What's the beef? Mad Cow disease hits the United States

Current Events, Feb 6, 2004

MABTON, Wash. -- The 6-year-old cow stumbled around, barely able to support its own weight. It cocked its head to the side, staring straight ahead with blank eyes. Aware of the cow's feeble state, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors at the slaughterhouse tested the animal for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease, as part of a routine surveillance program. BSE is a fatal disease of cattle that affects the animals' brains. By the time the diagnosis was confirmed two weeks later, the cow's meat had already been processed into beef for human consumption.

On December 23, the U.S. government announced the startling news: After years of plaguing Europe, mad cow disease had arrived in the United States--and meat from the infected animal was already on its way to stores in the western United States.

Dozens of federal investigators swarmed the Sunny Dene Ranch in Mabton, Wash., where the cow had been raised, scouring records to figure out where the cow had been born and to track down any cattle with which it had come in contact.

The government recalled about 10,400 pounds of raw beef from cattle that had been killed the same day at the same slaughterhouse as the infected cow. As a further precaution, hundreds of cattle with possible ties to the cow were slaughtered. "We are doing everything we can to find the lineage of the cattle, traced back and traced forward," said Sarah Goodwin of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

When CE went to press, no other infected cattle had been found. U.S. officials, however, said that one mad cow was bad enough.

Udder Hysteria

BSE eats holes in cattle brains until they look like sponges. Veterinarians say there is no cure for the disease. Experts believe it is transmitted when cattle eat the brain or spinal cord tissue of infected animals, which may be in cattle feed. Until 1997, cattle feed included the ground-up carcasses of animals, including other cows. The U.S. cow with BSE was born before the government banned that practice.

According to some experts, people can get a related version of mad cow disease, known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), by eating contaminated beef. (See Side Trip.)

The United Kingdom learned that lesson the hard way. An epidemic of mad cow disease broke out among cattle there in 1986. At the epidemic's peak in 1993, about 1,000 new cases were appearing each week. The British government killed 5.5 million cattle to prevent the disease's spread. A few years later, a vCJD outbreak shook the United Kingdom. Some people who had eaten beef daily suddenly found themselves stricken by the fatal, debilitating disease. Scientists feared that tens of thousands of people would fall victim to vCJD. Those fears now seem unfounded. As of December 1, 2003, only 143 cases of vCJD had been reported in the United Kingdom. The number of new vCJD cases has now leveled off to fewer than 20 a year.

Don't Have a Cow!

The USDA says Americans should keep eating beef. U.S. officials say vCJD is virtually nonexistent in the United States, and one mad cow won't change that. "The beef supply is safe and wholesome for the American consumer," said Matt Baun of the USDA.

However, some beef eaters are switching to chicken. "I'll go back when I see [Vice President] Dick Cheney eating [raw] steak ... on FOX News," said Mark McGroarty, 35, who ate his last hamburger just before the recall was announced.

0thers--including U.S. President George W. Bush--haven't lost their taste for hamburgers. "I like to eat beef and will continue eating beef because I believe the food supply is safe," Bush said.

Dead Meat?

Not everyone has that same confidence in U.S. beef. Dozens of countries, including Japan, Mexico, and South Korea--the top three importers of U.S. beef--banned beef imports after word of the infected cow spread. About 40,000 tons of U.S. meat exports were abandoned, leaving some experts wary about the future of the $4.3 billion U.S. beef-export business.

However, industry experts are confident that the U.S. beef industry will hold its own. About 90 percent of the industry is based on sales within the United States. "As long as consumers in the U.S. eat beef like they are, this shouldn't have a major impact," financial analyst Adam Packard told BBC News.

A Good Moo-ve

In the meantime, the USDA has introduced several initiatives to prevent the spread of BSE. Officials are cracking down on the practice of slaughtering sick or lame cattle, called "downer" cattle, for human consumption. Downer cattle accounted for 150,000 to 200,000 of the 35 million cattle sent to slaughter last year, of which only 20,000 were tested for mad cow disease.

Department of Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman has called for a national livestock identification system to track the movements and health of all 105 million heads of U.S. cattle by July 2006.

John Meyer, head of the Holstein Association USA, says the identification system is desperately needed. "We've come to the point where, whatever this system costs, we can't afford to be without it."