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Veneman: BSE cow was downer
WASHINGTON (DTN)--U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman said Feb. 19 a veterinarian's records show that the Washington state cow found last December to have mad cow disease was a "downer," but that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's inspector general is investigating the cow's status following reports that the cow may have been ambulatory.
Veneman made the statement to the USDA's annual Outlook Conference after being asked by a Japanese reporter about a letter from House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-VA, and ranking member Henry Waxman, D-CA, contending the cow may not have been a so-called "downer" or nonambulatory animal.
"Veterinarian's records say the cow was a downer," she said.
In a letter to Veneman, Davis and Waxman wrote "the co-manager of the slaughter plant and two other eyewitnesses state that the cow stood and walked on the day of slaughter" and that the cow was tested for bovine spongiform encephalopathy--the formal name for mad cow disease--as part of a testing contract the plant had with the USDA, not because it was a downer.
"If this information is true," Davis and Waxman wrote, "it could have serious implications for both the adequacy of the national BSE surveillance system and the credibility of the USDA."
Japan and other importers have banned U.S. beef products since the disease was discovered. The Japanese government has asked the United States to reopen its borders to imports of Japanese beef, which is banned in the United States because of BSE in Japan, Veneman said, but she had no evidence of a link between the Japanese request that the United States reopen its borders and Japan's willingness to import U.S. beef.
USDA Chief Economist Keith Collins said during the conference U.S. farm exports are expected to rise to $59 billion in 2004, the highest since the all-time record of $60 billion in 1996, but half a billion dollars less than USDA was projecting before foreign countries banned beef imports.
Americans would have to eat 5 percent more beef to make up for the lack of exports, Collins said. USDA expects bans on U.S. poultry exports because of avian flu to be short term. The bans on beef would create more export opportunities for pork and poultry.
Collins said U.S. growers need to be aware of growing competition from Brazil and Argentina in soybeans, from China and the former Soviet countries in coarse grain and from India and the former Soviet countries in wheat. Brazil has increased production of cotton, soybeans, broilers, pork, corn and beef by 25 to 75 percent since the late 1990s, he said.
Date: 3/11/04
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