Panel calls for changes in testing, tracking cows

By Sandi Doughton
Seattle Times staff reporter

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Another federal advisory panel has called for expanded mad-cow testing, including a program to target animals that die on farms.

In a report to Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman released yesterday, the committee also urged quick adoption of a system to identify and track individual animals.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's advisory panel on foreign animal diseases is the fourth committee in recent weeks to urge more testing for the disease.

A panel of international experts reached a similar conclusion, as did a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel and a bipartisan congressional committee.

But while the international group specifically recommended testing for all high-risk animals, including sick cattle, the most recent report doesn't offer detailed guidance.

Committee member Dr. Saul Wilson, of the Tuskegee University College of Veterinary Medicine, said the panel was telling USDA to conduct more than the 40,000 tests planned this year.

But committee member John Adams, of the National Milk Producers Federation, said he interprets the report as an endorsement of the 40,000-test target, which represents a doubling over last year's level.

USDA spokesman Jim Rogers said the agency is considering the recommendations.

The international panel concluded mad-cow disease has probably already taken hold in America's cattle, with a case a month likely in the future. But the USDA panel questioned that, and said the international experts should meet with Harvard researchers who have said the risk that mad-cow will spread in the U.S. is very low.

Both panels agreed that USDA needs to develop a system to test cattle that die on farms and are often delivered to rendering plants, where the corpses are cooked down into protein and fats for use in pet food, animal feed and some drugs and cosmetics.

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