Seven more suspect cows at Quincy-area farm identified

By Ray Rivera
Seattle Times staff reporter

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The cows linked to the infected Holstein have been located on a dairy farm near Quincy, Grant County, about 60 miles north of Yakima.

A state quarantine order was being prepared yesterday but has not been served on the farm, said Washington State Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Mary Beth Lang.

Agency officials would not identify the farm.

The news came as officials announced they will begin killing and testing 129 dairy cows from the Mabton farm in Yakima County that was home to the diseased Holstein.

That cow came to the United States in 2001 in a herd of 81 cows from an Alberta dairy that was going out of business.

The latest discoveries at the Quincy-area dairy bring to 19 the number of cows that have been accounted for from the Alberta farm, where investigators believe the diseased cow was exposed to feed containing the remains of infected cows. Contaminated feed is believed to be the main source of spreading the disease.

Ten of those cows, including the infected cow, were traced to the Mabton farm, where the entire herd of 4,000 is under quarantine. Two more cows were found at a dairy in Mattawa, Grant County, which also is under quarantine.

The slaughter was being undertaken out of "an abundance of caution," USDA chief veterinarian Ron DeHaven said yesterday.

But it also is part of an effort to restore consumer confidence and international markets for U.S.beef. More than 24 countries banned U.S. beef after the first U.S. mad-cow case was diagnosed Dec. 23.

More than 70 federal and state officials have arrived in this valley to conduct the investigation, setting up headquarters in an abandoned restaurant. Officials said the probe could take several more weeks.

In narrowing the list of cows to be killed, investigators searched the birth records of every animal on the Mabton farm. Those that were traced to the Alberta herd or whose origins could not be determined were put on the kill list. That number came to a total of 258.

Of those, 110 had been "culled" from the herd, officials said, meaning they could have already entered the human food supply. Dairy farmers typically use the term "culled" for cows pulled from milk production and sent to slaughter.

Records for 19 more cows are missing, DeHaven said. If they're not found, those cows likely will be destroyed.

Though additional cows exposed to the same feed as the infected cow may have entered the human food chain, officials stressed it's unlikely any had the disease.

Mad-cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is not spread from animal to animal, and experts said few cattle that eat infected feed contract the disease.

Even at the height of the mad-cow epidemic in the United Kingdom, herds seldom had more than one or two cases at a time, DeHaven said.

The 129 to be killed will be destroyed in groups, starting with 10 today and continuing through next week, at an abandoned slaughterhouse in Wilbur, Lincoln County. The carcasses will be held there until brain and spinal-cord samples are tested at the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa.

Carcasses that test positive will be incinerated, those that are negative will be sent to a landfill, USDA spokesman Nolan Lemon said.

Officials are determining how many animals will have to be destroyed at the Mattawa farm.

The same decision will have to be made at the Quincy-area location, if those animals are positively traced to the Alberta herd.

The USDA destroyed 449 bull calves this week from a Yakima Valley feedlot where one of the infected cow's offspring had been sent.

All the animals were killed because the calf arrived on the lot without an ear tag and could not be discerned from the others.

Ray Rivera: 206-464-2926 or rayrivera@seattletimes.com

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