USDA Refuses to Allow Thorough Mad Cow Testing

Advocates of the right-not-to-know won a skirmish when USDA decided April 8, 2004, that it would not permit a Kentucky-based beef processing company, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, to test for mad cow disease in 100% of the cattle it slaughters.

Creekstone had proposed the testing Feb. 19, 2004, in order to sell its products to Japan, which had accounted for about 20% of its sales. Japan banned imports of U.S. beef following the discovery of mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE) in Washington state Dec. 23, 2003.

The U.S. banned imports of Japanese beef, after Japan discovered its first case of mad cow in 2001. The U.S. has maintained its ban since then, despite Japan's shift to testing 100% of its animals -- resulting in discovery of 8 more cases. Japan had previously exported relatively little beef to the U.S., while the U.S. had sold almost a billion dollars worth of beef a year to Japan, its largest export market. Japan now insists that it will not lift its ban on U.S. beef until the U.S. adopts 100% testing -- which has caused the U.S. to threaten a formal complaint of unfair trade practices.

USDA says 100% testing isn’t necessary because testing far fewer cattle can catch the vast majority of diseased cattle, at less expense. However, Creekstone says testing costs of $18-20 per head, using a USDA-approved test, add just 3-5 cents per pound to the 400-600 usable pounds from each head of cattle.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), to which Creekstone belongs but which supports the USDA stance, estimates the price is only slightly higher, at $30 per head.

Instead of 100% testing, USDA is pursuing a selective program that involves enhanced surveillance of cattle, particularly ones that are older or considered more vulnerable to BSE, and boosting the sampling about 10-fold from the current 20,000 or so that are tested now (but still just a small fraction of all cattle slaughtered). That program, scheduled to begin June 1, 2004, is expected to cost about $70 million, or around $275 to $350 per head.

While Creekstone says its strategy has been met with approval by Japanese officials, USDA isn’t changing its stance, instead requesting on March 29, 2004, a meeting with Japan to discuss current BSE science (www.usda.gov/Newsroom/0131.04.html). No regulation actually prohibits a company from doing its own testing at its own expense; USDA, however, controls the supply of the reagents used in BSE testing, and has refused to sell them to Creekstone.

In a parallel development, USDA is developing standards for livestock and meat marketing claims that companies can use. However, Creekstone’s efforts to use 100% BSE testing as a marketing tool don’t come under this heading.

Instead, standards for topics such as geographic origin (e.g., Nebraska-fed) and beef aging, and terms such as grain-fed, are expected to be released in the near future (no date given). Standards that have been too controversial to resolve and that will be released later cover topics such as antibiotic and hormone use and terms such as grass-fed and free-range.

-- Creekstone: Brad Caudill, 303-255-4200 (or cell, 720-560-8965), http://www.creekstonefarmspremiumbeef.com/csf_response.html

-- USDA: Kathryn Mattingly, 202-720-8998, kathryn.mattingly@usda.gov, http://www.ams.usda.gov/lsg/stand/claim.htm

-- USDA: Ed Loyd, 202-720-4623, http://www.usda.gov/Newsroom/0105.04.html, and for background, http://www.usda.gov/BSE/

-- NCBA: Walt Barnhart, 303-850-3360, wbarnhart@beef.org, http://www.beef.org/dsp/dsp_content.cfm?locationId=45&;contentTypeId=2&contentId=

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