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From: TSS ()
Release No. 0036.06 Printable version February 3, 2006 Not only is American beef safe, I can also report to you with a tremendous body of information to back this up that, our herd is healthy. The largest BSE surveillance efforts ever undertaken in the United States is proving that fact, thanks in large part to an extraordinary government/industry partnership, and I might add an investment of about $1 million dollars to each and every week since the program began. This effort has been very informative. On average we tested 1,000 high-risk cattle per day for BSE, 1,000. Only one in more than 600,000 animals tested came up with a positive. Yesterday USDA's Office of the Inspector General released its review of our BSE enhanced surveillance program. I want to be clear that this is not related to the situation in Japan. The report is a product of an investigation that began working with the USDA now nearly two years ago. Given the magnitude of the report, we are very pleased to report to you today that it reflects what we describe as a clean audit. In other words, we reached agreement with the Inspector General's recommendations. The fact is that the OIG report concludes that there's no evidence that specified risk materials entered the food supply ever. Our safeguards have worked. Our agencies with responsibilities in this area -- APHIS and FSIS -- have already acted on many of the recommendations in the report. And I will share with you that that work continues. The Inspector General did recommend that we improve documentation and tracking of the work being done, and not only do we agree; we have already done so. The report also recommends that we proceed with due caution in drawing conclusions based upon the enhanced surveillance efforts, and ensure that our conclusions are not overstated. And of course we could not agree more. We always want our conclusions to be accurate and based upon science. Now let me if I might talk about some other issues that we face, and I failed to mention this at the beginning but when my comments are done I'll be happy to take questions from you. Quoting from the President now in the State of the Union Message: "With open markets and a level playing field, no one can out-produce or out-compete the American worker. Americans should not fear our economic future because we intend to shape it." snip... (GWs BSE MRR policy i.e. legal trading of all strains of TSE, like i said before, never was about sound science, as the article in Nature said Nature 421, 459 (2003); doi:10.1038/421459a ) snip... Now some have asked whether this system is a retreat from our position that private databases should contain the animal movement data. Let me assure you that I'm not changing course. Some time ago we proposed a system that would require raw data to be held in a private database. The widespread support for privately owned data was dampened by concerns among states and industry about sharing a single database. And we worried about gridlock. But APHIS did not throw in the towel; instead our staff went back and we started to work to determine how we could move forward in a way that addressed the concern. APHIS came back with this proposal as a means to allow for multiple private databases that could own the data while providing USDA with a portal that we will need at times to access information. Under this proposal you the industry would continue to own and have control over the animal movement data. But through agreements established between private entities and the USDA we would be able to access those pieces of information that are necessary in the event that we would need to do something like complete an investigation. Organizations that wish to consolidate their tracking data can still do so and in fact are encouraged to do so. But this system provides the flexibility that so many have requested and I might add allows for a robust private sector. snip.... Final thoughts. The history of the cattle industry is the story of America. It's a proud heritage that threshed and harvested and ranched the land in this nation to agricultural greatness. The state of our beef industry is strong, like the state of our union. The President is as committed as ever and I am to ensuring that this industry remains vibrant, that agriculture remains a cornerstone of the U.S. economy. It's been a pleasure to meet with you, and I look forward to a continuing partnership in the year ahead, a partnership to expand trade, a partnership to build global confidence in a product that we know is the safest in the world. Thank you very much. God bless you. [Applause.] Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Now I do have to acknowledge ladies and gentlemen, now that the lights are up I see Nebraskans in the front row. [Applause.] Go Big Red? You know the line I always use? Tell the kids back home I found work in Washington, all right? So. We've got cards out there I guess, so. MODERATOR: Yes, sir. We thank you, Mr. Secretary. I just want to comment that one of our efforts is to find beef-boosters and beef-backers, and I think it's apparent to all of us that we certainly have a great beef-backer at the head of USDA. We appreciate that. [Applause] MODERATOR: Let me just explain how these questions will work. We're going to have staff in the aisles between the sections at every aisle. So if you want to ask a question, please come forward to the aisles and to the staff now. And they're going to give you a numbered card, and that will indicate what place in line you are. Then the Secretary's going to go from each section answering a question from each section until we run out of questions. So at this time if the staff will kind of raise your hands, and if you'll start coming to the staff with the mikes in the aisles we'll start the questioning. QUESTION: Andrew Murphy, a beef producer from Kansas. Mr. Secretary, Japanese media are reporting a delegation of elected officials and nontechnical people visited beef plants and are claiming there are problems with the proper removal of specified risk material. We as cattle producers and as you clearly stated earlier in your speech that have a good control over, or at least that's under our understanding -- can you please give us a clarification of what this delegation is claiming? SEC. JOHANNS: Yes. I'd love to. Thank you for the question. Let me first if I might draw a comparison here because I think this comparison is very, very important to make. The delegation that came to the United States was a delegation if you will from the opposition in terms of the current party that is in power in Japan. They spent a couple of days here and I think they spent two or three hours at this facility. Now the comparison I want to make is the process that we went through with Japan to get this market reopened. To describe that process as painstaking would be to understate it. It went on for what, nearly two years with not just the government but the Food Safety Commission. Every piece of information that they requested over those two years was supplied. Technical discussions between scientists. Finally the Food Safety Commission approved a rule that says beef from animals under 20 months, which is below the international standard and I can go on and on, but I will spare you that. The comparison though I think is obvious. We go through a very, very extensive process for two years and they're in the plant for about three hours. Now let me if I might shed on their behalf maybe a piece of information that I wish they would have asked us about before they made that statement because I think it would have been helpful to them. In Japan the spinal cord is removed before the carcass is split. As you know in the United States we sometimes follow a different procedure. Because the spinal cord is still intact when we split the carcass in the midline it's possible that a perfectly safe and accepted procedure not only here but elsewhere might have been viewed by them in a very confused way. That's very possible. I can tell you that our inspectors were present. They were there in the plant as they always are, and they witnessed no violation whatsoever. No violation whatsoever. There are different methods for the removal of the spinal cord, but I want to tell people not only in this room but around the world that all methods in the United States are safe. And our inspectors are at the plant to verify this. So putting the best light maybe on their comment, I believe that they probably did not ask or inquire sufficiently to understand the perfectly safe system that we have in place here. And I'll give them that. But what I would suggest is that there's important issues at stake here. What we need to do in our relationship with any trading partner is to make sure when we talk we talk based upon fact. They had access to our people, I even met with them; we were open to questions and comment and discussion. It would have been very, very helpful to them I believe before they made that statement to understand the very safe system that we have in place. So thank you for the question. MODERATOR: Sal, over here. QUESTION: George (unclear), president of Mississippi Cattlemen's Association. Mr. Secretary, please allow me to make a brief comment. On behalf of the Mississippi Cattlemen's Group, we were affected by Hurricane Katrina. We really appreciate your visit to our state, and USDA's help in extending some help for us to repair fences, remove debris, and to date we've had something like 24,000 Mississippians who have applied for this help. We would love to have you continue to expedite this funding process. Now for my question. Australia and Canada are ramping up rapidly to increase market share. How much are we willing to give up before we implement NAIS at this point? SEC. JOHANNS: I don't want to give up any market share. I'll just be very direct with you about that. But I will tell you that Australia is a very, very fierce competitor in the beef area, and they're going to continue to be. But I will also share with you that because of a variety of reasons one of which probably the primary reason being the closure of the Canadian border for a lengthy period of time, Canada started ramping up their efforts in the export market, and so they've become a real competitor. We run into them a lot as we get around the world to sell our beef products. I have been to Australia and I have looked at a complete demonstration of their animal ID system. And they are absolutely convinced about it. I talked to them a lot about, well how is it accepted? And they said, well like anything else where there's change there was some grumbling and why do we have to do this? But I talked to the minister just recently, and he said now that's really behind us and everybody is working very, very hard to get this up and running. I just really believe that we have to not only move in this direction but we have to move as quickly as we can. Now we have a big industry here. At any given time we have over 90 million head in our herd. This is a big undertaking. It is not something that can be implemented overnight. It's a change for you; we acknowledge that. But I continue to believe that the private sector approach gives us the best opportunity, not only building an outstanding system, a great system, but doing it expeditiously, doing it in a way that gets the job done. But most importantly if it is a government system I believe we take the opportunity for price competition and innovation away from the system. So I just continue to be a proponent of this notion that the best thing I can do for you is allow that robust private sector out there. But to get back to your original question, you pose. You're right-- we can't ignore what's happening out there in the marketplace in the world market. Our competitors are doing everything they can to promote this. And we have to move with all the diligence we can while getting it done right. Thank you. MODERATOR: Go ahead and ask your question. QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. Secretary, for coming to our convention. Randy Faber from Illinois. We've got a tremendous amount of producers who are right at the edge of the swamp with the national ID system waiting to wade in. But they know that there's supposed to be a United States prefix on the tags to basically get out of the swamp at the end of the tunnel. Is there a timetable for when the tag companies will be able to issue the U.S. prefix on the tags? SEC. JOHANNS: We have been working on that, and that's going to come very, very quickly. I can assure you that that's been one of the priority items, and I think that is just about wrapped up. I'd love to tell you within the next 30 days. I'll be a little bit bold and say that it could very well come that quickly, but yeah we're ready to turn that piece of this loose and get off and going with that. MODERATOR: We're going to have time for just one last question. QUESTION: Thank you very much for coming, Mr. Secretary. We appreciate your support of our industry. And I guess you know how frustrated we are with the Japanese situation. Last year during the convention we passed the resolution that called for sanctions if necessary. And my question is, is the Administration willing to call for sanctions to get this order with Japan situation remedied? SEC. JOHANNS: Well I noticed this morning, I was reading through some newspaper clips, and Chairman Goodlatte on the House Ag Committee said, Look, we've got to resolve this quickly and he used that word "sanctions" and as you know there's pending resolutions. I will say this. This is being described as a temporary suspension. I believe that when we have our report done, and we're going to do that thoroughly but we're also very, very mindful that we can't let grass grow under our feet. We're not going to waste an extra day to get it done. But we're going to be very thorough. And then when we put our recommendations out there I'm really confident that we can ask Japan to come back and work with us and get through this quickly. Now I use that word because I believe we can move quickly, but it's hard for me to set a timeline because so much of what we've done or what needs to be done is not just on our side, but it's also on Japan's side. We always hesitate to do sanctions, and here's why. There are instances where it's warranted. But sanctions tend to breed a response, if you know what I'm saying. And that response tends to breed yet another reaction, and back and forth and back and forth. I want to be very straightforward about this. This should not have happened. This just should not have happened. If I could turn back the clock, and I'm sure if this plant could turn back the clock, things would have been different. But it did happen. We have to identify what happened, and put in place whatever is necessary to make sure it doesn't happen again, and get back to normal trade. It has been encouraging to me because so far the rest of the world has been willing to work with us and we've provided them information and we've kept them abreast. And so, so far so good. But we're going to do everything we can to get this solved, and I hope that debate doesn't become necessary. I've got just one last thought here. I don't know if this is true or not but I was informed that Super Bowl Sunday is the second biggest eating day in the United States. And that's coming up here, so I'll wrap up with just two words. Eat beef. Thank you. [Applause.] McDonald's CEO http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dockets/02n0273/02n-0273-EC244-Attach-1.pdf American Feed Indusuy Association In summary, AFIA generally supports FDA’s proposed rule, but believes the FDA should pursue testing methodologies to detect Summary snip... Darling International snip... Darling supports science-based rulemaking to address animal health issues. snip... North American Spray Dried Blood and Plasma Producers snip... pharmaceutical supplier Seriologicals Corp. snip... The current proposed rule falls short of this and would still leave a snip... Respectfully, http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dockets/02n0273/02n-0273-c000490-vol40.pdf Feb. 2, 2006, 9:20PM WASHINGTON - Federal inspectors on the watch for mad cow disease have permitted animals unable to walk to enter the food chain, despite fears that such animals could harbor the dread illness. The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service had issued rules that allowed its inspectors to give the green light to slaughter downer cows, if those animals were known to have suffered an acute injury after passing a previous inspection, the Inspector General noted in a report released Thursday. But the investigators could find no records for 20 of the 29 animals that indicated the animals in question had suffered severe injuries. The Inspector General's Office went further, saying that by allowing any of these animals into the food chain, the agency was not abiding by its own regulations. The Food Safety and Inspection Service's policy states that all animals that are unable to walk will be kept out of the food chain "regardless of the reason for their nonambulatory status or the time at which they became nonambulatory," the Inspector General's report said. USDA officials have promised to clarify their rules regarding the slaughter of nonambulatory animals. In a review of 12 facilities across the country, investigators also learned that some downer animals were not tested for mad cow by USDA inspectors stationed at slaughterhouses, because the potentially diseased cows were separated out from healthier animals on premises adjacent to the slaughter facilities. Agency inspectors "stated they did not believe that they had the authority to go into these sorting ... areas and require that the rejected animals be provided ... for sampling," the report noted. Bill Hyman, executive director of the Independent Cattlemen's Association of Texas, said his organization's members were "disappointed to hear they're not abiding by their own rules. As cattle producers, we attempt to abide by the rules, and we would expect the USDA to abide by the same rules." USDA rules also ban certain parts where mad cow, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is most likely to develop. Investigators found no evidence such materials entered the food chain, but they could not determine whether proper procedures were followed to ensure that was not happening in nine of the 12 facilities visited as part of the probe. The Inspector General's report represents another black eye for the Agriculture Department and its efforts to assure the world American beef is safe. The report comes two weeks after Japan again closed its borders to U.S. beef products after inspectors there discovered pieces of backbone in a veal shipment. While such meat products would be deemed safe for human consumption in the United States, Japan has forbidden their import because of mad cow concerns. A USDA inspector had approved that shipment. As a safeguard, the USDA requires removal of so-called specified risk materials, or SRM, such as brains and spinal cords, from older cattle. "If you look at any audit that was ever done, we have found we have never had SRMs get in the food supply," Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns told Reuters on Thursday. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/3632798.html It is important to note that the prohibited material was domestic in origin (therefore not likely to contain infected material because there is no evidence of BSE in U.S. cattle), fed at a very low level, and fed only once. The potential risk of BSE to such cattle is therefore exceedingly low, even if the feed were contaminated. http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2001/NEW00752.html Nature 421, 459 (2003); doi:10.1038/421459a All the President's yes-men? George W. Bush's administration stands accused of biasing the process by The relationship between science and politics is never perfect, but Just last week, a storm of protest greeted the announcement that Jerry The controversy extends to committees that review grant applications. Some of the recent developments are disturbing. If the committee on But successive US administrations, both Republican and Democrat, have Those with long memories say that the present outcry is reminiscent of There is some comfort to be gained from the checks and balances inherent This does not mean that the critics should relax. They should look back Scientists should fight undue attempts by the Bush administration to Macmillan MagazinesNature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2003 Registered No. http://www.nature.com/ From: TSS () PrPSc distribution of a natural case of bovine Yoshifumi Iwamaru, Yuka Okubo, Tamako Ikeda, Hiroko Hayashi, Mori- Priori Disease Research Center, National Institute of Animal Health, 3-1-5 Abstract Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is a disease of cattle that causes The specified risk materials (SRM) are tissues potentially carrying BSE The 11th BSE case in Japan was detected in fallen stock surveillance. PrPSc was detected in brain, spinal cord, dorsal root ganglia, trigeminal Our results suggest that the currently accepted definitions of SRM in 179 T. Kitamoto (Ed.) SPRINGER proceedings "PRIONS" of =========================================== Letters to the Editor Editor: Absence of evidence is not always evidence of absence. In the article ‘‘Failure to detect prion protein (PrPres) by immunohistochemistry in striated muscle tissues of animals experimentally inoculated with agents of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy,’’ recently published in Veterinary Pathology (41:78–81, 2004), PrPres was not detected in striated muscle of experimentally infected elk, cattle, sheep, and raccoons by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Negative IHC, however, does not exclude the presence of PrPSc. For example, PrPres was detected in skeletal muscle in 8 of 32 humans with the prion disease, sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), using sodium phosphotungstic acid (NaPTA) precipitation and western blot.1 The NaPTA precipitation, described by Wadsworth et al.,3 concentrates the abnormal isoform of the prion, PrPres, from a large tissue homogenate volume before western blotting. This technique has increased the sensitivity of the western blot up to three orders of magnitude and could be included in assays to detect PrPres. Extremely conspicuous deposits of PrPres in muscle were detected by IHC in a recent case report of an individual with inclusion body myositis and CJD.2 Here, PrPres was detected in the muscle by immunoblotting, IHC, and paraf- fin-embedded tissue blot. We would therefore caution that, in addition to IHC, highly sensitive biochemical assays and bioassays of muscle are needed to assess the presence or absence of prions from muscle in experimental and natural TSE cases. Christina Sigurdson, Markus Glatzel, and Adriano Aguzzi Institute of Neuropathology University Hospital of Zurich Zurich, Switzerland References 1 Glatzel M, Abela E, et al: Extraneural pathologic prion protein in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. N Engl J Med 349(19):1812–1820, 2003 2 Kovacs GG, Lindeck-Pozza E, et al: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and inclusion body myositis: abundant diseaseassociated prion protein in muscle. Ann Neurol 55(1): 121–125, 2004 3 Wadsworth JDF, Joiner S, et al: Tissue distribution of protease resistant prion protein in variant CJD using a highly sensitive immuno-blotting assay. Lancet 358:171–180, 2001 ===================================== Report The European Food Safety Authority and its Scientific Expert Working Group on the Assessment of the Geographical Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Risk (GBR) were asked by the European Commission (EC) to provide an up-to-date scientific report on the GBR in the United States of America, i.e. the likelihood of the presence of one or more cattle being infected with BSE, pre-clinically as well as clinically, in USA. This scientific report addresses the GBR of USA as assessed in 2004 based on data covering the period 1980-2003. The BSE agent was probably imported into USA and could have reached domestic cattle in the middle of the eighties. These cattle imported in the mid eighties could have been rendered in the late eighties and therefore led to an internal challenge in the early nineties. It is possible that imported meat and bone meal (MBM) into the USA reached domestic cattle and leads to an internal challenge in the early nineties. A processing risk developed in the late 80s/early 90s when cattle imports from BSE risk countries were slaughtered or died and were processed (partly) into feed, together with some imports of MBM. This risk continued to exist, and grew significantly in the mid 90’s when domestic cattle, infected by imported MBM, reached processing. Given the low stability of the system, the risk increased over the years with continued imports of cattle and MBM from BSE risk countries. EFSA concludes that the current GBR level of USA is III, i.e. it is likely but not confirmed that domestic cattle are (clinically or pre-clinically) infected with the BSE-agent. As long as there are no significant changes in rendering or feeding, the stability remains extremely/very unstable. Thus, the probability of cattle to be (pre-clinically or clinically) infected with the BSE-agent persistently increases. http://www.efsa.eu.int/science/tse_assessments/gbr_assessments/573_it.html Johanns et al are responsible for this continued year after year after year of blundering the BSE surveillance in the USA. They (HE) is no different than the TOP of ENRON, and Johanns et al should be on trial somewhere, if not here, then they will be judged in hell, along with there whole regime for ignoring the 'sound science' all for a buck. it's called GWs BSE MRR policy, the legal trading of all strains of BSE/TSE globally. ...TSS
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