040312 Kansas Beef Firm Setting Up BSE Lab

Arkansas City, KS - U.S. beef producers have been losing millions of dollars a day after Japan and other countries imposed a ban on U.S. beef imports in December, when a cow in Washington State was found to be suffering from bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.

Now, a seemingly innocuous beef-processing plant off a remote Kansas turnpike is doing something about it.

Last week, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef LLC of Arkansas City decided to test all their beef in an effort to persuade Japan to reopen its market to U.S. beef. While this decision has met resistance from both the U.S. Agriculture Department and the beef industry, its action is continuing to gain momentum and support. This week, Creekstone began construction of a BSE lab, and believes it will be able to ship beef to Japan in three weeks or less, providing it receives approval of the U.S. and Japanese governments.

With one-third of all U.S. beef exports sold to Japan last year--by far the largest foreign market for U.S. beef--Japan's ban on all U.S. beef in December created havoc for beef producers like Creekstone. Before the ban, Creekstone sold one-fourth of its beef to Asian markets, of which 70 percent went to Japan.

Creekstone President John Stewart estimates that the company is losing 60,000 dollars to 80,000 dollars a day in revenue from lost Japanese sales. Not only have operations slowed, but the lost sales have forced the company to reduce payrolls and lay off workers.

Stewart contacted the Agriculture Department to urge that all U.S. beef be tested as demanded by Japan. However, J.B. Penn, undersecretary for farm and foreign agricultural services, merely responded that Creekstone's request was "under evaluation."

One reason for the department's marking time is that rapid diagnostic BSE tests, the standard used by Japan and the European Union, have not been approved in the United States, and selling any unapproved diagnostic test is against U.S. law.

Jiri Safar, professor of neurology at University of California at San Francisco, who has 11 years experience with BSE research, supports the rapid diagnostic test, which he says "has already gone through rigorous evaluation standards in Europe and Japan." He sees no scientific reason that would slow down the department's decision-making because "the data are already there."

Creekstone has had discussions with several U.S. companies, which currently sell the rapid BSE test outside of the United States, and Stewart says one company has agreed to supply Creekstone with the tests- -should the Agriculture Department approve it.

Creekstone also has had talks with its Japanese trading partners, who fully back Creekstone's actions, and who have in turn, had supportive talks with the Japanese government. Japan currently tests all domestic beef for BSE, a result of their own BSE scare in 2001, and Japanese officials have maintained that U.S. beef will be imported if there is 100 percent testing.

But the position of the U.S. beef industry up to this point has been that 100 percent testing is an economic impossibility and unnecessary. J. Patrick Boyle, president of the American Meat Institute, released a statement saying BSE had always been monitored by governments and it would be unprecedented for a private company to test its own beef. "Testing all animals is unnecessary for both disease surveillance and food safety purposes," Boyle said.

Since last week, Creekstone has won more support from the industry and convinced some skeptics of benefits of testing. Stewart said he had received hundreds of e-mails supporting his actions.

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