Worker says discovery of infected cow was 'a fluke'

By Carol M. Ostrom
Seattle Times staff reporter

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The government says the discovery that the Holstein had mad-cow disease proves its surveillance program, which focuses on "downer" or nonambulatory cows, works. After last month's discovery, the U.S. Department of Agriculture banned downer cows in the food supply.

But Louthan says it was "a fluke" that the Holstein, a cow he describes as "a good walker," was tested.

And even if it had been deemed a downer, under emergency rules enacted earlier this month it would have been sent to a rendering plant, where tests are not done at all.

Mad-cow update • Herds of cows are under quarantine in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, and agriculture officials still lack a full accounting of the meat that was recalled after discovery of mad-cow disease last month. • More than 600 animals have been destroyed in the course of the investigation. The disease has not been detected in tests on roughly 150 of those animals. • Investigators continue to look for about 70 cows that could have come to the United States from the same Alberta, Canada, farm where the sick Holstein was born in 1997. Yesterday, the investigation into mad-cow disease spread to a farm in Moxee City, Yakima County, the seventh facility linked to an infected Holstein. • Japanese and U.S. officials yesterday reviewed U.S. steps to improve safeguards against mad-cow disease, but the Americans failed to persuade the world's largest buyer of U.S. beef to resume imports. — The Associated Press

Louthan, who killed the Holstein at Vern's Moses Lake Meat Co. on Dec. 9, says he has no doubt he remembers the right cow. "Every cow that comes in there, I kill. That kind of puts us in a relationship," said Louthan, who killed cows at Vern's for four years before he was laid off earlier this month after his bosses told him business had slowed. The plant manager, Tom Ellestad, has also confirmed that the cow was walking.

If he'd done what he should have, Louthan said, he would have taken the cow out of the truck and herded her around to a holding pen with other ambulatory animals.

But, he said, it was late in the day, the cow looked balky, and "I was cutting corners." So he shot a bolt through her head, scooped out a bit of brain, put it in a bag, labeled it with her number, and hung it on the wall with samples from others in the truckload. Later, he checked records to confirm that the "mad cow" was the cow he remembered, the balky Holstein from the Sunny Dene Ranch in Mabton, Yakima County.

If the Holstein had walked into the slaughterhouse, it probably would have been examined carefully, because it had apparent calving injuries and the veterinarian on site had tagged it for inspection.

But experts in the disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) say the inspector likely wouldn't have found anything, because the tiny protein particles implicated in the disease aren't visible to the naked eye.

Quite likely, the Holstein wouldn't have been tested for BSE, and no one would have known that the disease had been transported across the border in cows sent from Canada. Or that her meat, which was recalled Dec. 24, had found its way into the food chain.

The disease, which causes Swiss-cheese-like holes to form in a cow's brain, is fatal for humans who contract a related illness from eating infected meat.

Felicia Nestor, food-safety project director at the Government Accountability Project, a citizens' watchdog group, said investigation by her office confirms Louthan's account.

Even more troubling, said Nestor, is that the testing program is totally voluntary, and that the industry — not inspectors — chooses which animals are tested for BSE.

"Had this cow not given birth, and had a birthing injury, that cow would still be out in the field with BSE," Nestor said.

In another twist, emergency rules now in place would have let the Holstein fall through the surveillance net.

On Jan. 12, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) took emergency action banning all downer cows — no matter what the cause of their inability to walk — from the food supply.

Now, they're sent directly to rendering plants — where, in this state, they're not being tested for the disease.

USDA spokesman Nolan Lemon said all resources in Washington are being used to track down the remaining cows that came with the Holstein from Canada.

"Right now, we're evaluating how our surveillance program will have to change," Lemon said. Setting up testing at rendering plants "is a possibility," he said.

If current rules had been in place when the Holstein came through, "we may not have caught that cow," said Frank Hendrix, a cattleman and Washington State University extension agent in Yakima.

But, Hendrix added, the USDA is well aware of the problem.

"I'm sure in the next couple of months, the government will get it straightened out, and start testing at rendering plants as well," he said.

Whether the infected Holstein was a downer is important, because the government's surveillance system has long concentrated on downers, deemed to be more likely to have BSE than cows that can walk.

"Downers weren't the only source of samples, but they were a high source of it," Lemon said. Out of a total of 20,277 tests last fiscal year, ending Sept. 30, 16,560 were "downers" and 3,090 were cows that had died before they arrived at the slaughterhouse.

According to USDA records, Vern's began testing in early October, gathering samples from 258 cows through December.

The veterinarian's notes from Dec. 9 at Vern's show the Holstein as "alert" but lying down on its sternum. Notes made after it was slaughtered show it had pelvic injuries, which indicate difficulties in calving, not BSE.

The department's surveillance was designed to catch the 1-in-a-million case that statisticians said would be a tip-off that there were perhaps 45 other cases in the U.S. adult cattle population of about 45 million, Lemon said.

Before the Holstein tested positive, the USDA had determined that the tests should increase to 40,000 a year to catch that 1-in-a-million case, he added.

Nestor, at the Government Accountability Project, said much of the voluntary sampling of livestock has been done at smaller facilities. "Thank goodness for us all that Vern's stepped up to the plate and was willing to take the responsibility to sample these animals," she said. "If they had not been willing to do this, then we would never have found this cow."

But, she added, such an event is financially traumatic for a plant owner, who is not protected from the economic fallout resulting from discovery of the disease. "There is no incentive for a plant to find BSE," she said.

Louthan, 44, said he's sorry to lose his job, because he enjoyed the work. "I did it because I liked to kill cows," he said. "I don't care if I'm hauling them, feeding them or killing them. As long as I'm around livestock, I'm happy. I'm a cowboy."

Carol M. Ostrom: 206-464-2249 or costrom@seattletimes.com

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