Cow likely born before feed ban took effect

By Kyung M. Song
Seattle Times staff reporter

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Investigators said yesterday that the Yakima Valley cow infected with mad-cow disease entered the United States from Canada in 2001 as part of a herd of 82 cattle, not 74, updating one more piece of a bovine medical mystery that has jolted consumers and virtually halted U.S. beef trade worldwide.

All of the animals from that herd — most of whose whereabouts are still unknown — likely will be destroyed for testing as agriculture officials race to trace the source of nation's first case of the brain-wasting disease and allay criticism of U.S. food-safety inspection standards.

About 4,400 other cattle remain under quarantine at two farms in Washington and may also be killed.

Meanwhile, the Mabton, Yakima County, farmer who sold the sick cow for slaughter has located paperwork showing that the animal was born in the Canadian province of Alberta in April 1997, making the cow 6½ years old, not 4½ as originally reported. The age, if it can be confirmed by DNA tests, is significant because it means the cow could have been infected during the four months of its life before the August 1997 feed ban aimed at curbing mad-cow disease went into effect in both countries.

Dr. Ron DeHaven, chief veterinarian of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), said during a news briefing yesterday that the sick cow's age is "evidence that the feed ban, both in Canada and the U.S., has been effective."

A look at testing

ABOUT MAD-COW DISEASE · What you need to know about this disease · Scientists say risk to humans is small · Most agree muscle meat, such as steak, safe to eat · Special section: Mad-cow disease

News that the cow likely originated in Canada failed to improve the business outlook for U.S. beef, however. So far, 31 nations have slapped import bans on American beef and livestock. A trip to Tokyo yesterday by American agriculture officials produced plans for a Japanese fact-finding mission to the U.S. next month, but no resumption of trade with the largest overseas market for American beef.

And on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, cattle futures fell the 5-cent daily limit. The limit was expanded from 3 cents Friday, and it was the third consecutive session the futures fell the full daily limit.

DeHaven yesterday repeated that his agency will examine whether it needs to increase livestock testing, particularly for "downer" animals that because of injury or disease are unable to walk to slaughter. The ailing Yakima Valley cow was a downer, but she was injured while giving birth and did not show any symptoms of mad-cow disease.

The United States tests far fewer animals than the European Union or Japan for mad-cow disease. DeHaven said the U.S. tested 20,000 downer animals last year, 5 percent of the 360,000 downer animals killed nationwide. In all, the U.S. slaughters 35 million cattle a year. Since its own outbreak in 2001, Japan screens for mad-cow disease virtually all cattle bound for human consumption. The European Union checks all cattle older than 30 months.

Agriculture officials yesterday continued to assure Americans that their food supply is safe and that they need not fear a repeat of the outbreak of the human form of mad-cow disease that occurred in Great Britain starting in 1995 that killed more than 120 people there.

Ken Petersen of the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service said yesterday that "high-risk material" from the sick Yakima Valley cow was removed after slaughter at Vern's Moses Lake Meat on Dec. 9 and never made it into the food supply.

Previous cases

Mad-cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is spread largely through eating the brain, spinal cord and lower part of the intestines of the infected animal. The preponderance of evidence shows that humans do not get mad-cow disease from eating muscle meat of sick animals.

Because the British victims died a decade after the disease broke out among cattle, scientists have been unable to definitively determine how they contracted it. But infective tissue have been found in meat products.

Matt Baun, a spokesman for the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, said that tissue from a cow's central nervous system is prohibited in meat products, including sausages.

Brain and spinal tissue "would not be found in sausages," Baun said. "Beef sausage must be labeled as beef and would contain no beef by-products." The U.S. does not inspect small, local sausage makers, though several in Seattle defend their meat as safe.

In 2000, the world-famous German sausage industry went into crisis when the government issued a warning about the possibility of BSE infection in popular varieties of cooked sausage. At the time, five animals in Germany had tested positive for BSE. Researchers at a German university showed that before October 2000, when Germany believed its meat free of BSE, up to 15 percent of the country's cooked sausages contained brain or spinal tissue.

Germany subsequently banned the practice.

"Even though we are still early in this investigation," the USDA's DeHaven said, "there is no indication that we have the magnitude of problem that Europe has experienced in the years past."

Canada has had two cases of mad-cow disease. The first was in 1993 in a beef cow imported from Great Britain. The second was in May, after which Canadian authorities killed 1,500 cattle after putting 18 farms under temporary quarantine. All of the destroyed animals were born within a year of the infected cow and had eaten from the same feed sources or had been kept at same farms, according to Sue Robertson, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Planning for slaughter

Of the 4,400 cattle put under quarantine in Washington last week, 4,000 remain at the Sunny Dene Farm in Mabton, the last home of the cow determined to have BSE. The other 400 are being kept at a bull-calf raising farm in Sunnyside, Yakima County. That herd, too, likely will be killed, said Julie Quick, a USDA spokeswoman.

The smaller herd includes one of two calves born to the infected cow just before she was slaughtered. Since the calf lacks an identifying ear tag, it is difficult to single it out, which is why the whole herd likely will be slaughtered. Agriculture officials say while the chances of transmitting mad-cow disease from mother to offspring is very small, they plan to destroy the animals out of caution.

The infected cow's other calf remains part of the herd at Sunny Dene Farm.

It's still uncertain when the two herds will be killed. "We'd work to humanely euthanize those animals," Quick said. "We'd have to figure out how to dispose of the carcasses in a way that is most environmentally safe." A group of scientists specializing in animal infectious diseases will make a recommendation on other necessary kills "soon as possible," she said.

Identification system

In other news yesterday, developers of a program intended to swiftly pinpoint the history of any livestock suspected of mad-cow disease or other dangerous diseases said they expect to launch a nationwide animal-tracking system in mid-2004.

The goal of the voluntary program is to identify within 48 hours of an outbreak the animals involved and the farm, ranch or feedlot where they were raised.

Officials say investigation of last week's mad-cow case was eased because it involved a dairy cow, and dairy farmers tend to keep extensive records because cows are in their herds for years. But beef cattle are slaughtered younger, and cattle farmers have historically viewed "trace back" and national-identification systems as an undue intrusion into their affairs.

A meat-industry official said last week's mad-cow case would put animal ID "on the front burner. No one with any stature will oppose it now."

The program, being designed by a consortium of farm-industry groups, state agriculture regulators and the USDA, would begin with states assigning an identification number for each farm, ranch and feedlot by July 2004. By February 2005, ID numbers for individual animals or a group of animals would be available for issuance.

Seattle Times staff reporters Jonathan Martin and Dominic Gates contributed to this report, which includes information from Reuters and The Associated Press.

Kyung M. Song: 206-464-2423 or ksong@seattletimes.com

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