• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Blocked by US, meatpacker sues to do mad cow tests

Posted on: Thursday, 23 March 2006, 17:54 CST

By Charles Abbott

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Meatpacker John Stewart sued the U.S. government on Wednesday for access to cattle testing kits so his Kansas company can prove to customers, especially in mad cow-leery Japan, that its beef is safe.

Stewart's firm, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef LLC, wants to test all its slaughter cattle for mad cow disease. Its suit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., would force the Agriculture Department to give it access to kits to test for the brain-wasting disease.

The suit was applauded by consumer groups. But USDA, which convinced Japan to drop its own universal testing program, opposes private testing of cattle. Mad cow incubates for years, USDA says, and "is not detected in young animals," the bulk of the 35 million U.S. cattle slaughtered for beef each year.

Mad cow is always fatal in cattle. People can contract a deadly human version of the disease by eating contaminated meats. No U.S.-origin cases are known.

USDA says its tests show a low incidence of mad cow disease, formally named bovine spongiform encephalopathy, in America. Three cases have been found since December 2003.

The odds of finding a case through independent testing of young cattle are "very, very, very low," Stewart told reporters. Creekstone wants to "provide an additional layer of confidence" to customers in markets like Japan by doing the tests.

"I would not refer to it as a (marketing) gimmick," said Stewart, the founder and chief executive of Creekstone.

Creekstone filed suit while the United States was trying for the second time to persuade Japan to reopen its borders to U.S. beef and while USDA was preparing to scale down its "surveillance" tests used to gauge U.S. levels of mad cow.

"It's off down the trail on something that is not justified by science or international standards," said Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns when asked about the lawsuit after touring a fuel ethanol plant in south-central Minnesota.

The Consumers Union, which has called for USDA to test all cattle over the age of 20 months for mad cow, said Creekstone should be allowed to test for the disease.

"The fact of the matter is our food system is not foolproof," said Urvashi Rangan, a senior scientist and policy analyst for the consumer group. "There is plenty of room for additional steps to be taken. Why not give companies the right to do that?"

Critics in the cattle industry said Creekstone was trying to hijack food safety regulations for financial advantage. The American Meat Institute, representing meatpackers, said BSE testing almost always is a government function worldwide.

Public health is protected not by mad-cow tests, a USDA spokesman said, but by federal rules that ban the use of cattle parts in cattle feed and require the removal from carcasses of older cattle the brains, spinal columns and nervous tissue most at risk of carrying the infective agent for mad cow.

Japan banned U.S. beef for two years following the first U.S. case of mad cow. It resumed purchases in late 2005 under stringent rules and suspended trade on January 20 after finding forbidden spinal material in a shipment of veal.

USDA said it would press for reopening of trade during discussions next week on meat inspection rules but Japanese officials say no meetings were scheduled. Japan has asked repeatedly how USDA will prevent more beef-trade violations.

In its suit, Creekstone challenged USDA's use of a 1913 law to prevent access to rapid-screening tests for mad cow. USDA does not allow private testing for BSE.

Since June 2004, USDA has tested roughly 660,000 cattle for mad cow, nearly all older animals and cattle with possible symptoms. The enhanced surveillance tests found two of the three U.S. cases. Some $105 million was allotted for the tests.

USDA has not suggested how many cattle would be tested under a "maintenance" program but it requested enough money for 40,000 tests during the fiscal year opening October 1.

Based in Arkansas City, Kansas, Creekstone slaughters about 300,000 head of cattle a year, making it a comparatively small packer.

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category