Testing for Mad Cow Disease To Expand

USDA's Handling of Issue Being Challenged

By Marc Kaufman, Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, March 16, 2004; Page A01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...-2004Mar15.html

The Agriculture Department, under fire for the way it has handled the discovery of mad cow disease in a Washington state cow, said yesterday that it will greatly expand the number of cattle it will test for the deadly infection.

Secretary of Agriculture Ann M. Veneman said the agency will spend an additional $70 million to test as many as 268,000 animals a year, up from the current goal of 40,000, to determine how much mad cow disease is in the American herd.

The expanded program is expected to begin in June and will last 12 to 18 months. The added surveillance, which was strongly recommended by a group of international experts consulted by the USDA, will take a far more detailed snapshot of the cattle herd. Because it is concentrating on the cows most likely to be sick, the new testing has the statistical capacity to find an infected cow even if the incidence is as low as 1 in 10 million, USDA officials said.

"We've worked hard to develop a system that will allow us to test at a higher level to determine more definitively what level of [mad cow disease] is present in our system," Veneman said in a teleconference.

The expansion comes as the USDA's handling of the mad cow surveillance program, as well as the agency's account of the events surrounding the December discovery of an infected animal, is under serious challenge.

Investigations are underway in Congress and by the USDA's inspector general, and officials from Japan -- the biggest foreign customer for U.S.-grown beef -- have become increasingly critical of the way the department handled the mad cow incident and of its entire surveillance system.

Phyllis K. Fong, the USDA inspector general, told Congress earlier this month that she is conducting an investigation into whether officials had falsified documents and that it could lead to criminal charges.

The agency has defended its handling of the mad cow incident as factual and fully transparent, and its surveillance program as world-class. Until yesterday's announcement, however, it maintained that the testing of 40,000 animals was sufficient to assure the public that mad cow disease is not a danger.

Yesterday's turnaround -- which also lays out plans to speed the introduction of new quick tests and laboratories to handle the increased load -- came as it became clear that international opinion did not believe that was enough. The USDA said it will test as many at-risk animals as possible during the 18-month period and expects to reach between 220,000 and 268,000 animals.

It remains to be seen, however, whether the additional steps will persuade foreign buyers -- who purchased 10 percent of American beef before the mad cow discovery -- to resume importing.

Japanese officials in Washington have said their nation's experience with the disease -- it has been found in 11 apparently healthy animals there since 2001 -- indicates that all cattle must be tested. The Japanese also have accused U.S. officials of stonewalling Japan's requests for more information about the mad cow incident and the surveillance program.

Tadashi Sato, agriculture attaché at the Japanese Embassy, said yesterday that he had no formal response from his government about the new USDA plans but that he did not think they would be sufficient to resume importing American beef. The Japanese government has said it will require inspection of all cattle, or an equivalent assurance of safety, before opening its markets again. Veneman has called those demands "unscientific."

"Although we appreciate the USDA effort in this issue, this is still far from what we were expecting to see," Sato said. "I believe the Japanese government thinks this as well."

Under the expanded USDA plan, most of the animals tested would still be "downers," those that are unable to walk to slaughter. Downers are considered to be at highest risk of having the disease, which destroys brain tissue and leaves animals unable to walk or stand.

But about 20,000 apparently healthy animals will be sampled from the 40 U.S. plants that handle most of the older cattle slaughtered for human consumption. Older animals are at greater risk of having the disease because they are more likely to have eaten feed containing ground-up beef tissue that was widely fed to cattle here until 1997. The misfolded proteins that cause mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalophathy (BSE), are thought to be spread through such feed.

USDA chief veterinarian W. Ronald DeHaven said that as a result of the expanded testing, more animals are likely to test positive for mad cow -- both truly infected cattle and false positives, which are not unusual in fast testing.

The growing controversy in the background of yesterday's decision has focused on whether the infected animal detected in Washington state in December was a downer. Veneman said then that the cow definitely could not walk -- a statement that reassured the public that the animal was sick and had been identified by a well-functioning surveillance system.

But the hauler who picked up the cow said later that it had walked onto the trailer, and he and two workers at the slaughterhouse have said that it stood when it arrived. One of the employees, slaughterer David Louthan, has accused the USDA of altering the official report on the animal's condition. That accusation is being investigated as a possible criminal act, Fong said in a congressional hearing this month.

The question of whether the cow was a downer has also been at the heart of the debate over the surveillance system. USDA officials have said that testing a limited number of animals, most of them downers, is sufficient to tell whether the disease is present.

But in the Washington case, Tom Ellestad, the slaughterhouse owner, has said that many of the brain samples he supplied to the USDA were not from downers, and that the USDA knew that to be the case. In a long account of the entire BSE incident he wrote with the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit whistle-blower group, Ellestad said his company had contracts with suppliers making clear that he would accept only animals that could walk onto the trailer that takes them to slaughter.

Ellestad also said he told USDA officials from the very start that he did not believe the infected cow was a downer. The animal was tested under a contract with the USDA, not because it was suspected of being a downer, he said. Nonetheless, USDA officials continued to say the animal was a downer, as described in its records.

Some of the sharpest criticism of the USDA has come from Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), chairman of the Government Reform Committee, and its ranking Democrat, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (Calif.). The two sent a sharply worded letter to Veneman last month questioning the USDA's account, and last week committee investigators visited Vern's Moses Lake Meats Inc., the slaughterhouse where the animal was killed.

Committee spokesman David Marin said the team met with Ellestad and others. The inquiry, he said, will allow the committee to better understand "the adequacy of the surveillance system and the credibility of the USDA."

Waxman said last week that he was increasingly suspicious of the USDA's version of events: "I think that there is a pattern of USDA reassuring the public with information that may not be true, and that is of great concern."

"Early on, UDSA reassured the American people that it had taken all steps necessary to protect the public, that it has taken every imaginable step," Waxman said. "That was a highly misleading statement."

Also yesterday, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) sharply criticized the USDA for threatening to prosecute any state officials or cattle owners who want to do their own BSE testing. DeHaven said yesterday the department is considering whether to let farmers test for BSE on their own.

Yesterday's announcement relied heavily on the review of the USDA's mad cow prevention strategies conducted by an international panel of veterinary experts. That review concluded that there was a "high probability" of additional mad cow cases in the United States, and it recommended significantly expanded testing, tougher food and feed regulations, and a ban on using any farm animal remains in cattle food.

Those recommendations met with strong opposition from the industry, which said additional testing was unnecessary.

Adding to the concerns about the USDA's actions was the revelation that its recall of potentially BSE-contaminated beef in December was much larger than first reported. The agency first said that 10,400 pounds of meat had been recalled, but several months later it disclosed on its Web site that 38,000 pounds had been recalled and 17,000 pounds were not retrieved.


Thursday, March 4, 2004

U.S. opens criminal investigation into mad cow case

By PHUONG CAT LE, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local...6_madcow04.html

The federal government has opened a criminal investigation in the nation's first case of mad cow disease to determine whether officials falsified records about the state of the infected animal before it was killed, the Agriculture Department's inspector general said yesterday.

The investigation will focus on whether the diseased Holstein was "a downer," or unable to stand or walk, when it was slaughtered Dec. 9 in Moses Lake, Phyllis Fong told a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee.

Three witnesses -- the worker who said he killed the animal, the hauler who transported it and the slaughterhouse owner -- have denied USDA claims that the infected animal was a downer, a condition that flags it for testing under the nation's mad cow surveillance program.

If the animal wasn't a downer, it likely wouldn't have been flagged for testing under government policy at the time, and critics say it calls into question the adequacy of the surveillance program and the USDA's credibility. Critics say it was luck that the cow was tested.

"That cow was a walker," Dave Louthan, the worker who recalled killing the infected animal, said yesterday. "I've been screaming about this for two months and they didn't do anything about it."

Under the surveillance program, the USDA targets downer cows and cattle with symptoms of central nervous system disorders for testing because they're most likely to have bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

When the Yakima County Holstein was diagnosed with BSE on Dec. 23, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman credited the "aggressive surveillance program" for detecting the country's first case of mad cow. "This is a clear indication that our surveillance and detection program is working," she said.

"The fact that this cow was found to have mad cow was a fluke," said Jack Pannell, communications director for the Government Accountability Project, a watchdog group. He and others have called for more testing and be expanded to include testing of healthy cattle.

"The surveillance system should be examined to see whether it's scientifically based and designed to actually find BSE," he said.

The USDA yesterday stood by its assertion that the cow was a downer.

"Our records clearly show that the animal was a downer animal. The vet in charge of the plant that day listed the animal as a downer," USDA spokeswoman Julie Quick said yesterday. "Clinically, a downer animal can get up and walk for brief periods of time."

The USDA inspector who observed the animal noted in his Dec. 9 record that the Holstein was "sternal, alert," which meant it was on its sternum, before it was killed, Quick said. The post-mortem inspection noted that the animal was hemorrhaging and had an enlarged uterus, according to the inspection record.

But Louthan, the slaughterhouse worker who recalled killing the infected animal, believes that report was changed.

He points to a notation in the record indicating the inspector could not take a temperature on that infected animal. "That would never, ever happen," Louthan said yesterday. "We never bring a cow in without taking a temperature."

Louthan recalls seeing the big white Holstein on Dec. 9. He said he had fallen behind schedule and had to decide whether to unload her and put her in the pen. The hauler poked the cow but the animal didn't want to get out of the trailer and appeared as if she was ready to bolt, Louthan said.

"I should have put her in the pen with the walkers," he said. But "it was faster for me to kill that cow in the trailer. If I'd jumped her out of the trailer, she would have boogied across the parking lot and I'd have to chase her down. I shot her, hooked her up, in she went and that was the end of that."

Louthan's allegations triggered the inspector general's criminal investigation, said Austin Chadwick, spokesman with the USDA's Inspector General's Office. He declined to provide more specifics on the criminal inquiry, saying that it was still an active investigation.

Generally, if wrongdoing is found during an investigation, the findings would be referred to the U.S. attorney general for further action, Chadwick said.

The Inspector General's Office has also launched an audit to review the USDA's response to the discovery of BSE, and its national program to detect cases of mad cow, Fong said.

Randy Hull, who transported the infected animal to Vern's Moses Lake Meats, has said the animal was lying down in the hauling trailer with other cattle but that it stood up.

"The animals each walked onto my trailer," Hull said in an affidavit provided to the Government Accountability Project.

Tom Ellestad, co-owner of the slaughterhouse, said the animal was lying down when it arrived at his facility but that it stood up.

In an affidavit to the Government Accountability Project, Ellestad disputed that the animal had not walked since giving birth several days before slaughter.

He also noted that Vern's sent a brain sample of the infected cow to be tested for mad cow, but not because it was a downer cow. He said his facility had a contract with USDA and was paid $10 a sample, regardless of whether the animal was healthy or sick.

"Also yesterday, Mexico partially lifted its ban on imports of U.S. beef, saying that boneless cuts from animals less than 30 months old and veal from animals less than 9 months old could be imported.

P-I reporter Chris McGann contributed to this report.

this article originally broke the news about the downer-cow doubts...

Eyewitnesses Say Mad-Cow Holstein Was Not a Downer

BY PETER SLEETH and ANDY DWORKIN

c.2004 Newhouse News Service

http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/dworkin012604.html

MOSES LAKE, Wash. -- In the days after the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that mad cow disease had been discovered in a Holstein in Washington, officials insisted that the cow was a "downer" -- unable to walk.

The government's most significant subsequent step to prevent spread of the disease -- a Dec. 30 ban on processing "downer" cows for food -- stemmed from that finding.

Now, three people have come forward to assert that the cow was not a downer. While their stories vary on what happened Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses Lake Meats, their accounts agree on a key point: The cow was able to walk on its own.

The distinction on whether the cow could stand is significant. The department's search for mad cow disease has focused on downed cattle or those with obvious signs of neurological damage. The suggestion that the diseased Washington Holstein had neither problem raises the possibility that detection of that cow's disease may have been a stroke of luck.

Department officials said Thursday that their records show the cow had been tested because it was a downer. The slaughterhouse was participating in a program to spur increased testing of such livestock. Last year, about 10 percent of downed cows at slaughterhouses were tested.

On Thursday, the department provided The Oregonian copies of the federal veterinarian's notes from Dec. 9, showing the cow was not standing up. Those notes said it was alert and laying down on its sternum in a normal manner. USDA officials have said consistently it was not able to walk.

Yet, three people who were at Vern's Moses Lake Meats on the day the cow was killed told The Oregonian newspaper of Portland, Ore., that the cow was a "walker." Those men include the plant manager, a former employee and a man who was present when the cow was delivered to the site. The third man asked not to be identified.

The plant manager, Tom Ellestad, repeatedly has said the cow could walk.

"She did walk off the trailer at our place," he said Tuesday. "You got a definition (problem) with the USDA and the veterinarian. They certainly want to call it a downer."

Ellestad declined to comment further.

Another man, Dave Louthan, worked at Vern's until Jan. 5, when he said he was laid off because of declining business at the slaughterhouse. Ellestad said Louthan was "sort of a disgruntled (ex-)employee," but Ellestad would neither confirm nor deny Louthan's account of what happened on Dec. 9 at the slaughterhouse.

Louthan said the Holstein was standing up and able to walk when it arrived in the afternoon on a truck loaded with cattle. The load was the second of the day at the family-owned facility, he said.

When it came time to unload the cow, the animal became scared as it approached the loading ramp, Louthan said. To prevent the cow from trampling other cows that were laying down in the trailer, he killed it, he said.

"If I hadn't shot it, it would have been walked to a holding pen and held" for slaughter at a later time, he said.

A walking cow then would be processed without taking a brain sample for mad cow disease, Louthan said. Only downer cows that did not walk to the "kill box" of the slaughterhouse were tested at Vern's Meats.

Because the cow was dead and hoisted into the plant, a brain sample was taken, Louthan said.

The third man said the cow had been injured giving birth to a calf but was otherwise healthy.

"She ... was more than capable of walking off," he said.

Federal officials on Thursday said they could offer no explanation for the differing accounts of the cow's condition or mobility.

"The veterinarian's records do not reflect it as anything other than a downer when he saw it," said Dr. Kenneth Petersen of USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service.

The Agriculture Department declined to make available for an interview the veterinarian who took the notes on Dec. 9 at the slaughterhouse.

After the cow was slaughtered, a sample from its brain was sent to a laboratory for testing while its meat was processed at two Oregon facilities before being sold to stores in several Western states.

On Dec. 23, the agency announced it had a positive laboratory test for mad cow disease on the animal.

On Dec. 30, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman banned "all downer cattle from the human food chain" and said slaughterhouses could not process such animals. Many animal-rights and consumer groups had sought such a rule for years.

Veneman called the downer ban, and several other meat regulations she unveiled, "additional safeguards to protect the public health, and maintain the confidence of consumers, industry and our trading partners" in the safety of U.S. beef.

In each of the past several years, the department estimates about 200,000 downers have been among the roughly 35 million cattle slaughtered.

Both before and after Veneman's announcement, cattle that could walk and seemed free of neurological diseases were unlikely to be tested for mad cow disease.

Jan. 24, 2004

(Peter Sleeth and Andy Dworin are staff writers for The Oregonian of Portland, Ore. They can be contacted at petersleeth~news.oregonian.com and andydworkin~news.oregonian.com.)