The U.S. Agriculture Department dramatically upgraded the country’s defenses against mad cow disease Tuesday, banning meat from all so-called downer cows and promising to create a nationwide animal tracking system, steps long advocated by critics.
In Olympia, Gov. Gary Locke applauded the action, but called for further steps to "keep the public’s faith in the safety of beef products."
And Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said she would re-introduce a bill she’d co-sponsored last month, which also would have banned downer cow sales before the mad cow scare broke.
If the bill passes, it would make permanent the ban announced by Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman on Tuesday, one week after the first case of mad cow disease was confirmed in a Washington state Holstein slaughtered Dec. 9.
The changes will produce more rapid testing of cattle for the presence of mad cow disease, and meat will not be processed until the test results are back.
Veneman also said small intestines from cows will no longer be allowed into the U.S. food supply, nor will head and spinal tissue from cattle older than 30 months. In addition, the Bush administration is ordering changes in slaughterhouse techniques to prevent meat from being accidentally contaminated with brain or spinal cord tissue that can spread mad cow disease.
"Sound science continues to be our guide," Veneman said.
Under the new U.S. regulations, the sick cow slaughtered in Washington state would not have been allowed to enter the food chain.
The meat from that cow was allowed to be sold for human consumption after its brain and spinal column were removed and a federal inspector saw no indication of neurological disease. The Agriculture Department estimates that 130,000 down cattle are sent to meatpacking plants each year.
USDA ordered a recall of more than 10,000 pounds of meat from 20 cows slaughtered with the infected Holstein on Dec. 9. The recalled meat was distributed to eight states and Guam, although officials said 80 percent of it went to Oregon and Washington.
USDA officials have said they ordered the recall as a precaution, insisting there was no threat to the safety of the U.S. food supply. "The risk of BSE spreading in the U.S. is extremely low and any possible spread would have been reversed by the controls we have already put in place," Veneman said.
The other new measures include:
In Olympia, Locke called for further steps, such as testing all downer cattle for the disease.
Locke also called for the development of ways to test live cattle for the disease.
And the governor said that state labs should be certified to conduct the tests. Right now, one federal laboratory in Iowa does all testing for the nation.
Locke, who met with Yakima-area officials Tuesday morning, also said the USDA should pay for any cattle that might be destroyed in response to the disease, to prevent further hardship to cattle ranchers.
Veneman said the announced changes have been planned for a while. But they come just as U.S. agriculture officials in Tokyo are trying to persuade the Japanese to lift that country’s ban on American beef. The U.S. officials went to South Korea after their stop in Japan.
The agriculture secretary said the changes should not impose any hardship on the cattle and meatpacking industries of on consumers.
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