USDA: 'All the traces' show sick cow's herd came to state

By Sandi Doughton
Seattle Times staff reporter

	JOHN ULAN / AP The Northern Alberta Processing rendering plant in Edmonton may have provided contaminated products to a mill that mixed feed for the farms where the U.S. and Canadian mad-cow cases were bred.
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Nine of the animals are on the same Mabton, Yakima County, dairy farm where the infected cow lived two years before being slaughtered Dec. 9, said Ron DeHaven, the USDA's chief veterinarian. The remaining 71 cows are most likely in the state as well.

"As far as we know now, all of the traces take us back to the state of Washington," DeHaven said. "Having said that ... I'm not excluding the possibility that some of our traces might eventually take us to another state."

While investigators don't know where the animals are, they have "good leads" on all of them, DeHaven said.

Canadian health records show the herd was formed in August 2001, when a dairy in Alberta sold its cows.

The group of 81 animals is believed to have been shipped to a holding facility in Mattawa, Yakima County, before being sold to dairy farms like Sunny Dene Ranch in Mabton. One cow originally believed to have been imported is still in Canada.

USDA says risk is minimum

It's impossible to say whether any of the other cows were slaughtered for food, said USDA spokeswoman Julie Quick. But if they were, the risk to people who might have eaten the meat is very slight, she said.

Because the cows were in the same herd with the mad-cow case doesn't mean they are likely to be infected, too, Quick said. Experts believe the sick cow picked up the disease by eating contaminated feed on the farm where it was born, probably in Alberta. The USDA doesn't know how many — if any — of the other animals were born at the same location, Quick pointed out.

Even within herds exposed to the disease, the majority of animals remain healthy. "Results from situations in other countries, like the United Kingdom, have shown that relatively few cattle in a herd usually are impacted by the disease," Quick said.

Also, herds consist mostly of young dairy cattle, which usually aren't slaughtered until after several years of milk production, Quick said.

If any animals were made into hamburger or steaks, the risk to people would remain low, because the animals' brains — where the mad-cow infection concentrates — would have been removed before processing, Quick said.

Washington state officials said they're also trying to find out more about the fate of the cows. "We all hope we get the answer as quickly as possible," said Bill Brookreson, Washington's deputy agriculture chief. "We are all horrendously impatient."

DeHaven said no decision has been made on whether the imported animals will be destroyed.

DNA tests are being conducted at laboratories in the United States and Canada to identify the Canadian herd where the infected cow was born. Results should be available early next week.

Tracking the feed

Canadian officials are working to track possible sources of contaminated feed. The Edmonton Journal reported that investigators had established a tentative link between a rendering plant and the U.S. mad-cow case and Canada's first case, reported in May. The paper said Northern Alberta Processing in Edmonton may have provided contaminated products to a mill that mixed feed for the farms where the two animals were reared.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency acknowledged it has been inspecting feed mills and rendering plants in the area but said it is "premature" to draw a link between the two North American mad-cow cases.

Feed and cattle have moved freely between the two nations, though the United States imposed temporary bans after the Canadian case was discovered.

A top executive of West Coast Reduction, owner of the Edmonton rendering plant, said it may have been the source of the infection — but even if it were, there was no wrongdoing.

"If the animal was fed from a feed mill in the area and we were the supplier, it's possible; who knows?" said Humphry Koch. The infected U.S. cow was born before 1997 rules in Canada and the United States banned the use of rendered cow products in cow feed, the practice most experts blame for the spread of mad-cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

"It was not illegal to feed cattle with (cow-derived) material at that time," Koch said.

If the source of infection can be traced to pre-1997 feed, it would increase confidence in the ability of the feed ban to prevent the spread of the disease, DeHaven said.

The USDA on Tuesday also announced several additional safeguards to keep mad-cow disease out of the food supply, including a ban on slaughtering "downer" cows for food. These animals, which are too sick or injured to walk at slaughter, are also the most likely to be infected with mad-cow disease and have been the focus of USDA's mad-cow testing program. Last year, more than 20,000 downers were tested. The Washington animal was targeted at the slaughterhouse because she was unable to walk as a result of injuries incurred giving birth to a calf.

Now that farmers will no longer bring downer animals to slaughter, the testing focus will shift to rendering plants, DeHaven said.

Rendering plants cook down animal carcasses, bones and scraps to produce tallow for soaps and cosmetics and bone and animal meal used in a wide range of animal and pet foods.

Most sick and injured cattle will be killed and shipped to rendering plants, where the USDA hopes to be able to take brain samples for testing, DeHaven said. The agency also will work with veterinarians to target sick animals. However, he said there are no plans to expand testing to every slaughtered animal, as is done in Japan.

Sandi Doughton: 206-464-2491 or sdoughton@seattletimes.com

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