MAD COW DISEASE USDA restricts 'downer' cattle

The price of beef has plunged since a case of mad cow was announced.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
WASHINGTON -- Seeking to bolster confidence in the safety of the nation's beef supply, the Agriculture Department said Tuesday it would ban cattle that are too sick or old to stand up from entering the human food chain and would begin implementing a system to identify and track cattle destined for slaughter.
A week after announcing the first known case of mad cow disease in the United States, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman outlined "aggressive" new safeguards she said were designed to further protect public health.
The controls, some of which the industry had previously opposed, come as U.S. representatives work overseas to reopen export markets closed to American beef last week and stabilize plummeting prices at home.
Veneman said agriculture officials have been considering some of the new safeguards for months, particularly after Canadian officials discovered a case of mad cow disease in Alberta in May. She said the measures were "not being taken just in response to our trading partners," but are "being taken in light of the situation."
Last week, a Holstein dairy cow in Washington state that could not stand up -- known in the industry as a "downer" cow -- was found to have mad cow disease, and the disclosure rocked the American beef industry at a time when producers were enjoying strong prices and heightened demand with the rising popularity of high-protein diets.
Price drop
Although consumer demand for beef appears to have remained solid since Veneman's announcement last week, cattle prices have fallen dramatically. Ninety percent of the export markets have been closed to American beef, or about 9 percent of the industry's total production. Industry officials say if those markets stay closed, it's likely to cut prices by up to 15 percent.
Although heralding the new measures, Veneman and other federal officials Tuesday continued to emphasize that the food supply was safe and that higher-risk materials from the cow, which could have spread the disease, did not enter the human food chain. As a precaution, the USDA has ordered the recall of more than 10,000 pounds of meat from the diseased cow and 19 others that were slaughtered at the same time.
"We are operating out of an abundance of caution," Dr. Ron DeHaven, the USDA's chief veterinarian, said of the new safeguards.
Industry representatives said Tuesday afternoon that they now support the safeguards, although they had previously opposed bans on the slaughter of downer cattle. Chandler Keys, vice president of government affairs for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, said although the food system was safe, "a lot of this has to do with the confidence level."
"This is about consumer confidence, reacting to our consumers and what they want," he said of the new safeguards.
Terry Stokes, chief executive officer of the beef association, said his organization has been involved in developing an identification system for cattle and would help implement it, as well as help ensure effective surveillance systems are in place for sick or older cattle.
Some beef producers, however, questioned whether the USDA's strict ban on the use of downer cattle was necessary or appropriate. Keys noted that downer cattle are a "very minute problem." Veneman said some 150,000 to 200,000 of the 35 million cattle slaughtered every year in the United States are downer cattle.