft, and there is sufficient information available to strongly suggest that there are several overweeningly egotistical human purposes potentially at work here. It's true that no one knows for sure exactly what they are doing, except the criminally ignorant and criminally secretive authorities themselves. But this operation is one which leads seamlessly from many previous and lesser versions of similar insanities. There is a great deal of human precedent for such a monstrous effort, and plenty of the usual mad-scientist variety of scientific research to back it up. It is painful to recall that science was originally the noble act of tracing the subtle workings of cause and effect in nature. And that now it consists mainly of murderously vain human attempts to override those very same laws of cause and effect.

Chemtrails still look to me, after all this time, to be a disastrous attempt to alter the basic chemistry of the atmosphere in order to make it "serve" new forms of Prize Idiot Human technology. Whether the supposed primary goal is an ozone-mitigation folly, the implementation of incalculably dangerous new weapons, new communications systems, or a mixture of all of these and more- we can only guess, but we don't know for sure. What we do know is that the chemfogs we breathe are poisonous, and that a number of cowardly humans in responsible positions know this, and are lying about it straight to our faces.

My guess would be that cattle mutilations, if connected to prion investigation (and that's a very intelligent supposition), might be to see how their hoped-for real estate and human and animal chattel are holding up under human degenerative practices. They have long shown intense solicitousness for the health of that which they clearly wish to own and operate as soon as possible.

Whatever the intricate truth of all this turns out to be, without places on the internet to look for it, we would be out of luck. What we would do without people like you, who are willing to go to such lengths in order to research, store, and share information, is unthinkable.

Thank you, as always. The worse it gets, the more valuable the lights in the gloom.

Diane

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Mad Cow Time Bomb 27-May-2004

Britain may be facing a Mad Cow time bomb. New research suggests that up to 4,000 people there unknowingly carry the human form of mad cow disease. Some may already be passing it on through blood transfusions and contaminated surgical instruments, so the disease may continue to kill for decades. 

Pathologists examined more than 12,500 tonsil and appendix specimens from hospital operations and found evidence of the prion for Creutzfeld Jakob disease, the human form of Mad Cow, in three of them. If these statistics are the same for the whole of Britain, it means that about 3,800 people carry the deadly prion and don't know it. 

"I find these results very concerning," says Dr. John Collinge. "Our experience is that looking at appendix samples will underestimate the true picture. In addition, no test is 100% effective, and you don't know at what stage in the incubation period the test will be positive." 

Just because people may be carrying the prion, this does not mean they will inevitably get the disease, but it does mean they can pass it on to others. People with a particular genetic pattern are most susceptible to the disease, and so far all the U.K. deaths come from this group; however, others may get it after a longer incubation period. Cases of kuru, a prion disease affecting cannibals in Papua New Guinea who eat infected brains, continue to appear 50 years after cannibalism ended. 



Strange Skin in New York 02-Jun-2004

A skin infection that is resistant to all but the most powerful antibiotics and can be passed by touch has moved from New York City hospitals out into the streets. Dr. Howard Grossman says, "Usually with infections you need a break in the skin to pass it. Not with this. It gets through unbroken skin with casual contact." 

Sam Smith writes in the New York Post that it can cause abscesses, tissue loss, amputation or even death in severe cases. Doctors at some clinics are seeing one new case a week, compared to one every two months a year ago. Dr. Dawn Harbatkin says, "This is something we should be concerned about." 

A patient named Steven caught the superbug last year. It started as a pimple on his leg that grew larger and became painful. The infection didn't respond to antibiotics and started moving towards his groin. He says, "The fact it wasn't responding [to drugs] and it was moving up that way was terrifying. It was eating up tissue." He eventually had to be hospitalized and ended up taking an antibiotic that cost $100 per pill. Doctors think he may have caught it at the gym. 

As if that isn't enough of a horror story, Kieran Crowley writes in the New York Post that a severed human hand mysteriously dropped out of the sky onto the deck of a boat in Long Island last weekend. Detective Sgt. John Azzata says the boat owner "heard a noise, goes out to check and finds the hand on the rear deck of the boat. At this point, we don't have a clue where it came from. It's a mystery." 



WHO Confirms 19 Cases of Ebola in Southern Sudan

Tue May 25, 6:34 AM ET

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NAIROBI (Reuters) - Nineteen cases of the deadly Ebola (news - web sites) virus have been confirmed in southern Sudan and five of the victims have already died from the infection, the World Health Organization (news - web sites) (WHO) said on Tuesday. 

The WHO office for southern Sudan said health authorities in Yambio county in Western Equatoria province had reported patients suffering the symptoms associated with Ebola, which can kill up to 90 percent of its victims. "I can confirm that there are 19 reported cases of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Yambio county as of this morning," Abdullahi Ahmed, head of the WHO southern Sudan office, told Reuters. "It could be more than this," he said. "We just don't know at this point." 

The WHO said four patients were in isolation and health workers were monitoring 120 people believed to have had close contact with the victims. 

The WHO has enlisted the help of other international health organizations, local churches and agencies to help support patients, create public awareness and control the outbreak. 

"We have health surveillance teams on the ground and we are watching the situation very carefully," said Ahmed. "I think the virus is contained for the moment and we have no reason to believe that it has spread outside Yambio county," he added. 

Ahmed said it was not known where the virus had originated and how it had come into Sudan. 

WHO spokesman Dick Thompson, speaking in Geneva, said "The epidemiological investigation is ongoing, we don't know the source of it yet or the complete extent." 

He said the medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders (news - web sites)) was building an isolation ward to quarantine patients. 

Ebola, first identified in Sudan in 1976, starts with a high fever and headache and can lead to massive internal bleeding. It is passed on by infected body fluids and is one of the deadliest and most feared diseases in the world. 

Two separate outbreaks in Congo Republic killed about 150 people last year. 

(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva) 


Researcher Dies After Accidental Ebola Jab


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May 26, 11:22 am ET 

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A researcher in a heavily guarded Siberian virology laboratory died after pricking herself with a syringe containing the deadly Ebola virus, a spokeswoman from the lab said Tuesday.

"It was an accident or an unlucky coincidence. Her hand just slipped and she jabbed herself," the spokeswoman said.

Ebola begins with a high fever and can lead to massive internal bleeding. It kills between 50 and 90 percent of victims, depending on the strain of the virus, for which there is no known cure. It is one of the world's most feared diseases.

Most outbreaks have occurred in Africa, far from the Siberian lab where the senior technician was experimenting on guinea pigs when the accident happened on May 5. She died two weeks later.

Set deep in Siberia, a four-hour flight from Moscow, the state-owned Vector research center at Novosibirsk does research into deadly diseases such as SARS and anthrax.

Along with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, it is one of only two places on earth with official stockpiles of smallpox, which killed around 300 million people last century.

After the accident, the woman was hospitalized in a ward specially equipped to contain virulent diseases. Anyone who came into contact with her was put under observation for three weeks.

Her name was not released at her family's request.

A spokeswoman for Russia's Health Ministry said the government was satisfied enough had been done to prevent an outbreak. 


Thousands may have human form of mad cow disease

Fri May 21, 5:56 AM ET


LONDON (AFP) - Some 3,800 people in Britain could be harbouring the human form of mad cow disease without knowing it, government-funded research suggests. 

Scientists who examined 12,674 stored appendix and tonsil samples said they had identified three bearing signs of the agent that causes variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites) (vCJD). 

Applying their findings to the entire population of the United Kingdom, which is 60 million, they estimated that about 3,800 people would test positive for the illness. 

Some 141 people are known to have died in Britain from vCJD, a spongy deterioration of the brain causing personality change, loss of body function, and eventually death. 

Scientists think the findings -- which at first sight appeared to be at odds with declining rates of vCJD -- might indicate that people can carry the disease without developing symptoms. 

They would still be able to spread the disease to others, however, via contaminated surgical instruments, blood transfusions or organ donation. 

"Our findings need to be interpreted with caution, but cannot be discounted," said David Hilton, of Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, southern England, who led the study published in the Journal of Pathology. 

Fears for the safety of British beef emerged in 1986 when mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE (news - web sites)), was first discovered in a cow on a farm in West Sussex. 

It was only 10 years later, however, that the government announced that a probable link had been established between BSE and vCJD. 

The latest research involved examining thousands of appendix and tonsil samples removed during routine operations and stored at hospitals. Most were from people aged 20 to 29, the peak age for developing vCJD. 

The scientists looked for accumulations of the abnormal prion protein molecules believed to trigger both BSE and vCJD. 

One positive appendix sample was the subject of much publicity when preliminary results from the study were released in 2002. 

The two others, also from appendix operations, show an unusual pattern of prion accumulation unlike that seen in known vCJD cases. 

But the scientists have carried out tests which appear to discount the possibility that they are "false positives". 

Despite a slight jump last year, the numbers of vCJD cases have appeared to be on the decline. But experts cannot be sure more will not emerge in the future as the disease reaches the end of its incubation period in people with different genetic make-ups. 

Professor James Ironside, senior pathologist at the National CJD Surveillance Unit in Edinburgh, who took part in the research, said: "There would seem to be more positives than you would expect given the known number of vCJD cases and the fact that they seem to be declining." 

"That may be because of genetic differences and susceptibility, but it may also be that you can have a sub-clinical infection which never progresses to produce symptoms -- a 'carrier state'." 

"I think the findings do have to be taken seriously," added Ironside. "Generally, one has to be cautious about interpreting these data -- but they may indicate that there are people who are not infected in the normal way but could represent a source of infection." 

A Department of Health spokesman said: "There is still much to learn about vCJD and this study is important for future research." 

"The results reinforce the need for a continued precautionary approach to minimise people's exposure to BSE and vCJD. The Department of Health has already put in place measures to reduce any risk of possible transmission of the disease via blood products and surgical instruments." 


HIV Outbreak in Calif. Porn Films Contained

Wed May 12, 8:30 PM ET

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By Jill Serjeant 

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The lucrative Los Angeles porn film industry, crippled by an HIV (news - web sites) outbreak last month, lifted a self-imposed moratorium on Wednesday after half the actors placed under quarantine were given the all-clear. 

"We feel very confident that there will be no more HIV outbreaks. We have contained this outbreak," said Sharon Mitchell, director of the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, or AIM, which runs an HIV-screening program for the industry. 

The multibillion dollar industry in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, dubbed "Porn Valley," employs some 6,000 people in 200 production companies turning out dozens of pornographic films and videos a week. 

It was thrown into crisis last month when five actors tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS (news - web sites), in the biggest such outbreak in the Southern California adult industry since 1998. The industry decided to impose a 60-day moratorium on filming in a bid to stop the virus spreading further. 

The virus is thought to have been passed by one actor to three women with whom he had on-screen sex without a condom. The fifth person was a transsexual performer unrelated to the other cases. 

AIM said on Wednesday that about half of the 50 porn actors under quarantine because they had worked directly with the HIV positive actor or the actresses he had sex with had now tested negative for HIV three times in 45 days. 

"If you are not shooting any of the people still under the quarantine list, then I see no reason not to start shooting again," Mitchell said. 

She said she expected those still under quarantine to be taken off the list in the next three or four weeks. 

Mitchell said the industry had mostly responded very well to the voluntary shut-down and that there had been no pressure from within the industry to end the moratorium early. 

"No one wants to shoot an HIV infection actually happening," Mitchell said. "Most people realized that the moratorium was a necessary evil." 

The outbreak of the potentially deadly virus prompted calls for mandatory condom use on film sets and inspections of film shoots. But the proposals were resisted by porn film producers who argued that using condoms would take the X out of sex scenes and drive the industry out of California or underground. 



More XXX Stars Confirm for X-Con
Source: X-Con
by: Company Press Release 

(LOS ANGELES, CA) -- With an already impressive list of A-list adult stars and icons such as Nina Hartley, Houston, Carmen Luvana, Britney Andrews, Alexis Amore, Dru Berrymore, Sharon Mitchell, Dick Smothers Jr, Dennis Hof and Taylor St Claire scheduled to attend Sunday's event, the organizers of X-Con announced today that Kylie Ireland, Britney Skye, Roxy Jiselle, Randy Wright, Angel Eyes, Jadea Fire, Misty Mason, Carmen Hayes, Lexi, Taylor St. Claire, Lori Pleasure and Amethyst Stone have also confirmed for X-Con. 

"We are very honored to have So many amazing and empowering women attending this event, commented the organizers of X-Con today, it is nice that we are able to show our support to the female performers of this industry by giving them this event in order to meet their fans. We are enamored to have so many beautiful, strong, woman be part of our event". 

With the addition of these 12 female performers to the already impressive list of adult female stars, X-con promises to be all that it has claimed. 

X-Con is scheduled to take place this Sunday April the 4th at Entertanium studios, an impressive 35,000 square foot adult friendly licensed motion picture studio in Los Angeles this weekend, it is a convention to change the face of convention angled specifically at the female talent of the industry and designed to improve performer/consumer relations. 

For more information on attending X-con please call 213-489-2001 Tickets can be brought in advance via the official X-Con Website at XXX-con.com, tickets are also available for purchase on the door on the day of the event. 



The National Institute for Discovery Science issued a report on Cattle Mutilations back on June 17, 2003. 

Unexplained Cattle Deaths and the Emergence of a Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) Epidemic in North America 
http://216.128.67.116/pdf/cattledeaths_tse_epidemic.pdf 

On why the bodies are left ... 

Why Leave the Body? This question has plagued investigators ever 
since the first well-publicized investigations of mutilations 
began back in the early 1970s. As any reader familiar with the 
animal mutilation topic will agree, a plethora of hypotheses 
have sprung up about the perpetrators and their motives for 
animal mutilations. One of the most quoted hypotheses involves a 
government operation to monitor radiation or biological warfare 
testing. But the question "why leave the body?" has never been 
adequately answered by these hypotheses. 

The government can just as easily test their own herds, the 
counter-argument goes, or obtain carcasses from a slaughterhouse 
if they wish to covertly monitor radiation. Thus, for this and 
many other reasons, the evidence points away from the government 
as perpetrators of animal mutilations. 

Vallee (56) and Smith (57) have suggested intriguing hypotheses 
that leaving the cow carcass on the ground constitutes a 
deliberate message. In common with both these authors, we 
suggest that implicit in the deliberate lack of an attempt to 
conceal the carcass on the part of the perpetrators of animal 
mutilation, is a brutal warning. 

We suggest that attention is being deliberately focused on the 
mutilated animals. Further, we suggest the warning is that the 
human food chain is compromised, probably with a prion- 
associated infectious agent that still remains mostly 
undetected. 


On how long this sort of knowledge has been around ... 

If the hypothesis is correct, animal mutilation operations are 
carried out by a knowledgeable group that is cognizant of the 
biochemistry and infectious potential of prion diseases and 
their fatal spread. How difficult is this knowledge to come by? 
Beginning in 1958, Dr. Carleton Gajdusek began mailing kuru 
brains from the wilds of New Guinea to the central 
neuropathology facility at NIH in Bethesda and Fort Detrick. 
Hence, these fatal neurodegenerative diseases have been known in 
the United States, but not highly publicized, since the late 
1950s or early 1960s. Only recently, due to the intensive prion 
research carried in the past two decades has the extent of prion 
replication become obvious in the eye, tongue, anus/large 
intestine and reproductive organs (see above) of animals. If 
these specific tissues are indeed removed during animal 
mutilation for the purpose of prion monitoring, this implies an 
intensive knowledge of prion physiology, biochemistry and 
infectiousness, involving research results not published until 
relatively recently, on the part of the perpetrators of animal 
mutilations. 

On the implications for the future ... 

As discussed above, some of the harrowing consequences of the 
spread of this TSE infectious agent may lie in a subset of the 
epidemic of Alzheimer's disease that is currently ravaging the 
United States healthcare system. According to CDC estimates (43) 
there are now 4 million Alzheimer's patients in the United 
States, with annual health care costs between $100-500 billion. 
With the aging population, this cost is projected to soon rise 
to $1 trillion when 7-8 million have the disease (43). There is 
also the question of the mysterious early onset Alzheimer's, 
currently afflicting about 200,000 Americans. We have presented 
the evidence that thousands of possible CJD cases may be 
misdiagnosed as Alzheimer's and therefore the extent of this CJD 
epidemic in the United States lies beneath the public's radar. 
We hypothesize that the animal mutilators know and have known of 
the potential damage to humans of this infectious agent in the 
human food chain. 

Thus, we hypothesize that animal mutilations serve as both a 
sampling operation AND a warning. 

A central implication of this paper is that animal mutilations 
serve two purposes: as both a covert monitoring operation for 
the prion infectious agent and as a very graphic public warning, 
a display that monitoring is being done. The body on the 
ground, with glaring evidence of highly skilled surgery, serves 
as a calling card and a warning. From the evidence presented in 
this paper, we believe the warning is: "A major human food 
source (beef, elk, deer) is contaminated." 

There are several predictions that arise out of the animal 
mutilation-prion monitoring hypothesis, since the evidence seems 
to suggest that mutilations will be followed, years or even 
decades later, by a TSE outbreak: 

(a) That a rather large outbreak of CWD/TSE will occur in the 
area around Great Falls Montana in the next several years. 

(b) Similar large outbreaks will occur in Argentina and in 
Northern New Mexico in the next few years (the first six cases 
of CWD were found on and near White Sands missile ground October 
2002-February 2003). 

(c) In the next year or two, there will be an unambiguous link 
drawn between CWD and sporadic CJD in humans in the United 
States. 

(d) Even though the state of California has mandated a ban on 
importing elk and deer from other states, the highly intense 
animal mutilation (>30 animals mutilated in 5 years) cluster on 
and near a ranch in N. California, predicts an outbreak of 
CWD/TSE in northern California in 5-10 years. 

(e) In the coming years, as new methods for distinguishing CJD 
from Alzheimer's comes on line, there will be a dramatic 
increase in the incidence of "sporadic" CJD in the population of 
the United States. 

http://www.nidsci.org/articles/articles2.html 
http://www.nidsci.org/articles/articles2.html




USDA: No Mad Cow Testing Allowed 11-Mar-2004

Scott Kilman reports in the Wall Street Journal that the USDA will not allow individual meat packers to test their own meat, because it may imply that the beef missed during random testing by the U.S. government is not safe. Consumer Susan Brownawell says, "This is ridiculous. If people want to have their beef tested, they should be able to. Isn't this how the free market works?"

"Private companies should be able to test if they want," says Michael Levine, of Organic Valley. "I think the USDA is just petrified of finding more instances of BSE." Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wanted to build its own Mad Cow testing laboratory, but the USDA warned them they couldn't do any testing without government approval. Creekstone usually ships its beef to Japan, which is now rejecting all untested beef. 

There is only one U.S. laboratory that can test for Mad Cow- in Ames, Iowa. Last year, USDA scientists send samples there from only one out of every 1,700 cows. Each test takes several weeks, and there are no tests that work on live cattle. Private laboratories say they can do the same tests in only a few hours. 

Vegetarians need to worry too: MSG in Chinese food gives some people headaches, so food processors removed it from prepared foods in the 1970s. But now it's back, except this time it's being sprayed on food while it's growing in the field, in the form of the fertilizer AuxiGro. 

Food companies will not be required to label the foods sprayed with AuxiGro, and no study has been done to find out if it will cause a reaction in MSG-sensitive people. Animals will also eat crops sprayed with AuxiGro, giving it another opportunity to get into the human food system. 



Hybrid Mosquitoes Spreading West Nile 08-Mar-2004

The U.S. is experiencing more serious, widespread cases of West Nile than Europe because of the hybrid mosquitoes here. Genetic analysis shows that the mosquitoes carrying West Nile in the U.S. have the combined DNA of two different types of European mosquitoes. One of them normally bites birds, while the other bites people. The hybrids bite both. 

Merritt McKinney writes that because these new insects bite both people and birds, they spread West Nile much more quickly. In northern Europe there are two types of mosquitoes-those that live underground and those that live on the surface. Although these two types are not mixing in Europe, genetic analysis of U.S. mosquitoes shows that over 40% of ours are a combination of both. Dr. Dina M. Fonseca says, "We have shown that below-ground populations are derived from northern African specimens that must have migrated north when urban development generated habitats they could survive in [such as subways and sewers]." If the hybrid mosquitoes are the cause of more West Nile outbreaks in the U.S., "then preventing their introduction into northern Europe is paramount." 


A Virus That Prevents AIDS 08-Mar-2004

It's been discovered that HIV patients who become infected with another, mysterious virus, are less likely to develop AIDS. The mystery virus is known only as GB virus C, and men whose blood shows they are infected with it are three times less likely to die of AIDS. 

In New Scientist, Philip Cohen quotes researcher Roger Pomerantz as saying, "Until now, there have been many doubting Thomases who didn't believe this viral antiviral effect even existed. This puts an end to the debate." 

GBV-C was discovered 10 years ago. Since it's related to hepatitis C, scientists at first thought it causes liver disease, but no link to the disease was ever found. Researcher Jack Stapleton says, "At that point, most of the world stopped studying the virus. All that was left were HIV researchers who were interested in its role in co-infection." A few of them began noticing something strange: the newly-discovered virus seemed to protect patients from getting AIDS. 

The survival rate of HIV-positive men who are infected by GBV-C is 75%, compared with only 39% for men who are not infected with it. It's only effective for men who remain infected with it-only 16% of patients who somehow "lost" their GBV-C infections survived. 



Sun May Increase Chance of Certain STD 
	
Tue Mar 30, 4:14 PM ET
	
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By DANIEL Q. HANEY, AP Medical Editor 

ORLANDO, Fla. - The long sunny days of summer may increase the risk of catching a common sexually transmitted infection. And it's not just because people have more sex when the weather is nice. 

Yahoo! Health
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Find answers here. 


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Researchers using data from Holland found that detection of papilloma virus infection during routine cancer screening peaks during August. Their theory: Sunlight suppresses women's immune system defenses. 


Experts have long suspected that sunlight has powerful - and perhaps conflicting - effects on the body's tendency to develop a variety of diseases, including cancer. The best example is the risk of too much sun triggering skin cancer. 


However, many suspect sunshine can have less obvious influences, and can even affect susceptibility to a variety of everyday viruses like papilloma. These viruses are spread through sexual contact, and they are the most common cause of cervical cancer, a disease that kills about 4,000 U.S. women annually. Although the virus can cause genital warts, most infected people have no outward symptoms. 


"The sun is a kind of drug, a drug that influences whether a papilloma infection takes hold or not," said Dr. William Hrushesky, an authority on how disease patterns fluctuate over time. 


Hrushesky, who is based at the WJB Dorn Veterans Administration Medical Center in Columbia, S.C., presented his findings Tuesday at a meeting in Orlando of the American Association for Cancer Research. 


He looked at the results of more than 900,000 Pap tests done in southern Holland between 1983 and 1998. The test does not detect papilloma virus directly. But it reveals abnormal cells that are typically caused by the infection. 


Hrushesky found that the sunnier the year and the sunnier the month, the higher the rate of human papilloma virus. 


August is consistently the sunniest month in southern Holland, and the screening tests picked up twice as much evidence of papilloma virus infection then as in the winter. The virus fell off sharply in September. 


The reason for the August spike? "Sexual intercourse did not appear to explain most of the variance," he said. 


No one can say exactly when people are having the most sex, but one strong hint is when the most babies are conceived. Records show that conception is most likely to occur in Holland in March, although there is only about a 10 percent variation over the year. 


Instead, Hrushesky theorizes that even though women are exposed to papilloma at roughly the same level year round, the extra sunlight weakens their defenses against it in the summer. 


He noted that sun can dampen the body's production of antibodies and the activation of protective T cells, the main branches of the natural defenses against infection. Other research has suggested a connection between sunlight and susceptibility to herpes and adenovirus, among other things. 


Dr. Bruce Armstrong of the University of Sydney in Australia said the impact can occur far from the patches of skin where sunlight hits, and an effect on infection of the cervix seems plausible. 


"The relationship between sunlight and cancer is complex," he said. 


Many studies have noted a link between cancer incidence and how far north people live. In general, these reports show that several kinds of cancer, including colon, prostate and breast, are less frequent in southern areas, suggesting that sunlight may protect against them. 


Armstrong's own study, also presented Tuesday, found that the more sunlight people receive, the less likely they are to get non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He looked at 1,398 people and found that those who got the most sun had a one-third lower risk than those who got the least. 

	 


___ 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Medical Editor Daniel Q. Haney is a special correspondent for The Associated Press. 

___ 

On the Net: 

http://www.aacr.org/2004AM/2004AM.asp 



Probe: Govt.'s Iowa Lab Not Secure for BSE Work

Tue Mar 30, 3:04 PM ET

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By Randy Fabi 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government's main laboratory for testing mad cow disease, located in an Iowa strip mall, is not secure enough to store dangerous pathogens like the brain-wasting disease, U.S. Agriculture Department investigators said on Monday. 

"The building housing the strip mall is close to other commercial businesses and has limited security at the entry and exit points," said a report by the USDA'S Office of Inspector General, which conducts independent audits and investigations of USDA programs. 

The facility in Ames, Iowa -- run by USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency -- discovered the first U.S. case of mad cow disease in December after testing brain tissue samples from an infected cow in Washington state. 

Despite previous recommendations to not store pathogens of any dangerous diseases, like bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE (news - web sites)), the laboratory was found to have kept slides of mad cow disease, the report said. 

"They stated that the BSE slides posed little risk but agreed that the pathogens should not be at the strip mall facility," the report said. Staffers "have since received training to ensure that this incident does not recur," it added. 

The 27-page report said the laboratory has made improvements in security and record-keeping since the agency's first investigation in March 2002. However, investigators repeated their concern that scientists and students were allowed "unlimited access" to the laboratory without the USDA requiring background checks. 

"With unrestricted access, unauthorized personnel having knowledge of a laboratory's inventory could remove a biological agent or piece of equipment and place it in a terrorist's hands long before the theft was discovered," the report said. 

The USDA has verified no dangerous animal diseases were stored any longer at the Ames facility, the department said in response to the report. 

The USDA is working to relocate the federal laboratory. The Bush administration asked Congress for $178 million in fiscal 2005 to complete renovation of the new National Centers for Animal Health. 

http://216.128.67.116/pdf/cattledeaths_tse_epidemic.pdf

Dead Cows I've Known : The Report From Sand Mountain by Ted Oliphant III [alkahest@slip.net] 

Recently the British Secretary of Health admitted that Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), or "Mad Cow Disease" may be a species jumper. This means that humans exposed to animals with BSE, can also contract it. This announcement set off a panic in Britain, with many countries (Most Notably France, Belgium,Germany and The United States) announcing boycotts of all British beef. There was serious consideration given to destroying all eleven million head of British cattle. 

Current projections for the year 2010, suggest that 200,000 people will die each year from Mad Cow Disease, and it's pre-cursor, Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease. This is in Great Britain alone. 

What is Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease? 

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease ("CJD") is a rare, fatal brain disorder which causes a rapid, progressive dementia and associated neuromuscular disturbances. The disease is often referred to as a sub acute spongiform encephalopathy because it usually produces microscopic vacuoles in neurons that appear "sponge-like". * Under the microscope, you can see "holes" in brain tissue. 

"Prions", proteins or plaques, are believed to be responsible for other fatal brain diseases in humans, as well as animals. Dr. Gujdusek, a pioneer in the study of Kuru and other TSEs, believes the transport mechanism is actually a spiroplasma, one celled and deadly. In addition to CJD, the suspected human prion diseases include Kuru, Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker disease and Fatal Familial Insomnia. Kuru has been found only among the Fore tribe in Papua, New Guinea and has been virtually eliminated since the cessation of the ritual handling and eating of the brains of deceased relatives. The disease is characterized by progressive problems with coordination which are typically followed by dementia. Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker disease and fatal familial insomnia are predominantly hereditary disorders with the former usually marked by progressive coordination and movement problems and the latter evidenced by sleeping problems preceding dementia. The suspected prion diseases occurring in animals consist of: Scrapie in sheep and goats; Transmissible Mink Encephalopathy; Chronic Wasting Disease of mule deer and elk; Feline Spongiform Encephalopathy; and, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy ("BSE"), also known as "mad cow disease".* 

On March 20, 1996, the British Government, in a complete reversal of its previous position, stated that there was a possible link between BSE and CJD. This new acknowledgment arose from the identification of an apparently new strain of CJD which was discovered in 10 people under the age of 42, including some teenagers. Additionally, five of the people were associated with the meat and livestock industry. Scientists advising the British Government decided that the most likely explanation for this unusual outbreak was the consumption of beef from diseased cattle before 1989, when regulations were adopted for the disposal of potentially infectious cattle offal, including brains, and the use of sheep entrails as feed ceased.* 

At the present time, the only proven manner for contracting CJD from an infected person has been through iatrogenic transmission, an unintended consequence of a medical procedure using tainted human matter or surgical instruments. Iatrogenic transmission of CJD has occurred in cases involving corneal transplants, implantation of electrodes in the brain, dura matter grafts, contaminated surgical instruments and the injection of natural human growth hormone derived from cadaveric pituitaries. Thus, one may become infected with CJD from direct contamination with infected neural tissue.* 

There are new, strict guidelines for the handling of suspected BSE, CJD and Kuru infected tissues. Once a brain biopsy is completed, surgical instruments, scalpels and the like, are disposed of because sterilization will not kill the Prions, or proteins. This raises the question of how many times before the new guidelines were instituted, were contaminated surgical instruments used from patient to patient? 

BSE & CJD are Doomsday Diseases, they are very hard to detect, there is no cure or treatment, and both are %100 fatal in ALL cases. 

How did this happen & where did it come from? 

The main suspicion traces the un-natural practice of feeding vegetarian animals "Rendered" food. Rendered foods come from "Rendering plants" like the Avon plant in Geraldine, Alabama. There are hundreds of these plants throughout the United States and the world.


What goes on at a rendering plant? 

Rendering plants act as an animal disposal unit for dead livestock. Instead of burning and disposing of dead animals, they are converted to animal feeds.I visited the Avon plant in 1993 and witnessed this process, where nothing is wasted. Area farmers and ranchers are invited to drop off any dead farm animal. The animals are crushed up in large mulchers and poured into enormous high pressure vats where they are cooked into multi-animal stew. The stew is further processed until it is packaged and sold to area farmers as livestock feed. I've witnessed pigs, goats, cows and horses brought to rendering plants. The animals were in various conditions. Some had been dead for over 24 hours, yet were still rendered into livestock feed. Shockingly, many cows that been found "mutilated", ( missing various glands, tissue and organs) were brought to the rendering factory and processed into food for their still living relatives. I was shocked, but unlike Great Britain which has had protections against such practices since 1989, there are no such guidelines here in the United States. 

What is the prospect for Mad Cow Disease to appear in the United States? 

That is THE question several of us are asking, what does our government know and what aren't they telling us? The first case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease appeared in the 1890's, was finally identified in 1920 and first considered contagious during the identification and study of Kuru in the 1950's though it was, at that time, thought to be fully contained. However the identification of contaminated surgical instruments as a transport mechanism raises a bigger question...how many surgeries used contaminated scalpels? 

The incubation period for BSE, CJD and other associated Spongiform Associated Fragments (SAF) ranges from six months to forty years. That means that if you ingested contaminated meat prior to becoming a vegetarian, you can still get sick many years down the road. 

This isn't the first time animal parts introduced into the food chain, caused illness and death. Thyrotoxicosis (New England Journal of Medicine, Hedburg CW, Fishbein DB et all 316: 993-8, 1987) occurred when bovine thyroid glands were combined with hamburger meat and distributed throughout many communities. This caused over 100,000 people to get sick. Finally the Center for Disease Control (CDC) investigated and concluded that large doses of bovine thyroid hormone in hamburger meat, was the culprit. Here's what happened. For years the US Government bought every bovine thyroid gland it could get it's hands on for research. As a result, every meat packing plant in America was removing the thyroids and selling them to Uncle Sam for top dollar. Then all of the sudden, our government stopped buying them. Meat packing plants and butchers starting grinding up the glands and mixing them with our hamburger. That practice has, for the most part, been stopped thanks to the CDC. 

The U.S. Army, The National Institute of Health (NIH) & Rocky Mountain Labs. 

Quietly and secretly, The United States Army and the Center For Disease Control have worked together, off & on, for years. A perfect example of this clandestine cooperation was the outbreak and containment of Ebola Reston. You can learn more about this in an excellent book "The Hot Zone". The Army & The CDC entered the Reston monkey houses, took care of business and were gone before anybody knew what happened. They showed up in civilian clothes, and un-marked vans. All of this was done right under the noses of television camera crews who were looking around, but never saw them because the Army & CDC hid their vehicles behind buildings! Currently another organization, The National Institute of Health (NIH) has been tasked with tracking and studying something even more frightening: Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathies and other Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs). Much of the research has been conducted at Rocky Mountain Labs. Not far away, Dr. John Altschuler, a veterinary pathologist/hematologist has also been studying this problem, he's been doing so quietly since 1967. All the tests and studies he's done as "favors" for cattle mutilation guru Linda Moulton Howe, haven't just been for her. Dr. John has a friend in the government he's been comparing notes with for some time. Originally it was thought that a foreign power might be trying to contaminate the American food supply. Instead they discovered a new biological evolution, TSEs. 

The funding for this research is hidden in the NIH's black budget for the study of AIDS. Neither AIDS or BSE are viruses, rather they are the consequences of immune systems that have been thwarted. BSE and AIDS are both plaques. The research has been kept quiet to prevent an outbreak of panic. But the cats out of the bag, all of us are in the same boat. Every American who's ever eaten meet has been exposed to our new, common threat: Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies. 

Over the last ten years, law enforcement in dozens of States have been trying to track and identify unmarked helicopters sighted where area livestock have been discovered dead under suspicious circumstances. The helicopters are seen before and after these cows are found in pastures, missing certain organs. The same things are always taken. Bovine jaws are stripped to the bone, reproductive organs removed, digestive tracks and rectums "cored" out. There is little to no blood at the scene. Tissue samples taken by police investigators and analyzed at veterinary labs, all show signs of exposure to heat, three hundred degrees or more. The tissue is cooked and the incisions are cauterized by the heat. This prevents blood and other fluids from leeching onto the ground. Everything taken has to do with input, output and reproduction. In recent mutilation cases, Alabama 1993 & 1994, California 1996 and Florida 1997; pharmaceuticals have been found in bovine blood. They are: Barbiturates, Anti-coagulants, Synthetic Amphetamines, Aluminum-Titanium-Oxygen-Silicon flakes, and Antimony (Antimony: A brittle lustrous white metallic element occurring in nature, free or combined, used chiefly in alloys and in compounds in medicine. Webster's). The drugs found are NOT veterinary drugs, they are pharmaceuticals associated with humans. Among those law enforcement agents who have thoroughly investigated these bovine excision sites, there is a consensus that some kind of medical testing going on. The additional presence of helicopters on scene, before and after cattle are found dead missing specific organs, leads both victimized farmers and investigating officers to conclude that there is a connection. But why use human drugs on cows? Use your imagination.


Every organ taken from affected livestock has to do with input, output and reproduction. Where entire jaws have been excised in large, oval excisions, the bone is exposed and is perfectly clean. The wounds have been cauterized and there is no presence of blood. The jaw is an important area, paricularly because enzymes are produced in saliva glands near there. Enzymes that can kill viruses and bacteria. The digestive track also acts as a filter, that absorbs, collects and stores traces of any chemical or toxin introduced. The rectum is a similar filter as are ears. They store traces of toxins and chemicals like a library. Because many diseases (like CJD & BSE ) can be inherited, the reproductive system may be a good place to find look for clues on how it passed to the next generation. 

In 1993, I got a call from a man who told me that if I went to a certain place on a certain evening, I would see several helicopters land and refuel. He was right. Well after dark, two Chinook helicopters (The large twin rotor type) landed in the field behind some trees and opened their doors revealing large black plastic fuel bladders. Minutes later several smaller scout helicopters landed nearby, shut down and crews from the Chinooks walked over with large hoses and refueled each of a half dozen helicopters. The whole operation took less than 30 minutes and the helicopters took off and headed across the border where we tracked them to their home base, Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Now we knew who they were but we couldn't figure out why they refueled on Sand Mountain. The next morning a reporter, Steven Smith from the Rainsville Weekly Post, called the Public Affairs Officer, William Gibbons of the 101st Airborne and asked if they might've been in our area the previous evening. "We have no aircraft in your area, it wasn't us" said the captain. It certainly was. So we knew then that some kind of secret operation was being conducted, but we didn't know what it was. We still don't, but when you look at each piece of evidence and try to use them as puzzle pieces, these so called "cattle mutilations" might be associated with government studies of epidemiology. With BSE & CJD being such devastating "new" diseases, is it possible than many alleged cases of "cattle mutilations" are actually evidence of our tax dollars at work? 

The Evidence Suppression Team from Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama; & The F.A.A. Investigation of un-marked helicopters over Sand Mountain. 

The 101st Airborne Division is not suspected of being directly involved in the cattle mutilations that occurred between Oct. 1992 through May of 1993. But is seems possible they may have refueled the un-marked helicopters that we eventually traced to Maxwell Air Force Base. The 101st's inability to tell the truth about where they had been, seems to be a constant in Federal Government employee behavior: You don't tell the truth unless somebody holds a gun to your head. 

When un-marked helicopters were witnessed by local farmers and law enforcement officers, Albertville Police's Chief of Detectives Tommy Cole called in the Federal Aviation Administration to investigate. Detective Cole had lost a cow to the phantom surgeons and his wife had seen an un-marked helicopter over their pasture January 8th, 1993; the day before they discovered one of their Black Angus steers mutilated. An FAA investigator came to Albertville and Cole took him for a ride in his police car. The FAA investigator was skeptical until an un-marked helicopter flew near them. The FAA investigator couldn't believe his own eyes and pulled out a hand held radio and hailed the helicopter. The helicopter pilot didn't respond and ignored demands that he identify himself. This infuriated the FAA investigator who had now reversed his skepticism. He was able to trace the helicopter to Maxwell Air Force Base in Southern Alabama. When he launched an inquiry at the base, he was immediately told to drop it and never talk about again. A week later Chief Detective Cole received a call after midnight, it was the FAA investigator. It seems that while out in a boat on nearby Lake Guntersville, he and his family had witnessed a large triangle shaped craft flying maneuvers above them. I wonder if he ever reported that to his superiors? 

I don't pretend to know the solution to either the bovine excision cases nor the appearance of the mystery helicopters. I don't know that America faces a threat from BSE, but I do feel that these questions deserve our attention. President Ronald Reagan once hypothesized: "What if one day we all found that we faced a common threat from outer space, wouldn't we all put aside our differences and work together?". President Reagan wasn't so far off, today we DO face a common threat, soon we'll realize that we all have something in common: exposure to Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies. 

If you have any information, pertinent speculation or a rebuttal, please contact me. 

Ted Oliphant III, email: alkahest@slip.net, (510) 486 0611 

*Courtesy of the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Research Foundation.


Safe' Ultraviolet Rays May Cause Cancer

Fri Mar 26, 6:03 PM ET

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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Ultraviolet-B (UVB) rays are the component of sunlight that cause sunburn, while ultraviolet-A (UVA) rays, which produce a tan, are thought to be relatively safe. Now, however, Australian and US researchers report that UVA induces a greater number of mutations in the deep layer of skin, where skin cancers arise, than does UVB light. 

Far more UVA light than UVB light penetrates to the basal layers of skin, the scientists point out in an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (news - web sites). However, UVA appears to cause less direct damage to DNA than UVB and has been "considered far less carcinogenic." 

Dr. Nita S. Agar from University of Sydney and colleagues used the distinctive "fingerprints" of UVA and UVB damage to DNA to examine which types of rays were causing mutations in deep and shallow skin layers in skin cancers and in pre-malignant solar keratoses. 

All UVB mutations in solar keratoses and 82 percent of UVB mutations in squamous cell carcinomas were located in the upper skin layers, the authors report, whereas most UVA mutations (57 percent and 86 percent, respectively) were found in the basal layers. 

Further analysis also showed unrepaired DNA damage induced by recent UVB exposure in the upper layers. In the basal layers, unrepaired damage induced by UVA exposure was predominant. 

"The identification of UVA mutations in both (skin cancers) and premalignant solar keratoses in almost identical proportions implicates an early role for this band of radiation in tumor progression," the investigators comment. 

"Given the traditional emphasis on UVB," they conclude that protection "also from UVA irradiation has profound implications on public health worldwide." 

SOURCE: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, online early edition, March 22, 2004. 






Government Expands Mad Cow Testing 
	
2 hours, 40 minutes ago
	
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By IRA DREYFUSS, Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON - The Agriculture Department is planning a 10-fold increase in the number of cattle tested for mad cow disease in response to discovery of the nation's first case of the disease last December. 


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The department announced plans Monday to test more than 221,000 animals over a 12- to 18-month period beginning in June. 


Included would be 201,000 animals considered to be at high risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE (news - web sites), because they show symptoms of nervous system disorders such as twitching. 


Random tests also will be conducted on about 20,000 older animals sent to slaughter even though they appear healthy. Those tests are aimed at sampling cattle old enough to have eaten feed produced before 1997, when the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) banned the use of cattle tissue in feed for other cattle. 


The government last year conducted mad cow tests on tissues from 20,543 animals, virtually all of them cattle that could not stand or walk and had to be dragged to slaughter. After the case in December, the department initially doubled the number of animals to be tested this year to 40,000. 


Agriculture Department officials emphasized that the expanded testing regime announced Monday is a one-time deal only. They said they hope to begin it in June and meet the total target over the next 12 to 18 months. 


Dr. Ron DeHaven, the Agriculture Department's top veterinarian, said the need for testing in the range of 200,000 animals a year will be re-evaluated once the initial round is completed. 


Cattle eating the tissue of a diseased cow is considered the primary way the misshapen protein blamed for BSE is transmitted. For humans, eating meat that contains BSE can cause a similarly rare but fatal illness in people, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites). 


Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman estimated that the new testing will cost $70 million. She said the expanded testing reflects the recommendations of an international scientific review panel she appointed a week after mad cow disease was confirmed in a Washington state Holstein slaughtered on Dec. 9. 


"We are committed to ensuring that a robust U.S. surveillance program continues in this country," Veneman said. 


Nearly 50 countries imposed bans on American beef after the first U.S. case was confirmed. Poland has lifted its ban and Mexico has relaxed its prohibitions, but major importers like Japan and South Korea (news - web sites) have said they will not allow American beef back in until all 35 million cattle slaughtered in the United States each year are tested. 


The new U.S. testing plan still does not meet Japanese requirements, said Tadashi Sato, agricultural attache at the Japanese Embassy in Washington. 


"We want to see the U.S. government introduce the same system for beef safety, or at least an equivalent system, that we have in Japan. We test all slaughter cattle, regardless of age - not some," he said. 


Domestic critics also weren't satisfied. Felicia Nestor, food safety director for the Government Accountability Project, a watchdog group, said the new testing doesn't guarantee that any animals with BSE won't enter the food supply. 


The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (news - web sites) supported the limited-duration testing program. But it said the new rapid tests that return results within hours instead of weeks have the potential to label animals as BSE-infected when they aren't. The Agriculture Department has said any positive results from the rapid tests will be verified by more exact tests. 


Before BSE, exports accounted for about 10 percent of the nation's more than 26 billion pounds of beef produced each year. 


The department expects to announce soon a new system of rapid tests that will make the increased surveillance possible. The rapid tests could be done at laboratories around the nation, as well as the department's National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, currently the only facility that can do testing. 

	 


The testing could find one case of BSE in 10 million animals, he said. It would establish whether the United States has more cases of mad cow. 

DeHaven has said it's not necessary to test every animal because the department's targeted surveillance program system would pick up one case of BSE in 10 million animals. 



Insider's letter to editor exposes bull in mad cow coverage

by Dave Louthan, Columbia Basin Herald [Moses Lake, WA] 

Jan. 22, 2004

My name is Dave and I work at Vern's Moses Lake Meats. I did until the day the mad cow test results on the Sunny Dene cow came back positive for BSE. That was Wednesday, Dec. 24. On Friday, Dec. 26, the KXLY news crew was at the end of Vern's driveway, locked out by a cable gate. The USDA had told the world that the mad cow had been slaughtered here, but it was not in the food chain. A blatant lie. It was one of many. Update: Jan. 26, 2004

Slaughterhouse "splitting saw" targets cattle's spine

"Contamination is smeared across every cut" 





I walked out with the news crew at lunch time because I can't stand a government cover-up. They asked me "was the cow in the food chain?" I told them of course it was, it's meat. Where else would it be? They asked me if the cow was a downer. I told them no, it was just an old cow.

The USDA had us taking brain stem samples from downers and back door cripples only. Since we only had a few walkers on this trailer full of downers, we just killed her along with them. We took a brain sample from her head because the USDA gives up $10 per sample.

If we would have unloaded her in the pens, we would have never caught the BSE. How many other walkers have BSE? We will never know. The USDA only tested the downers and cripples and only at our plant. We had only been taking brain samples for about a month when we found this one.

When the USDA said no more downers would be slaughtered, they essentially said no more BSE testing would be done. Vern's and every other slaughterhouse kept right on killing and selling Holstein meat from the same area as the mad cow with no BSE testing whatsoever. This is true and easily verifiable.

And just so the folks in Moses Lake don't feel left out, the beef head, tongue, liver, kidneys and tail were sold right here in the Columbia Basin. It's way past time for everybody to stop thinking with their bank accounts and start trying to find a way to stop the spread of BSE.

The minute the USDA found the contaminated cow, they stopped the brain stem collection and testing. Why? Ka-ching! It's the money. Billions.

If you want to be sure you and your family are eating safe meat, demand testing on every beef slaughter. It's quick and easy. Don't eat another piece of meat until you see a sticker that says tested and cleared for BSE on the package. BSE is 100 percent fatal -- if you or your kidstudy: Parents Don't See Obesity in Their Children

Wed Mar 17, 6:45 AM ET

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By Patricia Reaney 

LONDON (Reuters) - Parents are so accustomed to seeing overweight youngsters that many fail to realize when their own children are obese, British researchers said on Wednesday. 

It is a worrying trend according to scientists at the Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth, England because being overweight and obese increases the risk of suffering from a variety of illnesses later in life. 

Obese children are also more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes, a disease previously seen only in adults. 

"A third of the mothers and 57 percent of dads actually saw their obese child as normal," said Alison Jeffery, a member of the research team at the medical school. 

"Quite a few parents are not recognizing it as a problem. They are not recognizing the health risks either," she added in an interview. 

But Jeffery said it isn't a case of denial. 

"We are all used to seeing people who are bigger than they used to be 20 years ago and we just see people who are overweight as normal." 

Jeffery, who presented her findings to the Diabetes UK medical conference in Birmingham, England, questioned 300 seven-year old children and their parents about their perceptions of body size. 

One third of mothers and half of fathers who were either overweight or obese rated themselves as "about right." 

When the child was a normal weight, according to an internationally recognized measurement of obesity in children, most of their parents, regardless of their own size, knew there was no problem. 

When the child was overweight but not obese, only a quarter of the parents knew it. But when the youngsters were obese, 40 percent of parents were not concerned about their child's weight. 

Health experts have described the increased rates of obesity in children as a serious public health problem because of its link with diabetes as well as an increased risk of heart disease, stroke and other illnesses later in life. 

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in obese children in Poland is nearly four percent. In Hungary it is two percent and 1.6 percent in Germany, according to recent research. 

"Diabetes is hugely on the increase and we know that children from as young as the age of seven have metabolic changes that are precursors to diabetes if they are very overweight," said Jeffery. 

"They may not be diabetic until they are older but you can see it beginning." 


get it, you die a very painful death. It's a slow, wasting disease. It's terrible.

Right now, a lot of people are telling you how safe their beef is, but they don't know if it is or is not without testing. That's their checkbook talking. Tat rendering plant in Canada wasn't feeding 81 cows, it was feeding thousands of cows.

Every second that goes by, more untested beef goes on the dinner plate. If you eat mad cow, you are going to get sick and you are going to die. Stand up and demand safe meat.

Dave Louthan Moses Lake, WA


Government Bans Cattle Blood in Feed 
	
59 minutes ago
	
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By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer 

WASHINGTON - The government is outlawing the use of cattle blood in livestock feed and cow brains and other parts in dietary supplements, part of broader restrictions in wake of the nation's first known case of mad cow disease. 


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Slideshow: Mad Cow Disease

	 

The Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) announced steps late Monday to close loopholes in its livestock feed ban - a key protection against spread of the brain-wasting disease in cattle - and to make sure that people don't consume risky animal parts in processed foods and supplements. 


"Firewalls have been in place for many years," said FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan. "The steps we're taking today are intended to provide even greater security." 


The government maintains the food supply is safe despite last month's discovery of an infected cow imported from Canada, because the animal's brain, spinal cord and certain other tissues - parts that carry the disease - were removed before the meat was processed. 


Still, the Agriculture Department soon took steps to increase meat safety, including a meatpacking ban on so-called downer cattle like the infected Holstein and restrictions on mechanical slaughter techniques that could contaminate beef with nervous system tissue. 


On Monday, the FDA made its own rules for processed food conform with those new restrictions to provide extra assurance that products like canned soups or frozen pizza won't be made with downer cattle or mechanically separated beef. 


Also, cosmetics and dietary supplements can't be made with potentially infectious cow parts, FDA said. In recent years, some supplements have claimed to harbor cow brains. 


But the nation's main defense against mad cow disease is a 1997 ban on giving cattle feed made from the protein or bone meal of sheep or certain other mammals - because that feed is considered the way the deadly disease originally spread in Britain and other countries. 


Critics have long worried about some big loopholes: Cows could be fed blood from slaughtered cattle, usually as a milk replacement for calves. That exemption was allowed even though for years Americans possibly exposed to mad cow-tainted beef in other countries haven't been allowed to donate blood, for fear the disease could spread that way. Last month, the British government announced that a man who died from the human form of mad cow disease may have been infected through a transfusion. 

Also, cow parts are allowed in pig and poultry feed - and until now, chicken waste could be swept up and added to cattle feed, meaning cows could indirectly be exposed. 


Among FDA's actions are new rules for cattle feed that: 


_Prohibit mammalian blood and blood products from being fed to cattle or other ruminant animals. 


_Ban chicken waste from livestock feed. 


_Ban the use of uneaten meat and other scraps from large restaurants from being recycled into cattle feed. 


_Require factories that make both livestock feed and feed for other animals that uses bovine ingredients to have separate production lines to guard against accidental contamination. 


To ensure the rules are followed, FDA this year will increase inspections of feed mills and renderers, conducting 2,800 inspections and contracting with states for an additional 3,800. 


The agency's steps are an improvement but don't go far enough, said Caroline Smith DeWaal of the consumer advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest. The main problem: Poultry and pigs can still eat feed made from cow remains, so what's to prevent a farmer from accidentally mixing up the feed? 

	 


"They have more protections, but when you get down to the farm level, mistakes can still happen," she said. 

FDA's announcement came as Agriculture Department's chief veterinarian said he expects many of the infected Holstein's herdmates will never be found. 

The department has been searching for 80 animals that were raised in Alberta, Canada, and shipped to the United States in 2001 with the Holstein that wound up in Mabton. 

Veterinarian Ron DeHaven said officials now are focusing on what happened to 25 of the Canadian-born animals raised within a two-year window of the Holstein's birth, because they would be most likely to have eaten the same, possibly contaminated feed. Officials have located 14 of them, he said. 



Seven Mad Cow Deaths Linked to Racetrack 15-Jan-2004

Seven people died of the human form of Mad Cow Disease in New Jersey, with their only contact being that they all ate in the same racetrack restaurant, making one wonder what was being served there. 

Faye Flam writes in the Philadelphia Inquirer that the seven victims of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease had all eaten at the Garden State Race Track in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Janet Skarbek brought the cases to the attention of the Center for Disease Control because her friend Carrie Mahan was one of them. 

Skarbek started to look for other cases of CJD in the obituaries and found an 83-year-old man who had also spent time at the racetrack where Mahan worked between 1989 and 1995. Then she found four more cases among people who ate at the racetrack restaurant, as well as another woman who had worked at the track, which closed in 2001. 

It's been discovered that prion diseases can be passed from animal to animal, with some of them being unaffected carriers of the disease. This means that there may also be humans who are carriers of CJD, without being affected by it. Their blood could contaminate blood transfusions and medical equipment, without anyone realizing it. Regular sterilization does not removed prions from surgical instruments. 

Neurologist Patrick Bosque says, "It raises an additional level of concern, that these prions can persist in animals, and increase, even though (the animals) don't appear sick. For one thing, it shows you that screening for just obviously sick animals may not be sufficient." 

Michael Hansen, of the Consumers Union, says although feeding cattle remains directly to cows has been banned, cattle brains and spinal columns, where prions can lurk, are still turned into feed for chickens and pigs, whose remains are then put into cattle feed. He says, "Those animals could become silent carriers and infect cattle." 

The CDC's Tom Skinner says all seven New Jersey patients had sporadic CJD, a brain disease that was once not believed to be linked to infected beef. But now scientists say that sporadic CJD may be mistaken for Mad Cow-or may even be the same disease. 

Todd Harman reports for the Scripps Howard News Service that it's long been believed that only one of the two versions of human CJD can be linked to eating meat. The other version, known as sporadic or classical CJD, has long been thought to occur randomly in about one in every million people, with no link to infected meat. But new studies show that classical CJD may also be caused by eating meat, and that many of these cases, which occur in older people, may have been misdiagnosed as Alzheimer's Disease. 

Scientists in the U.K. injected tissue from a cow with Mad Cow Disease into mice whose brains were genetically engineered with human genes. One set of mice got sick with the human form of Mad Cow, but another set of mice developed what looked like the sporadic form of CJD, the one that scientists believed has no relationship to Mad Cow Disease or meat-eating. 

The main thing separating the type of diagnosis you're given may be your age. People who die of classical (or sporadic) CJD are all older people. Researchers first noticed Mad Cow Disease when young people started dying of CJD. But they may actually be the same disease and may both be caused by eating tainted meat. Researcher (and vegan) Dr. Michael Greger says, "Given the new research showing that infected beef may be responsible for some (classical) CJD, thousands of Americans may already be dying because of Mad Cow Disease every year." 



Asia Bird Flu Spreads; 7-Year-Old Dies in Thailand

2 hours, 7 minutes ago

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By Clarence Fernandez 

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A deadly strain of bird flu killed a seven-year-old boy in Thailand Tuesday and spread to Indonesia as officials across the region scrambled to limit damage to Asia's huge tourism sector. 

China, which has the world's largest population of poultry, said the potentially lethal H5N1 strain had been detected in poultry in teeming Guangdong province, which borders Hong Kong. 

Three other regions on the mainland have also reported the strain, the only form of the avian influenza virus known to have killed humans. The death of 7-year-old Virat Phraphong from the major chicken farming province of Suphanburi in Thailand takes the death toll from the disease to 13. 

He had pneumonia for a month before he was transferred to and put on a respirator at the Children's Hospital in Bangkok last month, his doctor said. 

Despite cases of bird flu in 10 countries across Asia, only some have reported the H5N1 strain and the virus has leaped to humans only in Thailand and Vietnam. Four people have died in Thailand and nine in Vietnam. 

Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, said on Tuesday it had detected the H5N1 strain in poultry. 

"The identification process indicates the virus H5N1 in poultry ... but so far there is no case among humans," Tri Satya Putri Naipospos, director of animal health at the Agriculture Ministry, told a news conference. 

Indonesia's poultry industry, estimated to be worth about 60 trillion rupiah ($7.2 billion) annually, has seen costs from the outbreak run to about 7.7 trillion rupiah. 

To stave off the threat to Asian tourism, officials meeting in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, weighed strategies such as joint marketing campaigns, fewer curbs on travel and discounts on air travel and hotel stays. 

The bird flu outbreak comes a year after Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS (news - web sites)) devastated Asian economies. The Asian Development Bank says that outbreak cost the region $60 billion. 

TOURISTS CANCEL TRIPS 

"I'm expecting that maybe bird flu will cause the number of tourists coming to Asia to decline a bit," said Shin Hyun Taek, South Korean vice minister for tourism. SARS clipped 10 percent off Korean tourist arrivals last year, from 5.35 million. 

Pham Tu, vice minister for tourism in Vietnam, which has had the most deaths from bird flu, said he regretted 1,000 Japanese tourists had canceled their trips but said visitor arrivals in January had jumped 17 percent from last year. 

"We would like to send a message to Japanese tourists that there's no evidence of human-to-human transmission in Vietnam," Pham said. "I still eat chicken, but to react to the concerns of tourists we've taken it off their menus." 

In Vietnam, a spokesman for the World Health Organization (news - web sites) said it was safe to eat chicken and eggs that had been thoroughly cooked. A hospital said Monday an 18-year-old man who died of bird flu had eaten chicken killed by the H5N1 virus. 

Spokesman Robert Dietz said the WHO had yet to confirm the man was killed by bird flu, which has claimed the lives of eight others in Vietnam. 

Thailand, the world's fourth biggest exporter of chicken, has had four confirmed deaths from bird flu. 

In addition, 11 others have died of suspected bird flu, while another seven are suspected to have the disease. 

Laboratory tests have yet to confirm these deaths are attributable to bird flu. Thailand has killed 30 million poultry and hopes it has turned the corner. Chief government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair said the number of "red zones" -- the 3-mile area around a confirmed outbreak in which all poultry must be slaughtered -- had shrunk by half to 18 in seven provinces from 35 in 16 provinces on Monday. 

Beijing, sensitive after it was hit by SARS, another virus feared to have jumped from animals to humans, set up 200 bird flu monitoring stations and banned imports of live chickens from other provinces, the Beijing Star News said. 

No cases among humans have been reported. 

"We will win the battle with the precious experience we gained in combating the SARS crisis last year," official news agency Xinhua quoted Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, head of the National Bird Flu Prevention Headquarters, as saying. 

Eleven of China's 31 provinces have confirmed or suspected outbreaks of avian influenza. At one site, authorities put under medical observation 3,200 farmers in the city of Ezhou in Hubei province, for three weeks. 




Rats on Menu as Bird Flu Leaves Fowl Aftertaste


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Feb 18, 9:27 am ET 

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Bird flu may have decimated poultry businesses across Asia, but rat dealers have never had it so good.

"I've got a constant stream of customers," Van Vath, a rat butcher in the western Cambodian town of Battambang, told Wednesday's edition of Cambodge Soir.

With customers shying away from chicken for fear of catching the deadly flu virus that has killed millions of birds and at least 20 people, she has been selling more than 400 pounds of rodent meat every morning -- twice her normal turnover.

In far-flung corners of the jungle-clad and impoverished Southeast Asian nation, rat -- fried, grilled or roasted with garlic and vegetables -- is a highly prized delicacy.

It is not the only ingredient to be found scuttling on the rural Cambodian menu.

Spiders, water beetles, crickets, snakes, frogs and ants are all choice treats, with local tradition saying they were first eaten by starving peasants during the Khmer Rouge genocide in the 1970s. 




Supply 

Sun Feb 1, 1:12 PM ET

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By DANIEL Q. HANEY, AP Medical Editor 

Prescription flu drugs could provide lifesaving early protection against bird flu if the virus disastrously mutates into a worldwide pandemic, but experts warn that supplies will quickly run out unless governments stockpile the medicines. 

Early talks are going on between the U.S. government and one maker about providing a large quantity for use in a pandemic, but at best the medicine is still months away. If enough was available, the drugs could help buy time until a vaccine is developed to stop the flu's spread. 

Experts say the flu drugs could shorten illness and prevent lethal complications for flu victims - as well as keep healthy people from catching it, especially health care workers. 

Doctors say only one brand, Tamiflu, is practical for large-scale stockpiling, but so far no government has bought the big amounts needed for a pandemic. For now, worldwide supplies are skimpy, because the drugs are not widely used to treat ordinary flu. 

"This needs to be in the national stockpile, just as much as Cipro and smallpox vaccine," says Dr. Arnold Monto, a flu expert at the University of Michigan. A bird flu pandemic "could have as much of an impact as a manmade terrorist attack." 

The U.S. government has already ordered an extra supply of Tamiflu to help deal with the current flu season, although the exact amount is classified. Much more would be needed for a pandemic. 

Roche's Tamiflu, a pill introduced in 1999, is one of two drugs called neuraminidase inhibitors that appear to be effective against all kinds of flu, including the bird flu circulating in Asia. The other, GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza, requires an inhaler and is rarely used. It is not considered suitable for stockpiling. 

Roche makes only as much as is needed for a typical flu season and does not stockpile the drug for an emergency. "If there was a large outbreak like a pandemic, it would take at least several months to produce additional product on top of what's already available," says Terence Hurley, a Roche spokesman. 

So far, he said, the company has received no orders for stockpiling large amounts. However, the company is in "preliminary discussions" with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (news - web sites). The World Health Organization (news - web sites) is also working on stockpiling plans with several European countries. 

Tamiflu and Relenza are much more expensive than an older and more widely available category of flu drugs called M2 inhibitors. These include the generic medicines rimantadine and amantadine. 

When the current variety of bird flu first spread from chickens to people in Hong Kong in 1997, it could be treated with the M2 drugs. But it has since mutated and become resistant to those medicines, a discovery that Dr. Frederick Hayden of the University of Virginia called "very disquieting." 

"That means that a whole class of drugs really would not be useful for treatment or protection," Hayden said. 

Just how the flu drugs might be used has been widely discussed and debated among flu experts, who agree they could be especially critical in the early months of an outbreak, assuming enough was available. 

"I think it would definitely have a major role in the first wave of any new pandemic strain and would perhaps provide time for the development of a vaccine," says Dr. Paul Glezen of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. 

A flu vaccine takes at least six months to develop and manufacture in the best of circumstances. A bird flu shot is likely to be even more difficult, because it requires genetic engineering techniques that have never been used in human vaccines. 

Meanwhile, a bird flu virus could spread around the world in weeks and would be very difficult to contain by isolating victims - as was done with SARS (news - web sites) - since flu is more contagious. 

For now, bird flu is widespread among poultry in many Asian countries. A handful of cases have been documented in people, but there is no sign of person-to-person spread. The fear is that someone already infected with the human flu will also catch bird flu. The two viruses could swap genes inside the victim's body, producing a very contagious new virus for which people have little or no immunity. 

Experts say supply is the single biggest concern about flu drugs. "If there really was an explosive worldwide epidemic, we would have shortages of the drugs," says Dr. John Treanor of the University of Rochester. 

If taken by healthy people, Tamiflu could probably significantly reduce the chance of catching the flu. People would need to take it daily for at least six weeks, until the wave of disease passed, and not even a huge stockpile would allow for that. 

However, some experts say it might make sense to give the drug to protect essential personnel, such as hospital workers, ambulance crews, firefighters and police. 

The drug's main benefit, though, would be in treating the sick. Some propose giving it to everyone who gets sick in the first days of an outbreak. That would make them less likely to infect others, and might slow the epidemic. 

Others recommend limiting the drugs to those most likely to die from the flu, such as the elderly. "That assumes that we are not all at the same risk," says Monto. 

If taken soon after symptoms start, Tamiflu can shorten a bout of ordinary flu by several days, and people often start feeling better within hours. How well it would work against a mutant bird flu is unknown. 

No one knows how many would get sick in a bird flu pandemic, or even whether a new virus would truly spread as easily in humans as it does in birds. However, experts generally estimate that 30 percent to 40 percent of the population gets sick in a flu pandemic. 

In the worst pandemic on record, the 1918-19 Spanish flu, an estimated 40 million to 50 million died. The world population is almost four times larger now. 

___ 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Medical Editor Daniel Q. Haney is a special correspondent for The Associated Press. 




Bird Flu May Have Passed Between Humans 

2 hours, 28 minutes ago

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By TINI TRAN, Associated Press Writer 

HANOI, Vietnam - Two Vietnamese sisters who died of bird flu may have caught the disease from their brother, the World Health Organization (news - web sites) said Sunday. If confirmed, it would be the first known case of human-to-human transmission of the virus during the current outbreak sweeping Asia. 

The source of the two sisters' infection has not yet been conclusively identified, said Bob Dietz, a WHO spokesman in Hanoi. 

"However, WHO considers that limited human-to-human transmission from the brother to his sisters is one possible explanation," he said. 

Laboratory tests in Hong Kong verified that the sisters, ages 30 and 23, had been infected by the H5N1 bird flu virus, he said. 

The sisters were among eight Vietnamese whose deaths were confirmed to be from the bird flu that has infected poultry, mostly chickens, in at least 10 countries. Thailand has confirmed two human deaths from the disease. 

China closed poultry markets and processing factories in bird flu-affected areas, shortly after WHO warned that Beijing's chances to contain the disease may be dwindling. 

WHO on Saturday called on China to share more information about the disease, step up monitoring for possible human cases and take precautions so that workers engaged in the mass slaughter of birds are not accidentally infected. 

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (news - web sites) appealed for international aid for farmers across Asia, saying the farmers may otherwise resist slaughtering their flocks, a crucial measure in stamping out the disease and preventing a human outbreak. 

"We are ... concerned that mass culling is not taking place at a speed we consider absolutely necessary to contain the virus," said Hans Wagner, an FAO animal production and health officer. 

Most cases have been linked to contact with sick birds, and until now no evidence of human-to-human transmission has been found. 

Limited human-to-human transmission of the virus is not considered a serious danger. What experts fear is that the virus might mutate into a form that passes easily between people. 

There is no evidence that a new strain has emerged, WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng said. Such evidence would come from tests comparing the genetic makeup of the virus found in the two sisters with that seen in other people. 

"This may be an isolated incident. These were very close contacts, family members," she said. 

Vietnam now has a total of 10 confirmed cases of bird flu - including the eight deaths. An 8-year-old girl remains hospitalized in Ho Chi Minh City while a 4-year-old boy has recovered. 

The two sisters from northern Thai Binh province became sick after attending their brother's wedding reception. Their 31-year-old brother died Jan. 14 but was cremated so no samples were available to determine whether he also had bird flu. 

The women, whose identities have not been released, were admitted to the Institute of Clinical Research for Tropical Medicine on Jan. 13 and died Jan. 23. Their sister-in-law also was hospitalized with a respiratory illness, but she has recovered. 

"The investigation failed to reveal a specific event, such as contact with sick poultry, or an environmental source to explain these cases," WHO said of the sisters' deaths. "At the same time, such exposures cannot be discounted." 

The bird flu now hitting Asia spread between humans during an outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997, killing six people. 

In that outbreak, the virus passed from infected people to health workers but then lost its punch and failed to transmit further. Symptoms were very mild or nonexistent in those who caught the virus from patients rather than birds. 

Experts believe Hong Kong may have averted a global pandemic that year by cracking down hard. Once it discovered it had the virus, it slaughtered its entire chicken population in three days. 

The current bird flu outbreak has spread to 47 of Vietnam's 64 provinces - more than two-thirds of the country. 

Vietnam has vowed tougher measures to control the epidemic, including a nationwide ban on transporting poultry. Bird flu has now killed or forced the slaughter of more than 7 million chickens and ducks. 




24A. Easterbrook, Gregg. THE PROGRESS PARADOX: HOW LIFE GETS BETTER  WHILE PEO-PLE FEEL WORSE. RH, 2003. HC, 376pp. It is indeed a terrific  paradox. They (the sinister manipulators known as politicians and  industrialists) keep telling us things are getting better and better every day. The  stock market is back up, interest rates are down (which is up), productivity  is up, there are now about 15 different kinds of award ceremonies for "entertainment" we are told we love, we have more cars in the driveway  than ever before, more electronics with which to con-nect ourselves with all  the other modernized humans out there, more of everything conceivable.  Except happiness. Oopsy, that last one is a blip on the radar screen, and the damned thing just won't go away. I submit that nearly all people of conscience, all people who don't buy into the ma-terialist-corporate  ruse, and even billions of people who are so basically stupid that they  couldn't spit out a single coherent sentence about what's bothering them, are suffering from a common ailment-a large, dark, cavernous hole within  them that no amount of further glutting with the gadgets and other things  they keep telling us we love can fill to the point of satisfaction. No  matter how much we have, there is a gnawing emptiness which cannot be filled  by anything. How odd that this craving should coincide with the explosion  of opportunities to acquire virtually anything and everything that one  could want out of a materialistic existence-to the point of eliminating all challenges or stimuli to continue growing. There's your problem,  people. That's why you're not buying books and why Arcturus is going under.  What're you gonna do about it? $24.95



Mercury Damage Seen in Children of Fish Eaters
	
2 hours, 19 minutes ago
	
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By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Children whose mothers eat seafood high in mercury while pregnant can suffer irreparable brain damage, researchers reported on Friday. 

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The report comes the same week as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) doubled its estimate of how many newborns had unsafe levels of mercury in their blood. 


The study, done by an international group led by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, also showed that children exposed to mercury in the womb may suffer permanent damage to their heart function. 


"We found that both prenatal and postnatal mercury exposure affects brain functions and that they seem to affect different targets in the brain," Philippe Grandjean, who led the study, said in a statement. 


Grandjean and colleagues studied more than 1,000 mothers and children living in Denmark's Faroe Islands. Residents there eat large amounts of fish, much of it contaminated with mercury. 


They measured mercury in umbilical cord blood taken from the children at birth and then in hair samples taken at ages 7 and 14. 


Most of the mothers were suffering from mercury contamination, with their own hair levels at childbirth on average above 1 microgram per gram, the limit recommended bythe EPA and the independent, nongovernment National Research Council (news - web sites). 


BRAIN SIGNAL IRREGULARITIES 


Writing in the Journal of Pediatrics, Grandjean and colleagues in Denmark and Japan said they put electrodes on the heads of the children to measure electrical signals in the brain. They found delays in brain signaling, and the higher the mother and child's mercury load at birth, the more distinct the irregularities. 


They also found these neurological changes affected heart function. The children with the most mercury in their blood were less capable of maintaining the normal variability of the heart rate needed to secure proper oxygen supply to the body, Grandjean's team found. 


Earlier this week an EPA researcher published a report doubling the estimates of how may U.S. infants have unsafe levels of mercury in their blood. 


The researcher, Kathryn Mahaffey, estimated that 630,000 infants were born in a 12-month period between 1999 and 2000 with blood mercury levels higher than 5.8 parts per billion, the EPA's level of concern. This is more than double the previous estimate of 300,000 infants. 


"It is important to note that this estimate is preliminary in nature, and is based on recently available information about mercury in umbilical cord blood versus maternal blood," Mahaffey said in a statement. 


"EPA is still reviewing these new studies and their potential implications." 


Her full study is available on the Internet at http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/fish/forum/2004/presentations/m onday/mahaffey.pdf. 


Jane Houlihan of the Environmental Working Group said the study showed the government needs to limit emissions by coal-burning power plants, which are the top source of mercury contamination in the United States. 


Her group called for the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) to issue a list of fish that are lower in mercury and thus safer for pregnant women to eat, such as wild salmon and haddock. 

	 


The EPA says the most contaminated fish include shark, tilefish, king mackerel and swordfish. 

Sources of healthy omega-3 fatty acids other than fish include walnuts and flaxseed oil, and some fortified foods. 



Mad Cow Madness Exposed on Dreamland 20-Feb-2004

On our Dreamland science report this week Linda Moulton Howe interviews Mad Cow expert Giuseppe Legname, who says that U.S. efforts to control this disease are so bad, he's stopped eating meat. Dave Louthan, who actually killed the mad cow on December 26, 2003, said the same thing on Dreamland recently. Now Tom Ellestad, owner of Vern's Moses Lake Meats, where the cow was slaughtered, confirms that the cow was not a "downer." This means there is no way to identify which cows have the disease unless every one of them is tested, and we now only test about 20,000 cows a year out of 35 million. The U.S. says it will test 40,000 cows during the upcoming year. France tests about 50,000 cattle every week, and Japan tests all cattle that are slaughtered for food. Dr. Legname also says we need to find out whether dicalcium phosphate, which is made from cow bones, carries Mad Cow prions. Dicalcium phosphate is used in toothpaste. 

Jon BonnŽ reports in msnbc.com that Vern Moses says the cow later found to have Mad Cow Disease could walk when it was slaughtered, contrary to the recent U.S. Department of Agriculture statement that the animal was a downer. 

Like Dave Louthan, who enjoys his job and is an enthusiastic meat eater, Ellestad is no conspiracy buff. He was originally reluctant to contradict the USDA, since many of the inspectors are his friends. He says, "I really believed USDA was going to address this...and say, 'Whoops, it looks like that cow was able to walk and we need to address that issue.' It did not happen, and so this is where we're at now. 

"Our business had been devastated," he says. "Our reputation had been maligned and the USDA knew the truth but had chosen not to make the truth about the BSE (Mad Cow Disease) not being a downer available to the public." He has given an 18-page affidavit, with 20 pages of supporting documents, to the U.S. House Government Reform Committee. 

Vern's stopped accepting downer cows in February 2003, and he required all the farms that sent him animals and all drivers transporting the cattle to sign agreements that they would not load any cow that could not walk onto their trailers. One of his documents is a copy of an agreement signed by Randy Hull Jr., the driver who transported the infected cow, agreeing not to bring Vern's any downers. Hull states that the three cows he picked up from the Sunny Dene Ranch, in Mabton, Washington, where the infected cow was kept after being transported from Canada, were not downers. He says, "The animals each walked onto my trailer." 

Meanwhile, Randolph E. Schmid reports that Italian scientists have found a new form of Mad Cow Disease that more closely resembles Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, which infects humans, than the usual cow form of the disease. While studying eight cows with Mad Cow, they found that two of them had brain damage resembling the genetic version of human CJD, which infects older people and is sometimes confused with Alzheimer's. This is not the variant form of CJD that comes from eating infected meat. So far, there's no evidence that this new form of Mad Cow has infected any humans, but a new variation of any disease, especially one that more closely resembles the human version, is always a bad sign that it could be easier for humans to become infected with Mad Cow in the future. 


More Cows of Infected Canadian Herd Found 
	
1 hour, 21 minutes ago
	
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By ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press Writer 

KINGMAN, Kan. - While farmers tried to boost consumer confidence shaken by the country's first case of mad cow disease, federal agriculture officials announced they had tracked down five more animals from a herd of Canadian cattle that included the infected Holstein, slaughtered in Washington state. 


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Slideshow: Mad Cow Disease

	 

The finding brings to 19 the number of cows located from the 81 head of Canadian cattle that entered the country in 2001. 


Also in Washington, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) said it has found prohibited animal tissue in feed from six Canadian animal feed companies since the mad cow discovery last month. The discovery is significant because it may help investigators trace the source of infection. 


Feed tainted with tissue of an infected animal is the most likely means of spreading mad cow disease, a fatal brain-wasting illness. 


Mad cow is a concern because humans can get a related illness, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites), from eating contaminated meat. That concern prompted countries to close their borders to American beef last month. 


Also Friday, top agriculture officials from the United States, Canada and Mexico failed to reach agreement in Washington, D.C., on reopening their borders to beef products and live cattle. 


The United States has been pressing Mexico, a large market for American beef, to lift its total ban on U.S. beef and cattle that was imposed last month after scientists diagnosed the U.S. case of mad cow disease. 


Canada wants both the United States, its biggest trading partner in cattle and beef, and Mexico to lift restrictions that took effect after the Canadian mad cow case in May. 


U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said no decisions were made about resuming trade. 


The United States for now has put off allowing Canada to ship across the border young cattle - considered less likely to have the brain-wasting disease because of its long incubation period. 


Mexican Agriculture Secretary Javier Usabiaga said his country would reopen its borders once Mexican officials and consumers were confident that beef from the north was safe. 


___ 


On the Net: 


USDA mad cow pages: http://www.usda.gov/BSE/ 



Asian Bird Flu Makes Way to Indonesia 
	
Sun Jan 25, 5:12 PM ET
	
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By DANIEL LOVERING, Associated Press Writer 

BANGKOK, Thailand - Indonesia became the seventh country in Asia to confirm an outbreak of deadly bird flu, as the World Health Organization (news - web sites) warned Sunday the virus could be resistant to basic human influenza drugs. 


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The disease has already affected millions of chickens in Indonesia, said Sofjan Sudardjat, a senior agriculture official. But the virus has not yet crossed over to humans, he said. 


Indonesian officials had earlier denied the diseases' presence, but the Indonesian Veterinarians Association said several independent investigations had revealed that bird flu had already killed millions of chickens over the past several months. 


Asia is on a region-wide health alert, with governments slaughtering millions of chickens to contain outbreaks in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea (news - web sites), Japan and Taiwan. Vietnam has slaughtered more than 3 million chickens while Thailand has exterminated some 9 million. On Sunday, the Thai government enlisted hundreds of soldiers and 60 prisoners to help with the mass cull. 


Scientists believe people get the disease through contact with sick birds, raising concerns it might mutate and link with regular influenza to create a form that could be transmitted from person to person, fostering the next human flu pandemic. 


Concerns are particularly high because the bird flu virus caught by humans appears resistant to amantadine and rimantadine, the cheaper anti-viral drugs used to treat regular influenza. 


"This is a disease that's appearing in the developing world. So what you want is affordable drugs," WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said. "Should this move from human to human - and it hasn't yet, I want to stress that - then it's going to be a real challenge." 


So far, there has been no evidence of person-to-person transmission. But farms across Asia have been devastated but Vietnam and Thailand are the only countries this year where humans have caught the avian flu. There have been six confirmed deaths in Vietnam and one suspected fatality in Thailand. 


According to WHO, the virus is resistant to key anti-influenza drugs, and an effective vaccine is probably more than six months away. 


But "that's too late for the influenza season in Asia," said Peter Cordingley, a regional spokesman for WHO. 


Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, faced with accusations that he covered up the outbreak, said his government had suspected that bird flu had struck his nation a "couple of weeks" ago. But he said he didn't tell the public because he feared mass panic. 


The outbreak has devastated Thailand's chicken export industry - the world's fourth largest. Thailand shipped about 500,000 tons of chicken worth $1.3 billion in 2003. 


Many countries have imposed bans on poultry products from Thailand, and the prime minister said Saturday that overall exports could drop by as much as 0.4 percentage points and the gross domestic product could slip by as much as 0.1 percentage points as a result. 


Thaksin met Sunday with hundreds of worried chicken farmers, some of whom alleged his government tried to cover up the outbreak to protect poultry exports. Until Friday, officials had insisted that millions of birds were sick with other diseases. 


But Thaksin acknowledged Sunday that officials suspected a bird flu outbreak for weeks, and said he failed to inform the public of the government's concerns because tests for the virus had not yet been completed. 


On Wednesday, Thailand will host a meeting of foreign, agriculture and health ministers from bird flu-affected countries and international influenza experts to devise strategies they might use to thwart the spread of the disease. 


Thailand has also planned to send representatives abroad to allay customer worries. 

	 


In Vietnam, an 8-year-old girl was being treated for bird flu in a Ho Chi Minh City hospital. Two boys, aged six and seven, are seriously sick in Thailand and two others are thought to have been exposed. 



Discount Cards Help in Mad Cow Recall 

Thu Jan 22, 3:29 PM ET

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By PEGGY ANDERSEN, Associated Press Writer 

SEATTLE - During the recent mad-cow beef recall, one supermarket chain used its "preferred customer" discount cards to identify and warn shoppers who had bought the suspect meat. 

In fact, many supermarket chains could do the same thing - but they don't, largely for fear of being accused of violating customers' privacy. 

"One of our primary objectives is to protect our customers' privacy, so we don't want to jeopardize that," Albertsons spokeswoman Karianne Cole in Boise, Idaho. Still, she said, the mad-cow recall will probably prompt the chain to take another look at the idea. 

At many supermarkets, customers can sign up for an electronically scanned card that entitles them to discounts. The cards, when combined with the use of bar code scanners at the cash register, give stores a detailed, computerized record of all items bought by each customer, along with the customer's name, address and phone number. 

The data could be used to speed recalls of, say, questionable meat, mislabeled cookies containing peanuts, or other items. 

After a Holstein infected with mad cow disease was discovered in Washington state last month, the QFC supermarket chain posted a small sign in its meat departments with a telephone number that cardholders could call to find out whether they had bought any of the 10,400 pounds of beef recalled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) in eight Western states and Guam. 

Those who telephoned were asked to supply their card numbers. The store chain then pulled up the customer's computerized purchase records and told the person whether he or she had bought any meat from the recalled batch. 

"We were trying to do the right thing," said Jeff Burt, vice president of marketing with QFC stores, an 87-store chain in the Pacific Northwest that is an affiliate of Cincinnati-based Kroger Co. "We were trying to help a customer feel just a little bit better." 

In theory, supermarkets could take the initiative and use the discount cards to contact customers first, without waiting to be called. 

But the giant Kroger, Safeway and Albertsons chains said they have no plans to take such a step, in light of worries from those who think the cards already give away too much information about customers' spending habits. 

Kroger has "discussed using the shopper card to alert customers about urgent recalls," said spokesman Gary Rhodes in Cincinnati. "But we also believe that at this time, the system that's in place works pretty well." 

Officials with Albertsons and Safeway said they would track a cardholder's beef purchases in response to a written request. Neither invited such requests, however. 

One man who unwittingly bought some of the recalled beef at QFC and served it to his family scoffed at the notion that a call from a supermarket would be a violation of his privacy. 

"That's a call to prevent you from poisoning yourself," said lawyer Brian Weinstein, 49, of Mercer Island, who belatedly tracked his purchase with QFC's help. "If they'd called me, I'd have said thanks for the public service." 

At least one regional grocery chain - 66-store Wegmans, based in Rochester, N.Y. - has been taking the initiative. It has been using its "Shoppers Club" cards to alert customers to recalls for years, sending out postcards about products. 

Wegmans spokeswoman Jo Natale said the company employs the practice for recalls that could involve severe allergic reactions. "We've had nothing but positive comments," Natale said. 

The Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) did not immediately return a call for comment on the possibility of using grocery-chain cards to notify consumers about food or drug concerns. 

Some customers are troubled by the prospect. 

"Sure it would be useful to have someone contact me if I bought something tainted," Katherine Albrecht, founder of Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering, said from Boston. "But at what cost? A total food-supply surveillance network?" 

___ 

On the Net: 

CASPIAN: www.nocards.org 

QFC: www.qfconline.com 

Safeway: www.safeway.com 

Albertsons: www.albertsons.com 



Brain Sandwiches Still on Some Menus 

Thu Jan 15, 3:30 PM ET

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By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer 

EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Fear of mad cow disease hasn't kept Cecelia Coan from eating her beloved deep-fried cow brain sandwiches. 

She's more concerned about what the cholesterol will do to her heart than suffering the brain-wasting disease found in a cow in Washington state. 

"I think I'll have hardening of the arteries before I have mad cow disease," said Cecelia Coan, 40, picking up a brain sandwich to go at the Hilltop Inn during her lunch hour. "This is better than snail, better than sushi, better than a lot of different delicacies." 

The brains, battered with egg, seasoning and flour, puff up when cooked. They are served hot, heaping outside the bun. 

They are traced back to a time when southern Indiana newcomers from Germany and Holland wasted little. Some families have their own recipes passed down over the generations. 

A little mad cow hysteria won't scare this crowd, said Coan, a bank teller who likes her brain sandwich served with mustard and pickled onions. 

"You're going to die anyway. Either die happy or you die miserable. That's the German attitude, isn't it?" Coan said. 

The local delicacy is served at area German-heritage restaurants like the Hilltop Inn, a former stagecoach stop in the Ohio River city that opened in 1837. They're also popular at annual festivities like Evansville's fall festival, where they typically sell out early at church booths. 

The only thing that will stop many of the sandwich's fans from buying them is its availability. New rules from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites)'s Food Safety and Inspection Service will ban selling brains of cattle 30 months or older. 

The 30-month cutoff is used because the incubation period for cattle to develop the disease is many months to many years, said Denise Derrer, spokeswoman for the Indiana State Board of Animal Health. 

But some Evansville-area meat suppliers, such as Dewig Brothers Meats in Haubstadt, have stopped selling the cow brains completely. Since it opened in 1916, the supplier had saved the brains to sell to individuals and restaurants. The going price was from $1.50 to $2 a pound. 

The decision means customers will have to switch to pork brains, which they tend to not like as much because they are smaller and more difficult to work with, owner Tom Dewig said. 

Consumers, however, are not likely to tell the difference. 

"The taste is really carried in the batter," Dewig said. 

Although some people consider eating cow brain an area novelty, it is not just limited to Indiana, Dewig said. 

In California, in cities such as Stockton, cow brain is commonly sold as taco filling and sold from trucks. They are referred to by their Spanish name, "sesos." 

In Texas border towns, barbacoa, made from the cow's head and brain, is served during the holidays. 

Across the Ohio River in Kentucky, eating squirrel brain served with fried eggs was once considered a rural delicacy in some parts. Its popularity declined, however, after researchers in 1997 found a possible link between eating squirrel brains and contracting mad cow. 

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, eats holes in the brains of cattle and is incurable. Humans can develop a brain-wasting illness, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites), from consuming contaminated beef products. 

Federal officials said after the case of mad cow was detected Dec. 23 in Washington state that the meat supply was safe. 

The cow brains would have to be cooked to about 1,200 degrees to kill the rogue proteins called prions that cause the disease, said Derrer of Indiana's animal health board. That temperature is more than double that of deep frying. 

It will take more than one case of mad cow disease, however, to keep Nick Morrow, a 45-year-old pipefitter from Evansville, from eating the brain sandwiches he's enjoyed since a child. 

Morrow talked his buddy, Scott Moore, into eating at the Hilltop Inn just so he could have one. 

Mad cow disease was far from his mind. 

"Well, I haven't won the lottery yet, so I don't figure I'll get that," Moore said as a hot cow brain sandwich cut in half sat on a plate before him. 



Seven Mad Cow Deaths Linked to Racetrack 15-Jan-2004

Seven people died of the human form of Mad Cow Disease in New Jersey, with their only contact being that they all ate in the same racetrack restaurant, making one wonder what was being served there. 

Faye Flam writes in the Philadelphia Inquirer that the seven victims of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease had all eaten at the Garden State Race Track in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Janet Skarbek brought the cases to the attention of the Center for Disease Control because her friend Carrie Mahan was one of them. 

Skarbek started to look for other cases of CJD in the obituaries and found an 83-year-old man who had also spent time at the racetrack where Mahan worked between 1989 and 1995. Then she found four more cases among people who ate at the racetrack restaurant, as well as another woman who had worked at the track, which closed in 2001. 

It's been discovered that prion diseases can be passed from animal to animal, with some of them being unaffected carriers of the disease. This means that there may also be humans who are carriers of CJD, without being affected by it. Their blood could contaminate blood transfusions and medical equipment, without anyone realizing it. Regular sterilization does not removed prions from surgical instruments. 

Neurologist Patrick Bosque says, "It raises an additional level of concern, that these prions can persist in animals, and increase, even though (the animals) don't appear sick. For one thing, it shows you that screening for just obviously sick animals may not be sufficient." 

Michael Hansen, of the Consumers Union, says although feeding cattle remains directly to cows has been banned, cattle brains and spinal columns, where prions can lurk, are still turned into feed for chickens and pigs, whose remains are then put into cattle feed. He says, "Those animals could become silent carriers and infect cattle." 

The CDC's Tom Skinner says all seven New Jersey patients had sporadic CJD, a brain disease that was once not believed to be linked to infected beef. But now scientists say that sporadic CJD may be mistaken for Mad Cow-or may even be the same disease. 

Todd Harman reports for the Scripps Howard News Service that it's long been believed that only one of the two versions of human CJD can be linked to eating meat. The other version, known as sporadic or classical CJD, has long been thought to occur randomly in about one in every million people, with no link to infected meat. But new studies show that classical CJD may also be caused by eating meat, and that many of these cases, which occur in older people, may have been misdiagnosed as Alzheimer's Disease. 

Scientists in the U.K. injected tissue from a cow with Mad Cow Disease into mice whose brains were genetically engineered with human genes. One set of mice got sick with the human form of Mad Cow, but another set of mice developed what looked like the sporadic form of CJD, the one that scientists believed has no relationship to Mad Cow Disease or meat-eating. 

The main thing separating the type of diagnosis you're given may be your age. People who die of classical (or sporadic) CJD are all older people. Researchers first noticed Mad Cow Disease when young people started dying of CJD. But they may actually be the same disease and may both be caused by eating tainted meat. Researcher (and vegan) Dr. Michael Greger says, "Given the new research showing that infected beef may be responsible for some (classical) CJD, thousands of Americans may already be dying because of Mad Cow Disease every year." 


Is Bird Flu the Next SARS? 16-Jan-2004

Researchers say most of the human diseases of the future will be passed to us from animals. Right now, bird flu from Asian chicken farms is killing people in Vietnam. That seems too far away to affect us, but then so did SARS, when it was first discovered in China. The World Health Organization thinks avian flu may become an even bigger epidemic than SARS. In South Korea, Vietnam and Japan, officials are killing massive numbers of chickens, trying to prevent the spread of avian flu to more humans. All the people who've contracted the flu have gotten it directly from poultry; there's been no person-to-person contact so far. If the flu virus can be controlled before it mutates to a form that allows people to pass it on, the epidemic will be stopped before it starts. 

The WHO's Peter Cordingley says it's "a bigger potential problem than SARS because we don't have any defenses against the disease. If it latches on to a human influenza virus, then it could cause serious international damage." 

Animal diseases like SARS, Mad Cow and Ebola may be the biggest threat to humans in the future. Australian researcher Tony McMichael says, "Diseases like SARS, HIV and Avian flu have all probably jumped from animals to humans. We really shouldn't be surprised by this...These viruses are trying to evolve." 

In New Scientist, Gaia Vince quotes biologist Jeffrey Platt as saying, "Perhaps HIV managed to jump from primates to humans through infected blood from a bite, which allowed the stem cells from the two species to fuse. When the genes recombined, perhaps the virus was reawakened." 


Most People Don't Get Mad Cow from Meat 02-Jan-2004

Most people who get Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, the human form of Mad Cow Disease, don't get it from eating meat. Are our pets in danger of getting it?-since most pet food is made from dogs and cats. 

Malcolm Ritter writes that despite the fact that around 250 people in the U.S. die from CJD every year, most of these cases don't come from eating meat. "Classic" CJD usually occurs in older people who have inherited a genetic mutation for it. "Variant" CJD can be caught from eating tainted meat and also from contaminated equipment used for medical procedures, since the prions that pass along the disease are not killed by ordinary sterilization techniques. 

The "classic" version of CJD, which usually strikes older people, starts with trouble standing and walking, then progresses to involuntary movements, speech abnormalities and weakened mental abilities. "Variant" CJD is usually caught by young people and half these victims die by age 28. Their symptoms begin with depression and anxiety, progressing to numbness, until they are unable to move or speak. The "classic" form kills more quickly, which is one way doctors diagnose CJD instead of Alzheimer's Disease. 

Can our pets get it? They could-but none have so far in the U.S. Since 1997, the U.S. has banned feeding cattle, sheep or goats any food that contains brain and spinal cord material. However, these animal parts can still be put into pet food. The FDA plans to extend that ban to pet food in 2007. One sad reason this is important is that some elderly and poor people eat canned pet food because it's cheaper. 

"There is no evidence that dogs have ever gotten this disease," says veterinarian Alfonso Torres. But Mad Cow has been found in a about 100 cats in the U.K., as well as a few others in Europe. The British cats all got the disease around the same time, probably from a batch of tainted cat food. 

Veterinarian Stephen Sundlof, who works for the FDA, says that animals unfit for human consumption can be used in pet food "but they must be processed in such a way that they are deemed safe for the pets. This generally means that the pet food must be heat-treated or the animal-derived parts must be rendered to destroy any pathogens." However, heating does not destroy the prions that pass along Mad Cow disease. 



U.S. Consumers Shrug Off Mad Cow Scare 

Fri Jan 9, 5:28 PM ET

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By DAVE CARPENTER, AP Business Writer 

CHICAGO - It will take more than a single Holstein with mad cow disease to keep consumers like Ralph Flores from eating their beloved beef. 

"It would take a major epidemic," Flores said as he bought beef sausage at Paulina Market, a North Side butcher shop where beef sales never faltered until a blast of winter weather hit the city this week. 

More than two weeks since the emergence of the first case of mad cow in this country, prompting a widespread ban on U.S. beef overseas, the beef industry's worst fears have not been realized. There's been no evidence the disease has spread, and Americans have stood steadfast to their steaks. 

"You can't stop living," said Karl Wagoner as he polished off a burger recently in Trenton, N.J. 

Burger chains report no impact on sales and investors have returned to beef-related stocks after an initial selloff, even sending McDonald's higher than it was before the mad cow news broke Dec. 23. 

On Friday, U.S. agricultural officials said 129 dairy cows from a second quarantined herd with ties to the Washington state cow with mad cow disease will be killed. 

Consumer confidence in U.S. beef remains high and statistically unchanged from September, according to a survey conducted Dec. 29-30 by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (news - web sites). 

Eighty-nine percent of the 1,001 non-vegetarian adults interviewed in person and by phone said they were confident U.S. beef was safe from mad cow disease and 75 percent said they were eating as much beef as a month earlier - the largest percentages in the seven years the tracking survey has been taken. The margin of error of the poll was plus or minus 3 percent. 

So where's the beef panic? 

Industry observers and crisis management experts say the alarming news of Dec. 23 hasn't developed into a full-blown scare because consumers quickly understood that the individual risk to humans remained remote. 

The industry also benefited from strong public esteem for beef, which public-relations executive Richard Laermer puts just a step below apple pie on the U.S. food chain. 

"Americans and hamburgers - that's a serious, serious relationship," said Laermer, head of RLM Public Relations Inc. in New York and Los Angeles. "People are not going to give up hamburgers as easily as they'd give up, say, Perrier or Tylenol." 

The same goes for hot dogs, another beef icon. 

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a threat because scientists say humans can develop a brain-wasting illness, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites), from consuming beef products contaminated with BSE (news - web sites). But even that link has been challenged, and experts say the risk to individual consumers is minuscule regardless. 

While 153 people worldwide have contracted that illness, most in Britain, it has never been diagnosed in an American - a fact that apparently has helped ease consumers' initial concerns. 

Jonathan Bernstein, editor of the newsletter Crisis Management International and head of Bernstein Crisis Management of Los Angeles, thinks the government's complicated initial explanation of mad cow contributed to an early scare. 

"I think there was a little bit of public panic at first, in terms of 'I don't think I'm going to eat beef for a few days until I figure this out,'" he said. "Ultimately, the message got through to the general public that there's an extremely small chance of the average consumer being affected - at least at this point." 

Consultant Larry Smith suggests the timing of the crisis, amid other distractions, also has helped soften the impact. The fact it occurred during the holidays and at about the same time the government raised the nation's terror threat level to orange both lessened the potential for panic, he said, as did the media's "fairly straightforward" reporting to date. 

"There haven't been those World War II kind of banner headlines that would cause people's blood pressures to rise," said Smith, head of a Louisville, Ky.-based communications consulting firm, the Institute for Crisis Management. And with terrorism, SARS (news - web sites) and other threats, he said, "Maybe we don't panic quite as much as we used to about things because there are so many other things to panic about." 

A whole new attitude is possible if the "lone cow theory" doesn't hold up, as Laermer puts it. 

"We're sitting on something that's going to explode as soon as they turn up Cow No. 2," he said. "It's really easy right now to say, 'Look at this, it came from Canada, it's their problem and not ours.' But two cows - it will be a crisis. I'm not sure Americans will stop eating beef, but as Art Buchwald said, KFC will be dancing in the streets." 

Jerry Lekan, co-owner of Paulina Market, is similarly cautious even though his 55-year-old shop continues to sell 5,000 to 6,000 pounds of beef a week. 

"We don't see discouragement in beef," he said. "People knowing it came from Canada was a big ease to their minds. 

"But it's early. It'll all depend on the outcome of this situation." 

___ 

On the Net: 

National Cattlemen's Beef Association: http://www.beef.org 



http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimes_ts/20040104/ts_latimes/madcowcasecastslightonbeefuses


Mad Cow Case Casts Light on Beef Uses
	
1 hour, 57 minutes ago
	
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By Stephanie Simon Times Staff Writer 

It was just one cow, one lame, worn-out Holstein dragged to slaughter in a corner of the country. But the discovery that she was infected with mad cow disease has forced broader scrutiny of the U.S. food supply. 

	 

The positive test, disclosed just before Christmas, has pulled back a curtain on the alchemistic processes that convert every last scrap of slaughtered livestock into ingredients for consumer products: marshmallows and cereal bars, dog food and poultry rations, lipstick and hand lotion and garden fertilizers, tires and yogurt and breath mints. 


Federal officials and most outside experts continue to reassure the public that the risk from the one sick Holstein is extremely minimal - "virtually zero," according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites). 


As the USDA has repeatedly noted, the mutant proteins, known as prions, that cause and transmit mad cow disease do not concentrate in the muscle tissue that provides steaks, roasts and ground beef. Instead, the deadly prions tend to group in the brain, spinal column, intestines and bone marrow. 


Most Americans do not knowingly eat those parts of a cow. But in a process that is largely unregulated, the entire cattle carcass - including high-risk organs and tissues - is routinely recycled into edible fats, flavorings and thickeners used in a wide range of common products. 


Freeze-dried bovine brains and other organs also turn up in dietary supplements sold in health-food stores. 


And bits of spinal tissue or bone sometimes slip into the 45 million pounds of beef a year that is trimmed off carcasses in a mechanized process known as advanced meat recovery. 


Humans can contract a form of mad cow disease known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites) from eating infected animal products; the deadly prions cannot be killed by cooking, irradiation, sterilization or even chemical disinfectants. The illness, which can incubate silently, causing no symptoms for a decade or more, eats holes in the brain. It is always fatal; more than 150 people have died of it worldwide, most of them in Britain, where a mad cow epidemic ravaged herds in the 1980s. 


To minimize the risk of infection from beef byproducts, the USDA announced several reforms last week. It will closely regulate mechanical meat stripping. Cattle intestines, where the prions may first take root, will no longer be allowed in the human food supply. The USDA is also banning consumption of brains and spinal cord from older cattle, which are most likely to be infected and infectious. 


Up to 85% of the cattle slaughtered in the U.S. are young steers; their organs (except intestines) can still enter the food supply. Two recent cases of mad cow disease in young cattle have been confirmed in Japan. The brain-wasting disease is formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE (news - web sites). 


The mad cow scare has exposed America's food supply as a complex chain ever twisting back on itself - a system in which nothing is wasted. The efficiencies help keep food cheap. They also solve a major environmental challenge; billions of pounds of animal brains, hides, bones, feathers and guts are used each year, rather than burned or buried. 


"Our ancestors used everything but the moo, and we continue to try to do that," said Will Hueston, director of the Center for Animal Health and Food Safety at the University of Minnesota. 


That efficiency, however, may open the door for contamination, since one carcass is turned into so many products and recycled through so many paths. 


Any livestock carcasses that pass USDA inspection at the slaughterhouse - they are not necessarily tested for diseases but are visually examined - can enter the food supply. 


Considered edible waste, the carcasses are processed into lard, beef tallow and gelatin; those ingredients are then used in a range of foods, from candy to canned ham, sour cream to frosting, lozenges to soups. Gelatin even turns up in the gel-caps used for some pharmaceuticals. 


The Gelatin Manufacturers Institute of America says that most gelatin made for human consumption is prepared from pigskins, but it is also sometimes made from cattle bones. 


The USDA exercises no oversight over the animal carcasses once they leave the slaughterhouse. That's supposed to be the job of the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites). 

	 


The FDA inspects all 239 U.S. rendering plants annually - but only for the limited purpose of making sure that any animal feed containing cattle parts is clearly labeled. The agency does not audit the production of ingredients for human consumption. Nor does it check to ensure that gelatin, lard and tallow are made only from carcasses that have passed USDA inspection, said Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine. 

Indeed, Sundlof said the agency's lawyers are still looking into whether the FDA has the authority to set standards for the types of animal waste used in the edible rendering process. 

"We're still trying to look into what all comes out of that rendering stream," Sundlof said. 

The FDA is also researching whether it has the authority to take steps to ensure the safety of unregulated dietary supplements. Popular pills known as "glandulars" - marketed to boost energy and libido - often contain concentrated extracts from cattle glands and organs, such as the pituitary gland, liver, testicles and brain. 

Experts say that rendering does not kill the prions that spread BSE. But they also say that the chance of infection from any rendered product is extremely low. 

Only the barest traces of cattle remains would be present in, say, canned soup or gummy candy. "I don't look at [rendered products] as being much of a risk at all" given that there's only been one infected cow found in this country so far, said Leon Thacker, director of the animal disease diagnostic lab at Purdue University. 

The FDA says all rendered products traced to the Holstein infected with mad cow disease have been put on a "voluntary hold," meaning the factories that made them are not supposed to release them for sale. 

Some consumers are not reassured. 

"Now that I know the byproducts of cattle can be in almost anything, I'm going to start reading labels," said Humberto Retana, 33, a stay-at-home dad from Oakland. 

Retana has been a vegetarian for more than a decade, steadfastly refusing the steaks his wife tries to tempt him with. But until the mad cow disease scare prompted him to start researching the meat industry, Retana had never realized how often he ate or used products made with rendered cattle parts. 

"The notion that every last bit of the cow needs to be turned into some kind of profit is just extraordinary," Retana said. 

If the edible rendering market is largely hidden from public view, the parallel practice of inedible rendering is even more obscure. 

Plants that deal with inedible rendering take in all the livestock that the USDA deems unfit for human consumption, including cows that died from unexplained causes on farms or arrive at slaughterhouses visibly ill, with tumors, wasted bodies, sunken eyes or clear neurological impairments. (Until a USDA reform last week, "downer" cattle, which cannot walk on their own, were still considered fit for human consumption as long as they didn't exhibit other signs of disease.) 

Some inedible rendering plants also process dogs and cats that were euthanized in animal shelters, carcasses brought in by hunters, even road kill. They melt everything down at extremely high temperatures, sterilize it repeatedly and turn it into livestock feed, pet food, organic fertilizer and glycerine - an ingredient used in everything from crayons to cosmetics to toothpaste to fabric softener. 

In 1997, the FDA acted on concerns that animal feed containing rendered cattle could rapidly, and disastrously, spread BSE. The mad cow disease outbreak that infected more than a million British cows in the 1980s was spread in just that manner. 

So the U.S. began insisting that all animal feed containing rendered cattle be labeled. American farmers were allowed to feed it only to poultry and to swine - species that are not known to contract BSE through infected rations. (Pet food containing rendered cattle can also be legally fed to cats, even though felines are susceptible to a brain-wasting illness very similar to mad cow disease.) 

Federal officials have repeatedly described the 1997 feed ban as a firewall protecting the U.S. from a Britain-style epidemic of mad cow. 

But the system is not airtight. 

A report a year ago by the congressional watchdog, the U.S. General Accounting Office (news - web sites), found flaws in the FDA's enforcement of the feed ban and widespread lapses at rendering plants and feed mills. The FDA says those problems have been fixed. Even so, some loopholes are built into the law. 

For instance: When feed containing rendered cattle is given to poultry, some of it scatters on the floor as the birds peck at it. The floor is also thick with excrement, feathers, dirt and bits of straw. Rather than throw all that waste away, farmers sweep it up and recycle it - by selling it as cattle feed. 

The FDA allows that practice, which is most common in the big chicken-producing states of the Southeast. 

The ban on cattle eating cattle is circumvented in other ways too. It's legal to feed American cattle dry pet food that is past its expiration date. Yet that pet food is made from cattle carcasses. It's also legal to feed cattle supplements made from restaurant leftovers - including steaks and burgers. 

And calves are routinely fed formula, meant to replace their mothers' milk, that is made from dried cattle blood. 

Critics call it "the cannibalism circuit." Farmers reply that the practices not only prevent waste, they also save money - and keep food prices low. 

A dairy cow, for instance, can more than double her milk output if she's fed high-protein supplements. The traditional bovine diet of grass doesn't provide enough calories for her to produce milk in the quantities that modern agriculture demands. 

The FDA issued a public notice 14 months ago that it was considering restricting the use of poultry litter, pet food and restaurant leftovers as cattle feed. It has not yet acted. Sundlof said the agency was still accepting public comment on the notice. 

"The challenge we face is that all these [practices] are tied together in one big system," Hueston said. "These are very complex issues, with social as well as biological and economic implications." 

The issues clearly disturb some Americans; the animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals reported receiving 10,000 requests in the last week for its free "vegan starter kit." That's triple its normal call volume. Overall, though, consumers continue to eat as much beef as always. McDonald's, Burger King and other restaurants have reported no drop in sales. Interviews around the country confirm that most people are sticking with their favorite foods. 

"We're beefeaters, end of story," said Steve McCarthy, who was downing brisket and sausage at a Houston barbecue joint last week. 

In a public show of confidence in American cattle, Iowa Sen. Charles E. Grassley and North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven made it their New Year's resolutions to eat beef more often. Hoeven then invited Gov. Tim Pawlenty of neighboring Minnesota to dine with him at a restaurant of his choice - any restaurant, that is, where the menu features steak. 

* 

Times researcher Lianne Hart in Houston contributed to this report.

From http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~comm/bsefaq.html

USDA Quarantines Third Washington Herd 

1 hour, 20 minutes ago

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By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON - Authorities have quarantined a third herd of Washington state cattle in a widening investigation of mad cow disease after they located another cow from the same Canadian herd as the infected cow. 

At least some cows quarantined since the discovery last month of a Holstein with the brain-wasting disease will be destroyed, either because of possible exposure to the infection or to quell public fear, Dr. Ron DeHaven, the Agriculture Department's chief veterinarian, said Friday. 

"It would be safe to assume that ... some or all those animals will need to be sacrificed," DeHaven said of the quarantined cattle. A decision on the first cows to be killed will be made soon, he said. 

Results of DNA testing that should determine conclusively whether the original sick cow was born in Alberta, Canada, in April 1997 are expected next week, DeHaven said. 

The herd put under quarantine in the last day or two is at a dairy farm in Mattawa, near Yakima, where investigators traced one of 80 cows that entered the United States with the diseased Holstein in late 2001. 

Another nine cows and a calf born last month to the sick cow are on the Mabton, Wash., dairy farm that was the Holstein's final home. Another calf is on a farm at Sunnyside, Wash., also near Yakima, that raises bull calves. 

Investigators are trying to find cows from the same herd because the most likely source of infection was contaminated feed that the Holstein ate as a calf, DeHaven said. She was born before August 1997, when cow parts were prohibited from cattle feed in the United States and Canada. 

Both countries limited the contents of feed to reduce the chances of infecting cattle through the food chain. 

American officials have stressed that the diseased cow's age and the date of the feed ban suggest the infection occurred in Canada. This idea, if proven, would underline the effectiveness of the ban and, what is more important, would allow U.S. authorities to place the root of the problem north of the border, in Canada. 

The offspring of the sick cow are under quarantine because mother-to-calf transmission is considered unlikely but cannot be ruled out. DeHaven said investigators also are trying to trace the cow's mother and siblings. 

Other cows ultimately may be killed, too, DeHaven said. 

"Even though we know with a very good degree of certainty that there's no direct disease spread animal-to-animal, simply being on the same farm there are some public perception issues related to those animals," he said. 

The government typically pays up to market value for animals that it condemns to death to contain a disease. USDA officials have said they have yet to formulate a payment plan. 

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a threat because humans can develop a brain-wasting illness, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites), from consuming beef products contaminated with BSE (news - web sites). Although 153 people worldwide have contracted that illness, most in Britain, it has never been diagnosed in an American. 

Including the stricken Holstein, 81 animals were believed shipped across the border from the same Alberta farm in 2001. 




School Officials Monitoring Mad Cow Case 

Mon Jan 5, 8:11 AM ET

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By BEN FELLER, AP Education Writer 

WASHINGTON - Meat chili. It's what's for lunch Monday when the 650 students of the Reardan-Edwall School District in eastern Washington state return to class. 

The district is about a 90-minute drive from the Moses Lake plant where a Holstein infected with mad cow disease was slaughtered. News of that first mad cow case in the United States broke Dec. 23 when many of the nation's schools were on break. 

That means Monday will be the first time that millions of students return to the school cafeteria, the place where hamburgers and meat-topped pizza often rule. 

"The chances of the disease being contracted by humans is so minute that it shouldn't change the way we do things," said Rob Clark, superintendent of Reardan-Edwall. 

For his district, in a farming region with a cattle-rancher on the school board, Clark added: "I would have a pretty tough time, politically in this town, taking meat off the table. That doesn't mean I wouldn't; we have to make tough decisions. I just don't see it happening." 

School districts must determine how, if at all, the mad cow case will affect what food they serve and what they do with frozen meat they have stockpiled. Many school officials say they are relying on the federal government's message: The food supply remains safe. 

More specifically, a spokeswoman for the national school lunch program said no meat the government buys for schools comes from suppliers connected to the mad cow investigation. 

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is caused by a misshapen protein that eats holes in a cow's brain. Government officials say there is no threat to the food supply because the infected cow's brain, the spinal cord and the lower part of the small intestine - where scientists say the disease is found - were removed before the cow was sent for processing. 

Still, as a precaution, the Agriculture Department has recalled more than 10,000 pounds of meat from about 20 cows slaughtered with the Holstein on Dec. 9. That meat was distributed to eight western states and Guam, although officials said most went to Oregon and Washington. 

The department, which monitors the safety of animal health and meat, is also in the business of providing school lunches to an estimated 28 million children. That total includes the children who receive free or reduced-price meals through the federal lunch program and those who pay for them, but not students who buy lunch items a la carte. 

Schools get a combination of reimbursement for federally approved meals and food directly bought by the government - including a good portion of the beef served in schools. The government bought an estimated 133 million pounds of beef for schools in 2003. 

"We're very pleased to report that none of the affected meat is in the national school lunch program, and we have notified our states of that," said Jean Daniel, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department's Food and Nutrition Service. 

The department requires that any meat purchased for school lunches is slaughtered in the way that strips away potential disease-carrying tissue. The lunch program also for years has prohibited meat from "downer animals" that can't walk or stand on their own. 

The lone diseased Holstein in Washington state was such a downer. The department last week announced a full ban on meat from downed animals as part of new safeguards. 

The American School Food Service Association, which represents thousands of people who purchase and serve school meals, has updated its members through the holidays about the mad cow case. Included in its advice: reassure parents that government safeguards and school sanitation steps "result in safe school meals, including those meals that include beef." 

Association officials said they remain confident in the safety of the U.S. meat supply, yet a spokesman said it is tough to gauge how schools will react when they return from break. Schools, in some cases, anticipate much stronger parental interest in what kids are eating. 

In central California, the 34,000-student Clovis Unified School District plans to give students information they can take home about food safety and mad cow disease. 

In New York City, home to the largest school district in the country, no menu changes are planned. 

"We believe the beef in our schools is not affected by mad cow disease and is safe to serve," said Margie Feinberg, spokeswoman for the city's Education Department. "We will, of course, monitor and test our beef products very closely and take whatever action is necessary should there be any indication that there is a health risk." 

___ 

On the Net: 

American School Food Service Association: http://www.asfsa.org 

National School Lunch Program: http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Lunch/default.htm 

Agriculture Department: http://www.usda.gov 



U. S. Department of Health and Human Services
U. S. Food and Drug Administration
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
May 2003 



Consumer Questions and Answers About BSE

What is "Mad Cow Disease" (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy)?

Mad Cow Disease is the layperson's name for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), a transmissible, slowly progressive, degenerative, fatal disease affecting
the central nervous system of adult cattle. There is no evidence to date of BSE affecting U.S. cattle, * despite an aggressive surveillance program under which
nearly 20,000 animals were tested last year.

Does BSE affect humans?

BSE is a disease that affects cattle. However, there is a disease similar to BSE called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), or vCJD, which is found in humans. 
There have been a small number of cases of vCJD reported, primarily in the United Kingdom, occurring in people who consumed beef that may have been
contaminated. (As of May 2003, there have been a total of approximately 139 cases of vCJD worldwide.) There is strong scientific evidence (epidemiological and
laboratory) that the agent that causes BSE in cattle is the agent that causes vCJD in people. The one reported case of vCJD in the United States was from a young
women that contracted the disease while residing in the UK. The symptoms appeared years later after the young woman moved to the U.S.

The disease, vCJD, which primarily affects younger persons, is very hard to diagnose until the disease has nearly run its course. In its early stages, the disease may
manifest itself through neurologic symptoms, but it is not until the latter stages of the disease that brain abnormalities detectable by x-ray or MRI can be seen. 

Is it possible to get vCJD from eating food purchased in the United States?

The disease, vCJD, has been associated with the consumption of foods produced from BSE infected animals. Because BSE has never been found in the U.S., * it is
unlikely that food purchased in the U.S., such as at a grocery store or restaurant, would be contaminated. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service has restricted the importation of live ruminants, such as cows and sheep, and most food products from these animals from BSE countries
since 1989, and from all European countries since 1997. It is important for consumers to know that:

No meat products from ruminant animals from the 33 countries identified as having BSE or at risk for having BSE are allowed in the U.S. This includes meat products used in human, animal, and pet foods. Milk and milk products continue to be imported into the U.S. from these countries because milk and milk products are not believed to pose any risk for transmitting BSE to humans. Experiments have shown that milk from BSE-infected cows has not caused infections in the same species or in other test animals. 

Under an Import Alert, FDA stops cosmetic and dietary supplement ingredients containing bovine materials from animals originating in the 33 countries where BSE has been found or is at risk for being found from entering the U.S.

What is being done to determine whether the newly recognized vCJD is occurring in the United States?

With heightened concern about vCJD in Europe, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have enhanced their vCJD surveillance in the U.S. To date, there
has been one reported case of vCJD in the United States. A young women contracted the disease while residing in the UK. The symptoms appeared years later
after she moved to the U.S. 

What is the current risk to American consumers traveling to foreign countries of acquiring vCJD?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the current risk of acquiring vCJD from any specific country appears to be extremely small, but
cannot be precisely determined because cattle products from one country might be distributed and consumed in others. 

When and how did BSE in cattle occur?

BSE has been of great concern since 1986, when it was first reported among cattle in the United Kingdom. At its peak, in January 1993, almost 1,000 new cases
per week were identified. The outbreak in the United Kingdom may have started from the feeding of scrapie-contaminated sheep meat-and-bone meal to cattle.
Scrapie is a disease of sheep that is related to BSE in cattle. There is strong evidence that the outbreak in cattle was amplified in the United Kingdom by feeding
rendered bovine meat-and-bone meal to young calves. The nature of the transmissible agent in BSE is not known. Currently, the most accepted theory is that the
agent is a modified form of a normal cell surface component known as a prion protein. Why or how this substance changes to become disease-producing is still
unknown. Prions are resistant to common treatments, such as heat, to reduce or eliminate its infectivity or presence. 

Milk and milk products from cows are not believed to pose any risk for transmitting the BSE agent because experiments have shown that milk from BSE-infected
cows has not caused BSE in cows or other test animals.

What countries have reported cases of BSE or are considered to have a substantial risk associated with BSE?

These countries are: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia, The Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Poland,
Portugal, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, and United Kingdom (Great Britain including Northern Ireland and the Falkland
Islands). 

Canada has recently been added to this list of countries from which imports are restricted.

Is BSE Affecting Cattle in the United States?

Active surveillance for BSE in the highest risk cattle in the United States has failed to identify any cases of BSE in the United States. * Federal and state agencies
have taken a series of actions to prevent the introduction of BSE into the US food supply. 

For example, to prevent BSE from entering the United States, firm restrictions were placed on the importation of live ruminants and ruminant products including
meat, meat-and-bone meal, offals, and glands from countries where BSE was known to exist. These restrictions were later extended to include importation of
ruminants and certain ruminant products not only from BSE-positive countries, but also countries thought to be at high risk for BSE, even if the disease hadn't
been identified in those countries. 

In addition, FDA prohibits the use of most mammalian protein in the manufacture of animal feeds given to ruminants because this kind of feeding practice is
believed to have initiated and amplified the outbreak of BSE in the United Kingdom. 

Are these actions being taken against Canadian products?

Yes, FDA and USDA have expanded their BSE import restrictions to include Canadian products. 

Is BSE, the disease that affects cattle in Europe and has now occurred in a beef cow in Canada, the same as CWD, the disease
that affects elk and deer in the US?

Many different "Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies" (TSE) exist in different animals (including people). To date, we have found no evidence that the
TSE in cattle (BSE) and the TSE in deer and elk (CWD) are related, but research is continuing. FDA is working closely with other government agencies and the
public health community to address CWD in wild and domesticated herds. Wildlife and public health officials advise people not to harvest, handle, or consume
any wild deer or elk that appear to be sick, regardless of the cause, especially in those states where CWD has been detected.

Is the beef in the U.S. considered safe to eat?

FDA, in collaboration with other federal agencies, has preventive measures already in place to reduce the American consumer's risk of exposure. There is no
evidence that BSE has infected U. S. cattle, * and FDA continues to implement policies to prevent exposure to the public through FDA regulated products,
including food, food ingredients, dietary supplements and cosmetics that contain bovine materials. 

How is BSE spread among cattle?

It is believed that BSE is spread when cattle eat animal feed that contains the mammalian protein from other infected rendered animals. FDA, with its feed ban, has
restricted the use of rendered mammals in ruminant feed. 

What is being done to prevent Canadian products that may be contaminated with BSE from entering the United States?

The risk to human health resulting from the BSE-infected cow in Canada is extremely small, if it exists at all; no meat from this animal entered the human food
supply. When this case was reported from Canada, FDA and USDA reacted immediately. USDA added Canada to its BSE restricted countries list, and USDA and
FDA expanded their restrictions on imports from BSE countries to Canadian products. 

FDA will continue to work with USDA to stop a wide variety of products (animal feed, human food) with bovine-derived materials from being imported into the
U.S. from BSE restricted countries, including Canada. In addition, both FDA and USDA are cooperating with the Customs Service to ensure food safety at the
border. 




This document was issued in May 2003. For more recent information on Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) See http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/bse.html

Updated Information: USDA Makes Preliminary Diagnosis of BSE December 23, 2003

FDA Statement of Probable Case of BSE in Washington State December 24, 2003

USDA BSE Information and Resources (including news transcripts)






Top Stories - AP


Animal Feed Watched After Mad Cow Case 

2 hours, 34 minutes ago

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By CARL MANNING, Associated Press Writer 

WAMEGO, Kan. - Feedlot operator Buck Peddicord knows his success depends on the health of the beef cattle being fattened in his pens. 

Peddicord and other cattle producers say they would never consider violating a 1997 Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) ban on feeding cattle parts back to cattle, a ban enacted to guard against the possible spread of mad cow disease. 

Feedlot operators submit to random inspections, and many sign affidavits required by buyers that none of their animals was fed beef bone meal. 

Doing otherwise, they say, would risk disaster. 

"It doesn't make sense to do it for the economics," said Peddicord. 

Doran Junek, a rancher in western Kansas and executive director of the Kansas Cattlemen's Association, put it more plainly: "The liability you would set yourself up for would wipe you out of the cattle business and would devastate the cattle industry." 

The discovery last week of a mad cow case in Washington state has put the spotlight on the 1997 rule. Federal officials, and some outside observers, say the ban is working, but some consumer groups question how well it is enforced and say the regulation doesn't go far enough. 

Cattle byproducts, serving as protein supplements, may still be fed to animals such as chickens and pigs. Those animals may in turn wind up being fed to cattle, which some people see as a loophole. The FDA, however, has said there's no scientific evidence to extend the ban. 

Most beef cattle producers use plant products like soybean or cottonseed meal as protein sources at some point, said Bo Reagan, a spokesman for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (news - web sites) in Denver. 

"We don't take any chances," said Jim Keller, owner of a feedlot in western Kansas that handles up to 40,000 cattle. Like most feedlot operators, he makes his own feed. 

Keller adds soybean meal and manmade supplements to the feed. He has the protein supplements tested weekly for quality control and quarterly for any animal bone meal. 

Like other feedlot operators, he signs an affidavit required by the buyer - in his case Tyson Foods Inc. - stating that no cattle being sold were fed beef bone meal. Tyson, the nation's largest beef processor, has been verifying that all its producers comply with the law since early 2001, spokesman Gary Mickelson said. 

"Everybody does it," Peddicord said. 

The FDA focuses its inspections on feed mills to make sure that cattle byproducts are used only in feed destined for other animals, like poultry and swine. Inspectors sometime take feed samples for analysis. They also examine records to see where the feed came from and see that all labeling is correct. Feed containing beef parts must carry a caution label. 

Steven Soloman, FDA deputy director for regional affairs, said annual checks are made of the 500 feed mills that use cattle parts in feed for other animals. He said the agency found a 99 percent compliance rate; the remaining 1 percent were noncompliant for minor violations such as record-keeping errors. 

In one case, a feed company in Tacoma, Wash., admitted in a consent decree in July that it violated FDA regulations designed to prevent the spread of the disease. 

Carol Tucker Foreman, director of food policy for the Washington-based Consumer Federation of America, questioned the FDA's high compliance rate. 

"I can't say I am confident that is the case because I don't believe there is anybody out there really checking on it on a regular basis," she said. "They could be doing a lot more checking to make sure people are what they are supposed to be doing." 

She says the government needs to ban byproducts from cattle and similar animals from all livestock feed. 

"It would improve public confidence because I believe there would be one less area where people would raise legitimate concerns about a weakness in the system," she said. 

People who work in animal health and food safety generally praised enforcement of the FDA ban. 

"No system is 100 percent, but this is working," said Nolan Hartwig, an Iowa State University veterinarian. 

___ 

On the Net: 

FDA information on mad cow disease: http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/(tilde)comm/bsefaq.html 




Disease puts cattle testing in U.S. under microscope

Sun Dec 28, 2:22 PM ET

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By Judith Graham Tribune National Correspondent 

TOPPENISH, Wash. -- To adequately protect Americans, the United States should dramatically expand its testing program for mad cow disease now that a case of the illness has been found in this country, consumer groups and experts are urging. 

All cattle that arrive at slaughterhouses unable to walk plus all older cows that die on ranches of unknown causes--the animals at highest risk--should be tested for the malady, several groups are advising. Only relatively small numbers of animals are now tested. 

The disease's arrival underscores the need for the U.S. to evaluate surveillance and monitoring systems that were designed years ago, when mad cow was a potential threat, not a reality as it is now, experts agree. 

"It's time to look at our procedures and say what else do we need in the way of safeguards now that we have mad cow disease here," said Linda Detwiler, a former U.S. Agriculture Department official who until recently coordinated an agency working group on mad cow and related illnesses. 

Federal and state authorities are trying to trace the history of the Holstein from south-central Washington that tested positive for mad cow disease this month after appearing infirm at a slaughterhouse. It may be days, weeks or longer before the cow's origins become clear. 

Toppenish Livestock Commission Co., a large cattle auction operation, is believed to have sold the cow to the Mabton dairy, where it lived until it went to slaughter Dec. 9. On Friday, a "Closed til further notice" sign hung in the door of the two-story gray building flanked by holding pens on a quiet country road. 

A heated debate about how best to respond to the threat posed by the disease has already begun. The recommendations range from testing more cattle to closing loopholes in 1997 feed regulations, to creating stricter standards ensuring that animal brains, spinal cords and nervous system tissue, which when eaten can transmit the illness, don't enter the animal and human food supplies. 

Many of these recommendations are controversial because they would require more money and effort and impose new regulations on the multibillion-dollar U.S. cattle industry and related enterprises. 

Huge incentive 

Now, however, there is a huge incentive to act. Since the cow in Washington state was diagnosed with mad cow disease, 90 percent of export markets for U.S. beef have shut their doors, citing safety concerns. Many of them, especially those in Europe and the Far East, have had firsthand experience with mad cow disease and have much stricter regulations than the U.S. 

Mad cow disease--formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE (news - web sites)--is a progressive neurological disease that eats holes in the brains of cattle. The human form of mad cow disease, called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites), has killed about 130 people, most of them in England. 

"The livestock industry and the USDA still hope this is an isolated case, but now they can't avoid biting the bullet," said John Stauber, co-author of "Mad Cow U.S.A." "They may be able to convince the American public our food supply is safe, but they're not going to be able to convince our export markets so easy. They're going to have to show they're taking actions necessary to protect consumers." 

Some groups such as the Humane Society of the United States are calling for a ban on slaughtering "downer" cows that arrive at meatpackers unable to walk, an issue Congress considered this year but did not resolve. 

"There is absolutely no reason that sick animals belong in the food supply," said Nancy Donley, president of Safe Tables Our Priority, a consumer food safety advocacy group. Companies such as McDonald's agree: For more than 20 years, the corporation has prohibited meat suppliers from using "downer" cattle, said spokeswoman Anna Rozenich. 

But cattle ranchers don't want an absolute ban. Some "downer" cows merely have broken legs or other minor illnesses. 

"We would prefer that farmers and ranchers never send an animal to market that cannot sustain the journey," said Gary Weber, executive director for regulatory affairs at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (news - web sites). "But if they do, [the animals] should be held to extremely high standards of inspection and condemned if there is any doubt about the wholesomeness of the product." 

If an animal is tested for mad cow disease, cattle ranchers believe all meat and other products should be kept out of the food chain until results come in. That isn't the current practice. 

The Washington Holstein found to have mad cow disease was butchered and delivered to meat processors before test results were available. State and federal authorities are trying to track where that meat went and whether any ended up with consumers. They also are trying to find where the cow was born and the origin of the contaminated feed given to the animals. 

Expanded testing has plenty of precedent. In Japan, every cow that goes to slaughter is tested for mad cow disease. In most of Europe, all cattle older than 30 months and most cattle that become incapacitated and unable to walk are tested. Rapid tests are used, instead of the older, more time-consuming tests available in the U.S. 

By the numbers 

The numbers tell the story. In 2002, European nations tested 11 million out of 40 million cows for mad cow, compared with 20,526 cows tested in the U.S. last year out of 97 million. 

"Since we have a positive [test result] in the U.S., we have to hugely increase the numbers of animals being tested to restore consumer confidence and discover the true extent of the problem here," said Judd Aiken, a professor of animal health at the University of Wisconsin. 

"If the results of this investigation show a bigger problem than we've perceived, then yes, the science indicates there should be more testing," said Weber of the cattlemen's association. 

Another concern is "advanced meat recovery" systems used in slaughterhouses to strip meat from carcasses. Almost three-quarters of the plants using these powerful systems, designed to maximize the recovery of meat, have been found to have contaminated meat with central nervous system tissue, according to audits by the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the USDA. 

McDonald's has prohibited the use of the automated systems by its suppliers. Several experts suggest the U.S. should tighten oversight of the technology and ensure that contamination stops. 

There also appears to be growing consensus on the need for a national identification system for cattle in the U.S., a program that would mark each calf when it is born and track changes in ownership. The Agriculture Department and livestock producers have been designing a program that would capture information electronically and store data about all cattle in the U.S. in computer databases. 

One sticking point has been protecting the data. There are concerns about would-be terrorists knowing where all the cattle in the U.S. were based, plus a rancher or feedlot would not want competitors getting the information, Weber said. 

Still, when the system is up and running, he said, it should take minutes or hours to trace a cow's origins, instead of the extended time it's taking to get information about the Washington Holstein that's the first known case of mad cow in the U.S. 


The Offal Truth: People Enjoy Eating Calf Brains


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Dec 31, 10:36 am ET 

By Ben Berkowitz

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - You can boil it in salted water, drain and chop it into neat little chunks, and then scramble it with a dozen eggs and three tablespoons of butter -- or you could coat it in cream, cheese and spices and fry to a crispy golden brown.

Mmmmmm, yummy, brains! With eggs or fried as fritters, they are just like grandma used to make but after the last few days, you may not want to eat them ever again.

The discovery of mad cow disease in a dairy cow in Washington state has led to renewed warnings that people should eschew cow's brains, as that is the organ most affected by the disease and among the most likely parts to spread the ailment to humans.

Yet for some, according to one historian of American food, the brain of the calf is something still to be enjoyed.

"People eat calves' brains, that's what you buy at the store," Ruth Adams Bronz, a cookbook author and former restaurant operator in New York and elsewhere, told Reuters. "What cow brains are used for are what they call 'meat byproducts,' in things like hot dogs and bologna." U.S. officials have recalled 10,000 pounds of beef. The meat, which came from the infected cow and 19 others slaughtered on Dec. 9, was shipped to eight states and Guam, though there has been no recall of any brain products.

A spokeswoman for the American Meat Institute said there is no risk of BSE from eating calves' brains because of their young age, which does not give the illness enough time to incubate.

Recipes like brains and eggs and Cervello in Frittata Montano (calf brain fritters) are a delicacy in this country, Bronz said, but not for the faint of heart or those with fluttery stomachs.

"It's not very common in this country. People don't like offal in this country. it's hard to sell," she said.

MIXED POPULARITY

Popular restaurants across the country have been known to serve calf brains, like TV personality Mario Batali's Babbo in New York (where former New York Times restaurant critic Ruth Reichl compared the calf brain ravioli to "clouds wrapped in tender sheets") and the well-regarded Esparza's in Portland, where calf brain tacos are a highlight.

But at the Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles, a staple of the local working-class Hispanic community, "sesos" (cow brains) were in short supply. Only one taco stand advertised sesos, but a cook there said they stopped selling them because of slack demand.

At Economy Meats, which offers parts of various animals from head to toe under the sign "Carne Fresca" (Fresh Meat), a counterman said they regularly sell sesos but, for reasons unknown, had not had a shipment in two weeks.

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (the scientific name of mad cow disease) is a fatal ailment that destroys the brains of infected cattle. Humans contract a form of it, known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, by eating tissue from the brains, spinal cords or central nervous systems of infected animals.

At least 137 people died from the human variant after mad cow disease struck herds in Britain and Europe a decade ago.

Calves are not the only providers of "brain food," though. Sheep brains, sold in tins or served roasted or baked, are not uncommon in parts of the world. In the American South, especially places like Kentucky, squirrel brain is considered a delicacy, though there is some evidence of a "mad squirrel disease" from eating them.

"The USDA needs to take brain and spinal cord out from the food supply all together," said Will Hueston, veterinarian at the University of Minnesota.

But Bronz said some meat companies might be reluctant to give up brain matter.

"Brains are a real good filler," she said. "If you can grind them into meat ... they won't disturb the taste of the muscle meat." 



Investigators Trace Diseased Cow to Canada 

1 hour, 13 minutes ago

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By EMILY GERSEMA, Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON - Investigators tentatively traced the first U.S. cow with mad cow disease to Canada, which could help determine the scope of the outbreak and might even limit the economic damage to the American beef industry. 

In addition, some calves in a quarantined herd of 400 that included a male offspring of the sick cow likely will be killed, the Agriculture Department said Saturday. The herd was at a farm in Sunnyside, Wash., which officials refused to name. 

Dr. Ron DeHaven, the Agriculture Department's chief veterinarian, said on Saturday that Canadian officials provided records indicating the sick Holstein was in a herd of 74 cattle shipped from Alberta, Canada, into this country in August 2001 at Eastport, Idaho. 

"These animals were all dairy cattle and entered the U.S. only about two or two-and-a-half years ago, so most of them are still likely alive," DeHaven said. 

The sick cow's presence in that herd does not mean all 74 animals are infected, DeHaven said. Investigators will probably find where the other 73 animals are within a matter of days, he said. Finding them will help investigators determine if any other animals are sick and need to be tested. 

In May, Canada found a lone cow with the disease in Alberta but has not been able to determine the source of infection. 

If U.S. and Canadian officials confirm that the sick cow in Washington state came from Canada, it might save the export market for the American beef industry because the United States could keep its disease-free status and continue trade. 

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (news - web sites) in Denver said the indication that the infected cow was from Canada means U.S. trading partners should reopen their borders to American beef. The farm organization said a beef export monitoring program would allow importers to separate beef of Canadian origin if they feel additional precautions are needed. 

Federal officials announced on Tuesday that tests indicated the cow, which ended up at a Washington farm in October 2001, had mad cow, a brain-wasting illness. An international laboratory in England confirmed it Thursday. 

Julie Quick, a department spokeswoman, said Saturday that officials are awaiting a recommendation from USDA scientists on whether to kill some calves in the Sunnyside herd, but that seemed likely because investigators cannot tell which among multiple young calves in the herd is from the sick cow. 

"Since the calf was not tagged, all bull calves at the Sunnyside premises under 30 days of age will likely be depopulated," the department said. It was not clear how many calves were in that category. 

Mad cow disease, known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a concern because humans who eat brain or spinal matter from an infected cow can develop variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites). In Britain, 143 people died of it after an outbreak of mad cow in the 1980s. 

Federal officials insist U.S. meat is safe because the brain, spinal cord and lower intestine - parts that carry infection - were removed from the cow before its meat was processed for human consumption. 

Despite those assurances, more than two dozen countries banned U.S. beef this week. The United States lost 90 percent of its beef export market, industry officials say, and producers stand to lose up to $6 billion a year in exports and falling domestic prices. Agriculture Department officials went Saturday to Japan, a top buyer that has banned American beef, to discuss maintaining trade. 

Connecting the infected cow to Canada could deal another blow to the Canadian beef industry, which has struggled since it found its case of mad cow last May. It lost $1 million in beef trade per day as countries cut off beef imports. 

Dr. Brian Evans, chief veterinary officer of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, emphasized that the cow's origins have yet to be confirmed. He noted that details on the cow's records in the United States do not match the ones kept in Canada. 

Canadian papers show the cow had two calves before it was shipped to the United States, which wasn't documented by U.S. officials. 

Also, DeHaven said Canadian papers say the diseased cow was 6 1/2-years-old - older than U.S. officials had thought. U.S. records say the cow was 4- or 4 1/2-years-old. 

Because of the discrepancies, Evans cautioned against "a premature conclusion that the definitive animal or definitive birth place has been located." 

The age is significant because the animal may have been born before the United States and Canada in 1997 banned certain feed, which is considered the most likely source of infection. 

Cows get infected by eating feed which contains tissue from the spine or brain of an infected animal. Farmers used to feed their animals such meal to fatten them. 

Although U.S. officials have maintained the food supply is safe, the government recalled an estimated 10,000 pounds of meat cut from the infected cow and from 19 other cows all slaughtered Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses Lake Meat Co., in Moses Lake, Wash. 

Ken Petersen, of the department's Food Safety and Inspection Service, said, "It's too early to know how much of the product has been brought back, though we know that some of the product is beginning to be at least held at the retail facilities." 

Officials say the slaughtered cow was deboned at Midway Meats in Centralia, Wash., and the meat was sent to two other plants in the region, identified as Willamette Valley Meat and Interstate Meat, both near Portland, Ore. 

Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) is trying to find out if the cow ate contaminated feed - a difficult task because the animal may have gotten the disease years before it appeared sick. The disease has an incubation period of four or five years. 

Dr. Stephen Sundlof, head of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, said the agency is accounting for all of the byproducts rendered from the cow, including items like soap and soil nutrients. 



U.S. Loses 90 Percent of Beef Exports 
	
35 minutes ago
	
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By EMILY GERSEMA, Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON - Just days after discovering the nation's first case of mad cow disease, the United States has lost nearly all of its beef exports as more than a dozen countries stopped buying American beef as insurance against potential infection. 


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Gregg Doud, an economist for the Denver-based National Cattlemen's Beef Association (news - web sites), said Friday that the United States, at today's market level, stands to lose at least $6 billion a year in exports and falling domestic prices because of the sick cow. "We've lost roughly 90 percent of our export market just in the last three days," Doud said. 


Keith Collins, the Agriculture Department's chief economist, said the market probably will not see the full economic impact of the mad cow case until trading intensifies after the holidays. He has said that 10 percent of U.S. beef is exported. 


Japan, South Korea (news - web sites) and Mexico are among the top buyers that banned American beef imports this week after the U.S. government announced it had found a cow in Washington state sick with the brain-wasting illness. An international lab in England confirmed the results Thursday. 


As a safeguard, countries usually shut down meat imports from countries where the illness was found. 


A U.S. delegation is leaving Saturday for Japan, which takes about one-third of all U.S. beef exports, and possibly other Asian countries that imposed bans on American meat and livestock this week. The Treasury Department (news - web sites) said it is monitoring developments. 


Mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a public health concern because it is related to a human disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob. In Britain, 143 people died of the human illness after an outbreak of mad cow in the 1980s. People can get it if they eat meat containing tissue from the brain and spine of an infected cow. 


Federal officials on Friday quarantined a herd of 400 bull calves, one of which is an offspring of the sick cow. During its life, the infected cow bore three calves. 


One calf is still at the same dairy near Mabton, Wash., that was the final home of the diseased Holstein cow. That herd was quarantined earlier. Another calf is at a bull calf feeding operation in Sunnyside, Wash., and a third died shortly after being born in 2001, said Dr. Ron DeHaven, chief veterinarian for the Agriculture Department. 


"There is the potential that the infected cow could pass the disease onto its calves," he said. No decision has been made on destroying the herds, he said. 


Investigators are focused on finding the birth herd of the cow, since it likely was infected several years ago from eating contaminated feed, DeHaven said. Scientists say the incubation period for the disease in cattle is four or five years. 


Since 1997, the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) has banned giving grazing animals feed that contains brain and spinal tissue to prevent the disease from appearing. 


DeHaven said the investigation could lead to other states or Canada, which found a case mad cow disease in Alberta in May. 


If U.S. officials determine the sick cow was imported from Canada and its offspring has been destroyed, they could protect the American beef trade from economic fallout, said Michael Stumo, an attorney for the Organization for Competitive Markets, a nonprofit group in Nebraska whose mission is to ensure fair markets for farmers. 


But investigators have not yet found where the sick cow was born. 


U.S. officials have repeatedly said the food supply is safe because the cow's brain, spinal cord, and lower part of the small intestine - where the disease is found - were removed before it was sent for processing. 


Authorities are tracing where the meat from the animal was sent and the Agriculture Department has recalled 10,000 pounds of beef slaughtered Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses Lake Meat Co. in Washington state. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said it was an extra precaution. 

	 


___ 

On the Net: 

USDA: http://www.usda.gov 

National Cattlemen's Beef Association BSE (news - web sites) site: http://www.bseinfo.org 

Second Herd Quarantined in Mad Cow Probe

2 hours, 13 minutes ago

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By Randy Fabi and Richard Cowan 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Agriculture Department quarantined a second herd of cattle in Washington state on Friday, as the $27 billion U.S. cattle industry came to grips with its first case of mad cow disease. 

The department said an investigation, launched after the discovery of the deadly, brain-wasting disease in a four-year-old Holstein dairy cow in rural Washington state, could take months. 

Venezuela and Egypt on Friday joined some two dozen nations that halted imports of U.S. beef. Food company stocks and cattle prices tumbled as investors worried that U.S. consumers could begin to eat less beef. 

Some two dozen nations that buy U.S. beef halted shipments, including announcements on Friday by Venezuela and Egypt. 

The department said it would dispatch a team of trade experts to Japan, the biggest single buyer of U.S. beef, to begin talks on Monday on how to address that nation's concerns and resume shipments. Last year, Japan bought about $1 billion worth of American beef, veal and variety meats. 

The department said it would step up its testing of U.S. cattle for possible infection with mad cow disease, and would examine other regulations to see if they need to be tightened. 

An outbreak of mad cow disease, known formally as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE (news - web sites)), forced the slaughter of millions of cattle in Europe in the 1990s. At least 137 people, mostly in Britain, died of a human form of the disease, known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites). 

In both cattle and humans, the disease destroys portions of the brain, causing paralysis and blindness. There is no cure. 

The investigation to pinpoint how the U.S. cow was infected will take time, said Ron DeHaven, USDA's chief veterinarian. 

"It might not be a matter of days, it might be a matter of weeks or months," DeHaven told reporters. 

The USDA quarantined a second herd of 400 bull calves in Sunnyside, Washington, that contains a calf recently born to the infected Holstein cow, he said. 

Earlier, the USDA quarantined a 4,000-animal herd at a farm in Mabton, Washington where the infected cow lived before it was slaughtered on Dec. 9. The cow was sent to slaughter after complications from calving left her unable to walk. 

She gave birth to two other calves during her lifetime, DeHaven said. One died and the other is a yearling heifer living with the mother's herd, which is under quarantine. 

It was "highly unlikely" that BSE -- which is conveyed through infected brains, spinal column and nervous system tissue -- could be spread to other animals through birth, but scientists cannot rule out that possibility, he said. 

The investigation by the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) focused on where the infected cow was born, and what kind of feed she consumed early in life. 

"We assume it was infected very early in life because the average incubation period is generally four or five years," said Stephen Sundlof, the FDA's chief veterinarian. 

In 1997, the FDA banned the use of cattle remains as an ingredient in feed for other cows. However, cattle brains, spinal cords and other potentially risky material can be ground up and used in feed for poultry, pigs and household pets. 

DeHaven also said it was "premature" to speculate whether the infected cow was born in Canada. In May, Canadian officials found a single case of BSE in a Black Angus cow in Alberta. Investigators were never able to determine the cause. 

The U.S. probe could be broadened to "potentially many states," DeHaven said. 

Bush administration officials again emphasized that the beef supply is safe for consumers. President Bush (news - web sites) continues to eat beef, a White House spokesman said. 

Shares in beef processor Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE:TSN - news) were pounded again on Friday. Major hamburger chains like McDonald's Corp. (NYSE:MCD - news) recovered modestly, as investors tried to gauge the impact on consumer demand. 

"It's quite possible that there's a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about the situation," said Midwest Research analyst Christine McCracken. 

USDA officials said they plan to increase testing of U.S. cattle for BSE, with an estimated 38,000 animals to be tested this fiscal year. Last year, the USDA tested about 20,000. 

Seeking to head off repercussions, U.S. cattlemen said slaughter houses should hold the carcasses of cattle that are too sick to walk until mad cow test results come back. The infected Holstein in Washington state was processed into hamburger and other meats before the USDA received confirmation of BSE. 

The industry previously said downer cattle posed no clear risk to the human food supply because sometimes they simply had a broken leg from being unloaded at slaughter houses. 

The FDA said it was assessing its rules, with an eye toward possibly banning the use of cattle remains in all animal food. 

Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's on Wednesday placed the debt ratings of most U.S. beef protein processors on watch, with negative implications. 

In Chicago, cattle futures fell the maximum amount allowed, tumbling 3 cents per pound to 86.175 cents per pound. Analysts said cattle prices could fall another 15 to 20 percent before the market stabilizes. 


Congress Scuttled Meat Protection Measure 

2 hours, 1 minute ago

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By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON - Legislation to keep meat from downed animals off American kitchen tables was scuttled - for the second time in as many years - as Congress labored unsuccessfully earlier this month to pass a catchall agency spending bill. 

Now, in the wake of the apparent discovery of the first mad-cow case in the United States, the author of the House version of the cattle provision wants to press the issue anew when Congress returns Jan. 20 from its winter recess. The massive, $373 billion spending bill covering several government agencies is still pending in the Senate. 

"I said on the floor of the House that you will rue the day that because of the greed of the industry to make a few extra pennies from 130,000 head, the industry would sacrifice the safety of the American people," said Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., chief House sponsor. "It's so pound foolish." 

The provision dealing with downed cattle didn't even make it into the compromise version of the legislation that House and Senate conferees brought before Congress late in the year. 

The Agriculture Department estimates that 130,000 downed animals that are too injured or sick to stand or walk unassisted are slaughtered every year. About 36 million cows are slaughtered each year in the United States. 

The provision, which started through the legislative process as an amendment to an agriculture spending bill, would have effectively prohibited the sale of livestock too sick or injured to stand or walk unassisted. 

The agricultural spending bill passed - with the provision intact - on a Senate voice vote in November after failing by three votes in the House in July. But congressional negotiators did not include it in the broader, $373 billion omnibus spending bill that passed the House this month and which is still awaiting a vote in the Senate. 

Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., a negotiator who voted for the measure in the House, said Democratic negotiators never had a chance to fight for the proposal. 

"The Republicans, the leadership, shut off the conference, they closed it down, and this is one of a number of provisions which were handled in a backroom deal without the Democrats there and with only the Republican leadership," said Hinchey. 

Lawmakers and congressional aides said they consider it very unlikely that Congress would reopen the multibillion-dollar bill to deal with the issue. "I can't imagine that it would be," Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-Texas, an opponent of the measure, said. 

A day after the government announced the first apparent case of mad cow disease in the United States - in a downed animal - lawmakers and interest groups on both sides of the issue said they had been vindicated. 

The Humane Society of the United States has warned repeatedly that if the meat from a lone cow with the brain-wasting disease found its way into the food supply, other countries would cut off U.S. beef imports and consumer confidence would be shaken. "We are already seeing that play out," said Humane Society Vice President Wayne Pacelle. Japan, Taiwan and Mexico, the three largest importers, banned U.S. beef. 

But opponents of the legislation said USDA inspectors might never have discovered the apparent presence of the disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, had Ackerman's legislation been in place. 

Banning the sale of downed animals would prevent USDA inspectors from detecting possible cases because the animals would never reach the slaughterhouse for inspection, they said. 

"The fact that it was caught is the significant thing for the consumer," said Rep. Charles Stenholm, D-Texas, the senior Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee. Stenholm has argued that federal inspectors are in the best position to keep sick animals, as opposed to those that can't walk but are otherwise healthy, out of the food chain. 

Agriculture officials also have insisted that the food supply is safe because the animal parts most at risk of carrying the disease, the brain and spinal column, had been removed. "Muscle cuts of meat have almost no risk," Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said. 

In the House, most Republicans as well as conservative and farm-state Democrats opposed the measure. 

Both chambers passed similar provisions in their versions of the 2002 farm bill, but negotiators stripped the measure from the final version of that bill. 

In both years, the National Milk Producers Federation lobbied successfully against the provision. 

"If you don't allow movement off the farm, then you miss the opportunity to diagnose the problem," said Chris Galen, spokesman for the federation. 


U.S. Probes How Cow Contracted Disease

38 minutes ago

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By JONATHAN D. SALANT, Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON - Federal officials raced on Wednesday to find out where a Washington state cow, apparently infected with mad cow disease, was born and may have been infected. 

Even as the investigation continued, officials sought to reassure Americans about the safety of the nation's food supply. That didn't stop several nations from banning U.S. beef, including Japan, Taiwan and Mexico, the three largest importers. 

Agriculture Department officials told a briefing that the cow joined the Washington State herd in October 2001 and was culled from other cows Dec. 9, after she became paralyzed, apparently as a result of calving. 

But because the brain-wasting disease is usually transmitted through contaminated feed and has an incubation period four to five years, it is "important to focus on the feed where she was born" in 1999, USDA chief veterinarian Ron DeHaven said. 

Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said tissue samples from the diseased cow were put aboard a commercial jet expected to arrive in England later Wednesday for conclusive tests of the preliminary diagnosis. She said results of those tests could be available in three to five days. 

She said the animal fell ill on at large dairy farm with two sites and 4,000 cows in southern Washington state. All the animals on this farm have been quarantined by the state. If the preliminary testing confirms the preliminary finding, it is likely that other cows in the herd will be slaughtered. 

President Bush (news - web sites), who is with his family at Camp David for Christmas, has been receiving regular updates on the situation, a White House spokesman said. He spoke with Veneman again on Wednesday, and will be getting briefings on the incident later in the day, the spokesman said. 

The animal in question was one of 20 slaughtered Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses Lake Meat Co. in Moses Lake, Wash., and meat from those carcasses was shipped to other processing plants on Dec. 11, Kenneth Peterson of the Food Safety and Inspection Service said. Federal food safety inspectors have been sent to four locations, not immediately identified, which received some of the 10,410 pounds of meat from the 20 carcasses slaughtered Dec. 9 in Moses Lake. 

All 10,410 pounds have been recalled. "We're looking at when the carcasses were processed and what was done with them," Peterson said. 

In the search for the birth herd, federal officials have identified two livestock markets in Washington state where the cow could have been purchased in October 2001, DeHaven said. He would not disclose the identity of the markets. 

"Once we have the birth herd, we'll want to know what animals have come into that herd and what animals have left that herd and all the feeding practices for that herd," DeHaven said. Using records supplied by the dairy farmer and accompanying the diseased animal, inspectors hope to identify the birth herd in a day or two, DeHaven added. 

The impact of the report was evident almost immediately with various nations banning imports of U.S. beef after the Agriculture Department announced that a so-called downed cow, meaning it was unable to move on its own, had tested positive for the brain-wasting disease. 

The cow was from a farm near Yakima, Wash. Veneman said parts of the animal went to three processing plants in Washington State. But she said there was no danger to the food supply because "muscle cuts of meat have almost no risk." 

Agriculture Department officials and cattle industry executives tried to allay fears that American beef supplies had become infected, saying the U.S. inspection system was working effectively. 

"The important point is that the high-risk materials - that is, the brain and spinal column that would cause infectivity in humans - were removed from this cow," Veneman said on ABC's "Good Morning America" Wednesday. 

She noted that the United States since the early 1990s has banned the use of cow and sheep byproducts for animal feed, which cuts off a major mode of transmission of the disease. 

"We are in an abundance of caution," Veneman told NBC's "Today" show. 

The department's Food Safety and Inspection Service said it is continuing its investigation to ensure that all the recalled beef is correctly identified and tracked, but gave no further details immediately. 

There was no answer at the telephone number listed for Vern's Moses Lake Meat Co., after the recall, which was announced early Wednesday. 

Veneman also assured Americans that no foul play was suspected, saying "this incident is not terrorist-related." 

Appearing on CBS' "The Early Show," Veneman asserted, "The risk is extremely low to human health and I would without hesitation say that no one should be afraid to eat beef."

Mad cow disease eats holes in the brains of cattle. It sprang up in Britain in 1986 and spread through countries in Europe and Asia, prompting massive destruction of herds and decimating the European beef industry. 

People can contract a form of mad cow disease if they eat infected beef or nerve tissue, and possibly through blood transfusions. The human form of mad cow disease so far has killed 143 people in Britain and 10 elsewhere, none in the United States. 

U.S. beef producers worried that they could suffer heavily from a mad cow scare. Restaurants that serve beef also could be affected. 

"I think it has the potential to hurt our industry," said Jim Olson, a rancher in Stanfield, Ariz., who owns about 150 cattle. 

Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, called on the government to test more cows for the disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. 

"The U.S. needs to be far more proactive in protecting the American food supply," said Michael Hansen, a senior research associate. 

The disease was found in a Holstein cow, which could not move on its own, from a farm in Mabton, Wash., about 40 miles southeast of Yakima. Tissue samples were taken on Dec. 9, and eventually tested positive for BSC. Parts of the cow that would be infected - the brain, the spinal cord and the lower part of the small intestine - were removed before the animal went to a meat processing plant - standard operating procedure in this country. 

Many residents of Mabton - population 2,045 - were protective of local cattle owners Tuesday and unwilling to discuss the matter with reporters, who were turned away from businesses and farms. 

The apparent discovery of mad cow disease comes at a time when the U.S. beef industry is flourishing, in part because imports from Canada dried up after a single case of the disease was found there last spring and also in part because of the popularity of the Atkins high-protein diet . 

Veneman said several U.S. trading partners, including Canada, have offered assistance in the investigation. 

"The beef cattle industry has just had a resurgence of growth," said Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss. "This is going to be a setback." 

Some American consumers said Tuesday they weren't ready to find something else for dinner. 

"We're beef eaters," said Carrie Whitacre of Omaha, Neb. "Plus we're not going to get beef from Washington state here anytime soon." 

Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said that while whole cuts of meat should be safe, there could be problems with ground meat, which can be mechanically stripped from the bone near an infected part. 

"USDA needs to take swift action to insure that the meat that is found in hot dogs, hamburgers and those others doesn't pose a risk," DeWaal said. 

The beef industry said there was nothing to worry about. 

Patti Brumbach, executive director of the Washington State Beef Commission said none of the suspect parts of the animal made it into the beef supply. "I think once consumers understand that the beef supply is safe, it should be a short-term concern." 

With an election year approaching, the news concerned some in Congress. Rep. Tim Holden, D-Pa., a member of the House Agriculture Committee, said he expected lawmakers to hold hearings when they return to Washington in late January. 

But another member of the Agriculture Committee rushed to support the beef industry. 

Rep. Cal Dooley, D-Calif., said, "People I think should not be frightened to have their prime rib on Christmas Eve." 

___ 

On the Net: 

Agriculture Department: http://www.usda.gov


First Suspected U.S. Mad Cow Case Found 

44 minutes ago

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By JONATHAN D. SALANT, Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON - A single Holstein on a Washington state farm has tested positive for mad cow disease, marking the disease's first suspected appearance in the United States, the Bush administration announced Tuesday as it assured Americans their food is safe. 

Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said the slaughtered cow was screened earlier this month and any diseased parts were removed before they could enter the food supply and infect humans. Fear of the disease has brought economic ruin on beef industries in Europe and Canada. 

"We remain confident in the safety of our food supply," Veneman told a hastily convened news conference. 

Still, some allies like Japan and South Korea (news - web sites) temporarily banned imports of U.S. beef, providing an early indication of the potential economic damage the discovery could cause. 

The farm near Yakima, Wash., where the cow originated, has been quarantined as officials trace how the animal contracted the disease and where its meat went. 

"Even though the risk to human health is minimal, we will take all appropriate actions out of an abundance of caution," she said. 

Mad cow disease, known also as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, eats holes in the brains of cattle. It sprang up in Britain in 1986 and spread through countries in Europe and Asia, prompting massive destruction of herds and decimating the European beef industry. 

A form of mad cow disease can be contracted by humans if they eat infected beef or nerve tissue, and possibly through blood transfusions. The human form of mad cow disease so far has killed 143 people in Britain and 10 elsewhere, none in the United States. Blood donors possibly at risk for the disease are banned from giving. 

Wary of the potential economic impact on their American market, beef producers quickly sought Tuesday to reassure consumers that infected meat wouldn't reach their tables. "There is no risk to consumers based upon the product that came from this animal," said Terry Stokes, chief executive of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (news - web sites). 

Veneman also assured Americans the screening system worked, and no foul play was suspected. "This incident is not terrorist-related," she said. "I cannot stress this point strongly enough." 

President Bush (news - web sites) was briefed a few times on the development Tuesday and was confident Veneman's department handling the matter properly, the White House said. 

With an election year approaching, the news concerned some in Congress. Rep. Tim Holden, D-Pa., a member of the House Agriculture Committee, said he expected lawmakers to hold hearings when they return to Washington in late January. 

"We're going to look into this and see the possibility of how this happened," Holden said. "I'm sure there will be extensive oversight hearings to see what we can do to assure the American people the safety of the food chain." 

Lawmakers are keenly aware that a case of mad cow disease in Canada last May - which officials described as a single, isolated incident - still had devastating economic consequences. 

"If it's anything like what happened in Canada, it will be bad. The problem won't be that people will stop eating meat in the United States; the problem is the exports will be shut down like we did with Canada," said Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn. 

Veneman said the Holstein, which could not move on its own, was found at a farm in Mabton, Wash., about 40 miles southeast of Yakima, and tested preliminarily positive for the brain-wasting illness on Dec. 9. Parts of the cow that would be infected - the brain, the spinal cord and the lower part of the small intestine - were removed before the animal went to a meat processing plant. 

Samples from the cow have been sent to Britain for confirmation of the preliminary mad cow finding, Veneman said. The results will be known in three to five days. Veneman said consumers can get daily updates by reading the department's Web site or by calling 1-866-4USDACO. 

Alisa Harrison, a department spokeswoman, said downer cattle that show signs of mad cow disease when they reach the slaughterhouse are tested for the illness. 

But Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., said such cows shouldn't be in the food supply in the first place. The Senate passed such a ban earlier this year, but it failed to make it through the House. 

"I blame it on greed, greed, greed," Ackerman said. "The greed of the industry, the greed of the lobbyists and the greed of the members of Congress." 

Veneman said the Agriculture Department has had safeguards in place since 1990 to check for mad cow disease and 20,526 cows had been tested in 2003 in the United States. An estimated 130,000 downed cattle are slaughtered each year. 

"This is a clear indication that our surveillance and detection program is working," Veneman said. 

U.S. beef remains "absolutely safe to eat," she said. 

"We see no reason for people to alter their eating habits," she said. "I plan to serve beef for my Christmas dinner." 

____ 

On the Net: 

Agriculture Department: http://www.usda.gov 


Dairy Under Quarantine on Mad Cow Report 

1 hour, 37 minutes ago

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By SHANNON DININNY, Associated Press Writer 

MABTON, Wash. - Residents of this tiny south central Washington town rallied around neighboring dairy owners as news leaked that a local farm was the source of what could be the nation's first case of mad cow disease. 

There are about eight dairy farms in Mabton - population 2,045 - and dozens more in the surrounding area. A government source familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press that the cow came from Sunny Dene Ranch in Mabton. 

Mayor David Conradt said he did not expect "any financial hit" to the town, as long as the disease is limited to one cow. "The impact, I hope, is going to be minimal," he said. Locals were unwilling to discuss the matter with reporters, who were turned away from businesses and farms. 

Sid Wavrin, who identified himself as the owner of the Sunny Dene Ranch, declined to comment when contacted by The AP. Sunny Dene has operations in Mabton and nearby Grandview. William Wavrin, who also is listed by the state Department of Agriculture on registration documents for Sunny Dene, did not return a call for comment. 

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman had announced Tuesday that a single Holstein from a farm near the town, about 40 miles southeast of Yakima, likely had mad cow disease. If confirmed by follow-up tests at a lab near London, the case would be the first in U.S. history. 

The case quickly affected at least one company associated with the slaughtered cow. Supermarket giant Safeway Inc. said it has stopped selling all fresh ground beef products from an Oregon supplier that received meat from the affected cow. 

Outside the Sunny Dene dairy, police warned that anyone entering property without permission would be arrested for trespassing, so reporters lined up alongside a road that separates the farm and the Yakama Indian Reservation. A sign at the farm read "Private Property." 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) said the cow was slaughtered at Vern's Moses Lake Meat, Inc., in Moses Lake, about 70 miles northeast of Mabton, on Dec. 9, after she became paralyzed, apparently as a result of calving. 

The USDA said Vern's was voluntarily recalling about 10,410 pounds of raw beef, but the agency's Food Safety and Inspection Service said there was an "extremely low likelihood" that the recalled beef contains the infectious agent that causes bovine spongiform encephalopathy. 

Tom Ellestad, co-manager of Vern's Moses Lake Meat, told the Columbia Basin Herald in Moses Lake that he remains confident in the inspection system that led to the discovery. "We have done nothing wrong," he told the newspaper. "The inspection system works because we caught this cow." 

The USDA said the slaughtered cow was deboned at Midway Meats in Centralia, and the meat - though no contaminated spinal or brain tissue - was sent to two other plants in the region, identified as Willamette and Interstate Meat. 

Safeway, which has sold fresh ground beef products from Interstate Meat Distributors Inc. of suburban Portland, Ore., said Wednesday that it will stop doing so and will look for another supplier. 

"We're doing this voluntarily out of an abundance of caution," Safeway spokeswoman Bridget Flanagan said. 

Interstate spokesman Quint Daggett said Wednesday that the USDA had told the business to refer all calls to the agency. 

Messages left at Midway Meats were not returned. Jeff Kline, spokesman for Willamette Valley Meat in Portland, Ore., refused to comment.

U.K. Lab Confirms Mad Cow Case in U.S. 
	
58 minutes ago
	
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By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON - A British lab provided initial independent confirmation Thursday that the United States has its first case of mad cow disease, U.S. agriculture officials said. Federal investigators labored to trace the path the infected animal took from birth to slaughter. 


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Scientists at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, England, told the Agriculture Department they concur with the reading of tests on the stricken Holstein cow that led U.S. officials to conclude the animal had the brain-wasting disease, U.S. officials said. 


"We are considering this confirmation," said USDA spokeswoman Alisa Harrison, adding that the English lab still will conduct its own test using another sample from the cow's brain. Final test results on the cow from Washington state were expected by the end of the week, she said. 


Professor Steven Edwards, chief of the British lab, said those results already have been given to USDA. But Edwards refused to disclose whether the tests show that the animal had mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. 


Meanwhile, Harrison said, investigators were working through the holiday to prevent a potential outbreak of the deadly disease and to calm public fears about the food supply. Government officials have said there is no threat to the food supply because the cow's brain and spine - nerve tissue where scientists say the disease is found - were removed before it was sent on for processing. 


Humans can contract a fatal variant of mad cow disease by eating infected beef products, but experts say muscle cuts of beef - including steaks and roasts - are safe. Also hamburger ground from labeled cuts, such as chuck or round, poses little health risk, experts say. 


"Even though this is Christmas Day, federal officials are working on the investigation," she said. 


The government is trying to find the herd the cow was raised with, since the cow likely was sickened several years ago from eating feed made partly from an infected cow. The incubation period in cattle is four to five years, said Dr. Stephen Sundlof of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites). 


Authorities also want to know where the animals were transported and have narrowed their search to two unidentified livestock markets in Washington state, where the sick cow could have been purchased. 


Government sources told The Associated Press that the cow lived since 2001 at the Sunny Dene Ranch in Mabton, Wash., a town 40 miles south of Yakima. Officials have said a dairy farm near Mabton is under quarantine and that its herd would be slaughtered if the mad cow diagnosis was confirmed. 


Authorities also were scrambling to find where the meat cut from the animal was sent. The Agriculture Department already has issued a recall for 10,410 pounds of beef slaughtered Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses Lake Meat Co. in Moses Lake, Wash. 


Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said the recall was an extra precaution. 


But the government came under criticism on two fronts. John Stauber, the author of "Mad Cow U.S.A.," said the U.S. hasn't done enough to keep BSE (news - web sites) out of the country. 


Cattle get sick by eating feed that contains tissue from the brain and spine of infected animals. The United States has banned such feed since 1997. 


"Here's the problem, the feed ban has been grossly violated by feed mills," Stauber said in a telephone interview from his home in Madison, Wis. 


In one such case, X-Cel Feeds Inc., of Tacoma, Wash., admitted in a consent decree in July that it violated FDA regulations designed to prevent the possible spread of the disease. 


Agriculture officials said that only two out of some 1,800 firms are not in compliance with the ban, a significant improvement since 1997. 

	 


Stauber also said he believes the ban is ineffective because it exempts blood from cattle, which Stauber said could transmit mad-cow type diseases. Government officials and industry executives have said there is no evidence that animals can be infected from the blood of other animals. 

Dr. Stanley Prusiner, a neurologist at the University of California at San Francisco who discovered the proteins that cause mad cow disease, said he warned Veneman recently that it was "just a matter of time" before the disease was found in the United States. 

He said he told her the United States should immediately start testing every cow that shows signs of illness and eventually every single cow upon slaughter, The New York Times reported in Thursday's editions. 

Prusiner, a Nobel laureate, told the Times that fast, accurate and inexpensive tests are available, including one that he has patented through his university that he says could add 2 or 3 cents a pound to the cost of beef. 

The scientist said Veneman is getting poor advice from USDA scientists and did not seem to share his sense of urgency when he met with her six weeks ago, after several months of seeking a meeting. 

"We have met with many experts in this area, including Dr. Prusiner," Julie Quick, a spokesman for Veneman told the Times. "We welcome as much scientific input and insight as we can get on this very important issue. We want to make sure that our actions are based on the best available science." 

While government and cattle industry officials voiced assurances that the beef on American Christmas holiday tables was safe to eat, the biggest buyers of U.S. beef around the world slapped bans on imports of the American product. 

BSE is caused by a misshapen protein - a prion - that eats holes in a cow's brain. A total of 153 people worldwide have been reported to have contracted the human form of the illness, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites). 

___ 

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Mad Cow Reports Alter Christmas Dinner 
	
Wed Dec 24, 5:24 PM ET
	
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By JERRY SCHWARTZ, AP National Writer 

'Twas the day before Christmas, and Caryn Kaufman was having serious menu anxiety. 


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Each Christmas, Kaufman invites friends and family to her Milford, Conn., home for finger foods, good cheer and fa la la la la. But this year, she had planned something different - and the morning headlines made her wonder whether she should break with tradition after all. 


This year, she had intended to make Swedish meatballs. 


The high-caloric holidays always have posed hazards to the weight conscious. But all of a sudden, Christmas feasting seemed an especially risky business to people like Kaufman - people who had planned to serve beef, but found the newspapers and the airwaves full of reports that a cow in Washington state was believed to have contracted mad cow disease. 


Some, unwilling to take any chances, turned to other options. 


"I was going to have a roast for Christmas Eve dinner, but when I saw the news I decided not to," said Selina Gross, 69, who bought a rack of lamb for her family holiday meal from a butcher at Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market. "I'd rather have the lamb or chicken." 


Mike Board, a 30-year-old night stocker at a Denver grocery store, said he's not nervous about mad cow, but his wife was rethinking Christmas dinner. "Usually we just eat steak or something like that. This year, we think we might just do a turkey," he said. 


It might come as a surprise to some that beef would figure in Christmas dinner at all. 


Italian-Americans often serve seafood on Christmas Eve. Ed Coppola, preparing his dinner in Florham Park, N.J., on Christmas Eve, says mad cow disease would not be the Grinch that stole Christmas dinner for a family that feasts on fish, calamari, lobster and shrimp. 


"I think we're all right, unless there's a mad fish disease," he said. 


Marilyn Johnson, mother of seven, grandmother of 10, native of Tennessee, has been making Christmas dinners for 48 years, but never once has had beef on the menu. 


"Not in my house. We always had turkey, ham. We've never had anything else. Maybe it depends on where you're from. If I was from Kansas City, I might have steak. But coming from the South, no," said Johnson, who now lives in Montclair, N.J. 


James Poll, co-owner of William Poll catering in New York, said 70 percent of his customers order the turkey. But he says 20 percent order beef - rib roasts, tenderloins, beef bourguignon. And December's food magazines - Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Cook's Illustrated - feature roast beef. 


Bruce Aidells, author of "The Complete Meat Cookbook," says beef has gained as a holiday main course in recent years. At his Berkeley, Calif., table, Christmas dinner will include a dry-aged prime rib roast, ordered from Chicago three weeks ago. 


He has no qualms, and thinks most beef eaters will be similarly undaunted on Thursday. 


"Food traditions are so strong about the holidays, and because so many people are committed to putting beef on the menu, I think they'll just rationalize through it," he said. Since just one cow has been diagnosed, he said, "that's not a bad rationalization to make." 


Anthony Vojkovich, manager at Crescent City Steak House in New Orleans, said there have been no reservations canceled for Christmas, and he didn't expect any. 

	 


"I think most people understand it's an isolated incident ... If they have a couple more cases in the next month or so, then people will be frightened ..." 

For Linda Brown's family, it's been a Christmas Day tradition for 25 years to have a "haunch of beef," as her father used to call it. Her parents were children of the Depression: "Red meat for them was the ultimate luxury," she says. 

And so the family will gather at her brother's Novato, Calif., home for prime rib and Caesar salad. Until she sees more evidence of a real outbreak, she's unconvinced. 

"We have one cow here and the whole country's supposed to go crazy?" said Brown, 56. "We have good sources of meat. I'm not an alarmist." 

Tom Hull of Beloit, Kan., also will eat beef on Christmas - steak, in his case. His family eats beef once or twice a day. "I think it's about the healthiest food there is," he says. 

(It should be pointed out that Hull owns 1,100 head of cattle.) 

Others were fatalistic. Beef was not on the menu for the dozen friends and family members who were to gather at the home of Gary Brauer in La Crosse, Wis., on Thursday. Instead, they were to dine on hot elk sandwiches and elk jerky, meat from a 600-pound animal Brauer shot in Colorado. 

Some elk in Colorado have been found to be infected with chronic wasting disease, which is similar to mad cow. There is no evidence that the disease can harm people. And neither chronic wasting disease nor mad cow disease cause Brauer much concern. 

"We're going to die from something, regardless of what it is," Brauer said. 

Others admit to a little apprehension, though not enough to lead them to ditch the rib roasts and head for Chinese restaurants, as many of their Jewish brethren do. Caryn Kaufman said she would probably go head with her Swedish meatballs, but she's still leery. 

"I won't be going out to any steakhouses for a while until I understand exactly what is going on," she said. 

___ 

EDITOR'S NOTE - AP reporters John Christoffersen in Stamford, Conn.; Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Mo.; Deborah Kong in San Francisco; Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans; Larry McShane in New York City; Don Mitchell in Denver; Jenny Price in Madison, Wis.; and Jason Straziuso in Philadelphia contributed to this story.


U.S. Probes How Cow Contracted Disease

1 hour, 43 minutes ago

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By IRA DREYFUSS, Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON - Federal officials scrambled Wednesday to trace the life of the first U.S. cow believed infected with mad cow disease while trying to contain the growing economic damage from a now-suspect food supply. 

"The risk to human life is extremely low," Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman told reporters, even as country after country slapped import bans on American beef. 

Federal and state-level officials worked to trace the Holstein's history before it came to its last home, Sunny Dene Ranch in Mabton, Wash., in 2001. Agriculture Department chief veterinarian Ron DeHaven said officials have identified two livestock markets in Washington where the animal could have been purchased, but he did not identify them. 

Because the brain-wasting disease is usually transmitted through contaminated feed and has an incubation period of four to five years, it is "important to focus on the feed where she was born," DeHaven said.

"Once we have the birth herd, we'll want to know what animals have come into that herd and what animals have left that herd and all the feeding practices for that herd," DeHaven said. 

The human form of the disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob, is thought to be contracted by eating meat from an infected animal, specifically from the brain or spinal cord. Officials stressed that these parts of the sick cow were removed before the rest of the carcass was sent to processing plants. 

Consumers had a mixed reaction to Tuesday's announcement of the first apparent U.S. case of mad cow disease - formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. 

"I'm content to have a freezer full (of beef), said Helen Spinetto of Cambridge, Mass. "But if I had to purchase it again, maybe I'd think twice." 

However, the mad cow case reinforced the opinions of Barbara Seaton of the Albany, N.Y., suburb of Colonie. She does not eat beef, and said there it will "absolutely not" be on her holiday table. 

On Wall Street, stocks in meatpacking companies and restaurant chains took a hit. Among the losers: McDonald's Corp., Wendy's International and Tyson Foods. 

U.S. beef exports totaled $2.6 billion in 2002, with Japan, South Korea (news - web sites), Mexico and Hong Kong the biggest importers. They all have banned U.S. beef, along with at least seven other countries. 

Agriculture Department officials told a briefing the cow was culled from its herd and slaughtered Dec. 9, after she became paralyzed, apparently as a result of calving. Preliminary tests showed the cow, believed to about 5 years old, had mad cow disease. 

Tissue samples were sent to Britain's Veterinary Laboratories Agencies, a world leader in mad cow identification, for confirmation. "We should have a result within a few hours of the initial test," said Steven Edwards, chief executive of the lab in Weybridge, west of London. 

Politically, Democrats jumped on Republicans who removed a ban on processing meat from "downed" animals - those that are ill when they reach the plant - from a massive agriculture spending bill. 

"This is something that's a potential disaster," said Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., a leader in supporting the processing prohibition. "This was so predictable by anybody following the issue." 

Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., said the mad cow case "does not have to result in any widespread panic in our country, because the likelihood of there being any effect on humans is extremely remote." 

Contaminated feed has been blamed in other countries for carrying the misshapen animal proteins, called prions, that can transmit mad cow. The United States since August 1997 has banned the use of cow and sheep byproducts for animal feed. 

Investigators were at processing plants in Oregon, where meat from the infected cow had been turned into boneless beef, said a spokesman for the Agriculture Department. Authorities want to know where the meat was sent, although they stressed that the cow's brain and spinal cord, the only parts that are considered able to transmit the disease, did not enter the food supply. 

The animal was one of 20 slaughtered Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses Lake Meat Co. in Moses Lake, Wash. All 10,410 pounds of beef from those carcasses have been recalled in "an abundance of caution," Veneman said. 

"We continue to believe that the risk to human health from this situation is extremely low, and people should continue to feel very confident in the safety of our meat supply," Veneman said. 

President Bush (news - web sites), spending Christmas with his family at Camp David, Md., was getting regular updates, a White House spokesman said. 

The beef industry sought to reassure Americans. 

"It's important to recognize what we learned from Canadian consumers," Terry Stokes, CEO of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (news - web sites), told reporters. "They had confidence in Canadian beef and we feel American consumers will follow accordingly." 

Canada had an isolated case of mad cow disease earlier this year. The United States banned imports of Canadian beef immediately after that announcement but has gradually begun allowing them. 

Investigators are trying to determine whether the case in Canada is linked, a USDA official said, but a connection is unlikely because the animals were of different breeds. 

Consumer activists expressed concern. "Consumer confidence in the safety of the U.S. meat supply will be damaged by the finding of a domestic animal infected," said Carol Tucker Foreman of the Consumer Federation of America. 

But Flavius Barker, head of the Tennessee Farm Bureau, said, "The isolated finding in Washington state gives no reason for consumers to fear the safety of their beef products." 

__


8 Countries Block Imports of U.S. Beef 
	
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LONDON - Fears about a suspected U.S. case of mad cow disease spread quickly abroad Wednesday, with eight countries and the Chinese territory of Hong Kong blocking the import of American beef after a cow in Washington state tested positive for the illness. 


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Japan, the world's top importer of U.S. beef, imposed an indefinite ban and planned to recall certain meat products already on the market, while South Korea (news - web sites) halted customs inspections of American beef and suspended sales for meat already on supermarket shelves. 


Hong Kong, Australia, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia followed suit. Later Wednesday, Russia also issued a temporary ban, Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev said. 


In Brussels, Belgium, the European Union (news - web sites), which already bans much U.S. beef because of fears about growth hormones, said it would not take any additional measures. 


Antonia Mochan, a spokeswoman at the EU's executive Commission, said the United States already was classified as an "at-risk country" as part of the sweeping EU measures adopted following Britain's mad cow crisis, which began in the late 1980s and spread across western Europe. Under those restrictions, imports of specific risk products, such as brains, are banned. 


The moves came after the U.S. government announced that a Holstein cow on a Washington state farm tested positive for mad cow disease, marking the disease's first suspected appearance in the United States. 


British experts said the United States must seek out the help of countries that have experience dealing with the disease and must take swift action to restore consumer confidence in its beef stocks. 


"The key here is to restore confidence quickly, not to allow it to drag out," Sean Ricard, former chief economist of Britain's National Farmers' Union, told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. "What I hope America will do is take rapid action, perhaps slaughter the herd that animal came from." 


Ricard predicted a short-term slide in the price of beef in the United States. 


No immediate measures were announced in eastern Europe. 


U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said the risk to human health in this case was "extremely low." The parts of the cow that would be infected - the brain, the spinal cord and the lower part of the small intestine - were removed before the animal went to a meat processing plant. 


The immediate reaction also reflected the widespread consumption of U.S. beef in Asia, where American eating habits have gained tremendous popularity in recent decades, as evidenced by the proliferation of fast-food outlets. 


Australia - a major beef exporter that stands to gain economically from bans on U.S. imports - placed a temporary hold on American beef, Agriculture Minister Warren Truss said Wednesday. 


In Canada, where a single case of the disease was found in May, federal officials said late Tuesday that imports would not be banned unless the suspected case was confirmed. 


Japan's Agriculture Ministry said its ban applied to beef and beef products and took effect immediately. 


"We must ban beef imports from the United States for the time being," Health Minister Chikara Sakaguchi said. "We must recall products that include so-called 'dangerous parts'" - such as brains and spinal cords. 


Japan is the largest overseas market, in terms of value, for U.S. beef. Exports totaled $842 million in 2002, accounting for 32 percent of U.S. exports, according to the U.S. Meat Export Federation. South Korea is No. 2 with $610 million. 

	 


Mexico, the top importer of U.S. beef in volume terms, was third in value in 2002, a federation official in Seoul said. 

Japanese authorities have been especially leery about mad cow disease since the nation's herds suffered the first recorded Asian outbreak of the disease in September 2001, causing meat consumption to plunge. However, consumption since has rebounded. 

While fresh imports to Japan have been banned, there was no widespread rush to U.S. meat from supermarket shelves. A spokesman at Ito-Yokado, Japan's largest supermarket chain, said the retailer had faith in the safety of the beef already on its shelves and would sell its stocks. 

The Aeon chain, however, said it was going to pull American beef from its shelves. 

Ito-Yokado imports its U.S. beef from herds in the Midwest, far from where the infected Holstein was discovered in Washington state, the spokesman said on condition of anonymity. 

The United States supplied almost 47 percent of Japan's beef imports in 2002, or 226,524 tons, second only to Australia. There was speculation in Japan that the ban would cause major bottlenecks for restaurants as they scrambled to find other suppliers. 

The mad cow scare already took a toll on restaurant stocks in Japan. Shares of Yoshinoya, a restaurant chain where 99 percent of the beef is American, plunged 9.4 percent, and stocks of McDonald's Japan, which said it exclusively serves Australian beef, lost 3.1 percent. 

Hong Kong's government said its temporary ban is a precaution because "there is no evidence to suggest that U.S. beef on the market is unsafe." 

In Singapore, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority said that if the case is confirmed in the United States, the country will not import American beef again until it has been certified free of the disease for six years. 

Taiwan said U.S. beef could face a seven-year export ban. 

Mad cow disease, known also as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, eats holes in the brains of cattle. It sprang up in Britain in 1986 and spread through Europe and Asia, prompting massive destruction of herds and decimating the European beef industry. 

People can contract a form of BSE (news - web sites) if they eat infected beef or nerve tissue, and possibly through blood transfusions. The human form of mad cow disease is the fatal brain-wasting variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites), which so far has killed 143 people in Britain and 10 elsewhere, but none in the United States.


U.S. Quarantines Calves From Diseased Cow 
	
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WASHINGTON - U.S. officials have quarantined two calves from the Washington cow with mad cow disease, even though transmission of the disease from mother to calf is considered unlikely. 


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One calf is at the same dairy near Mabton, Wash., that was the final home of the stricken Holstein cow, said Dr. Ronald DeHaven, the Agriculture Department's chief veteranarian. The other calf is at a bull calf feeding operation in Sunnyside, Wash., DeHaven said. 


"The reason for concern with these calves is that even though it is an unlikely means of spreading the disease, there is the potential that the infected cow could pass the disease onto its calves," he said. 


DeHaven said the emphasis of the widening investigation is on finding the birth herd of the slaughtered cow, since it likely was infected from eating contaminated feed. 


He said tracing the source of the infected cow could take days or weeks, noting that it took Canadian officials several weeks to located the birth herd of a diseased cow earlier this year. 


"If we're lucky, we could know something in a matter of a day or two," he said. 


Confirmation that a Holstein cow in Washington state had the deadly disease came Thursday from the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, England. British researchers agreed with the reading of U.S. tests on the stricken cow. 


Those tests led U.S. officials to preliminarily conclude that the animal had the brain-wasting disease. 


"We are considering this confirmation," said USDA spokeswoman Alisa Harrison, adding that the English lab still would conduct its own test using another sample from the cow's brain. Final test results on the cow from Washington state are expected by the end of the week, she said. 


Professor Steven Edwards, chief of the British lab, said those results already have been given to USDA. But Edwards refused to disclose whether the tests showed that the animal had mad cow disease, officially known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE (news - web sites). 


Federal officials were trying to find the herd the cow was raised with, since the cow likely was sickened several years ago. The disease is spread by eating feed that includes parts from an infected cow. The incubation period in cattle is four to five years, said Dr. Stephen Sundlof of the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites). 


Authorities also want to know where the animals were transported and have narrowed their search to two unidentified livestock markets in Washington state, where the sick cow could have been purchased. 


The cow had lived since 2001 at the Sunny Dene Ranch in Mabton, a town 40 miles south of Yakima, according to government sources speaking on condition of anonymity. Officials had said a dairy farm near Mabton is under quarantine and that its herd would be slaughtered if the mad cow diagnosis was confirmed. 


Investigators worked through the Christmas holiday to prevent a potential outbreak of the deadly disease and to calm public fears about the food supply, Harrison said. 


Despite bans of imports of U.S. beef around the world, government officials have said there was no threat to the food supply because the cow's brain, the spinal cord and the lower part of the small intestine - where scientists say the disease is found - were removed before it was sent on for processing. 


Humans can contract a fatal variant of mad cow disease by eating infected beef products, but experts say muscle cuts of beef - including steaks and roasts - are safe. 


Still, authorities scrambled to find where the meat cut from the animal was sent. The Agriculture Department already has issued a recall for beef slaughtered along with the infected cow Dec. 9 at a meat company in Moses Lake, Wash. 

	 


Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said the recall was an extra precaution. 

But the government came under criticism from John Stauber, the author of "Mad Cow U.S.A." He said the U.S. hasn't done enough to keep BSE out of the country. 

Cattle get sick by eating feed that contains tissue from the brain and spine of infected animals. The United States has banned such feed since 1997. 

"Here's the problem. The feed ban has been grossly violated by feed mills," Stauber said in a telephone interview from his home in Madison, Wis. 

In one such case, X-Cel Feeds Inc. of Tacoma, Wash., admitted in a consent decree in July that it violated FDA regulations designed to prevent the possible spread of the disease. 

The Food and Drug Administration says only two companies have serious violations of the 1997 regulations. 

Stauber also said he believed the ban has been ineffective because it exempts blood from cattle, which he said could transmit mad-cow type diseases. Government officials and industry executives have said there was no evidence that animals could be infected from the blood of other animals. 

BSE is caused by a misshapen protein - a prion - that eats holes in a cow's brain. A total of 153 people worldwide have been reported to have contracted the human form of the illness, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites). 

___ 

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