010204 USA Clears Cattle in Mad Cow Scare

Washington - A few thousand cattle may have been fed the ground-up remains of other cattle by mistake, but no people will be at risk of mad cow disease as a result, U.S. government regulators said.

And some imported German candy that may have been made with gelatin from at-risk cattle probably also poses no threat, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said.

Nonetheless, the agency said it was keeping a sharp eye out for any more such incidents and was checking to make sure rules aimed at keeping mad cow disease out of the United States were working as they should.

Liam Killeen, President and CEO of Storck U.S.A., the candy's importer, said that as of Feb. 1 Storck would replace the beef gelatin in the candy with vegetable starch. He said however that ingredients used in production of the beef gelatin contained in the candy did not carry the mad cow agent and had been certified as safe by Germany and the European Commission.

“We stand behind the safety of our product. There is absolutely no need for concern,” Killeen said in a statement.

The FDA said 1,200 Texas cattle at a single feedlot had been fed banned material but said Purina Mills Inc., which supplied the feed, was buying the cows to remove them from the human food supply. Purina did not immediately say where the cattle would be used.

“The probability of this feed being infected is extremely small because it was American feed and it was made from relatively young cows,” Murray Lumpkin, senior medical adviser in the FDA commissioner's office, said.

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