041170 Cattle Industry Awaits Mad Cow Results

Washington, DC - The U.S. cattle industry anxiously awaited government test results, expected as early as Monday, that will determine if the United States has a second case of the deadly mad cow disease, industry officials said.

Information about the suspect animal was kept under tight wraps, with the U.S. Agriculture Department refusing to identify its age, sex or location.

The USDA said an animal tested "inconclusive" for mad cow disease in two rapid screening tests, and said it would conduct more sophisticated analysis. Results were expected before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, industry officials said.

Industry sources, who had expected a USDA announcement, said it was delayed until 7 p.m. EST (midnight GMT) at the earliest.

"We are holding up our holiday plans, awaiting the result," another industry official said.

A positive result would mean the second confirmed U.S. case for the brain- wasting malady, after one was discovered last December in a Washington state dairy cow. USDA investigators determined the cow was born in Canada in 1997 and shipped to Washington state four years later.

Key issues for the U.S. cattle and meat industry are the age and birth country of the suspect animal.

If the animal was born after 1997, that would raise questions about the adequacy of U.S. mad cow safeguards adopted that year, analysts said. In August 1997, the U.S. government banned cattle remains in cattle feed as a precaution.

"The best case would be that it came across from Canada and it was located in Washington (state)," said Bob Anderson, livestock analyst with Commodity Services Inc. "The worst case scenario would be a beef cow in Montana or Texas."

Consumer groups said additional safeguards were needed. Peter Lurie, deputy director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, said it was "ridiculous" that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration failed to carry out its January plan to ban cattle spinal cords and brains from feed for pigs, horses and other animals. The FDA also proposed to ban cattle blood and poultry litter from cattle feed.

"An obvious first step would be for the FDA to actually do what it promised it would do," Lurie said.

The FDA said in July it might not finalize all the new animal feed rules until 2006.

The USDA said the carcass of the suspect animal now being tested did not enter the human or animal food supply.

Live cattle futures at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange closed lower in thin trade as traders awaited the test results. At the close, the December delivery contract settled at 84.65 cents per pound, down 0.15 cent.

"If it is positive it will be really interesting to see if the reaction is 'the system works and we found it' or that Japan is just going to close the door on negotiations," said Doug Harper, livestock analyst with Brock Associates.

Trading partners stopped importing U.S. beef after the discovery of the first U.S. case of mad cow last December. Japan and Washington reached an agreement last month to resume beef shipments, but details have not been worked out.

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, was identified in Britain in the 1980s and is caused by malformed proteins called prions. People can contract a human version of the fatal disease by eating infected meat.

Immediately after a case of mad cow disease was confirmed last December, the USDA rolled out new safety measures, including banning sick and crippled cattle from human food.

The U.S. cattle industry is valued at about $27 billion. U.S. beef exports totaled $3.9 billion in 2003, but fell to a forecast $446 million in 2004.

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