041158 U.S. Still Has No Cattle Tracking System

Fort Worth, TX - The beef industry said this past week's discovery of a sick cow that might have mad cow disease showed that the "fire wall" protecting the American consumer is functioning well.

But critics say the United States still lags behind the European Union, which not only has a system to track a sick steer's home herd but tests all cattle over 30 months of age for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, an infectious disease of the nervous system.

The United States has yet to implement a tracking system for its 45 million cattle. With cattle interests wary of the added costs, such a network may be six months away or longer.

Mandatory testing for BSE, while greatly expanded from 26,000 head to more than 250,000 this year, extends only to sickly cattle found at U.S. slaughterhouses. There's only a voluntary test program for animals dying on farms and ranches. Authorities do offer free hauling as an incentive, said Jim Rogers, a spokesman for the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Significantly, critics say, the federal government has backpedaled on a plan to ban cattle feed made from cow's blood, chicken litter that may contain processed cattle bone and meat, and processed "plate waste" - leftover restaurant food that might have ground beef.

Ruminant-derived feed given to ruminants is believed to be the major cause of the mad-cow outbreak in Britain.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said that a cow at an undisclosed location twice showed "inconclusive" signs that it contained prions - a protein particle that lacks nucleic acid and is believed to cause BSE. Brain samples were sent to the main federal veterinary laboratory in Ames, Iowa, where a comprehensive immunohistochemistry test will be made. Results can take four to seven days.

Two similar cases this year proved negative. This was the first time a sickly animal was given the rapid test twice. The positive reaction was identical each time. Using European data, the latest case has a 1:100,000 chance of being a false result, said Barb Powers, director of Colorado State University's veterinary diagnostic laboratory.

Watchdog groups, while critical of the government's efforts to combat BSE, were divided over whether the public should have been informed of the preliminary tests.

"All they succeed in doing is making people anxious," said Dr. Peter Lurie of Washington-based Public Citizen. "People want to know where the cow was born, what it ate - and they won't tell you. It's the worst of all worlds."

Michael Hansen, a scientist with Consumers Union, said he could see how the preliminary test could upset people but feared that the conclusive test might never be done if not for such an announcement. Both Hansen and Lurie criticized the Food and Drug Administration for refusing to ban blood products, chicken litter and plate waste as cattle feed, a measure that Housing and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson had publicly announced in January.

So far, there has only been one confirmed American case of BSE - a Canadian- bred dairy cow in Washington State, which was tested after death before Christmas 2003. Export markets for U.S. beef immediately closed, and major buyers in Asia still prohibit American beef although Japan has agreed in principle to accept meat from cattle under 20 months of age.

After dropping 3%, cattle futures recovered slightly on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, gaining 25 to 50 cents a pound, said John Harrington, chief livestock analyst for DTN, a market news reporting service.

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