Mad Cow disease is in the U.S.

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
1

This could cripple the Cattle Industry, hope this is isolated.

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Mad cow found in US

Government is investigating first suspected case of mad cow disease in the United States – source
December 23, 2003: 5:30 PM EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A suspected case of mad cow disease is being investigated in Washington state, a U.S. farm industry source said Tuesday.

A confirmed case of mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), has never been found in the United States.

Mad cow disease has reportedly been found in Washington state, according to a farm industry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official said she was unsure how many cases were being investigated.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Agriculture Department declined comment. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman was scheduled to hold a news conference at 5:30 p.m. EST (2230 GMT).

The U.S. cattle industry has long feared an outbreak, which could result in billions of dollars of losses.

Shares of McDonald’s, the world’s biggest restaurant chain, tumbled to $24.20 on Instinet from their close of $25.28 on the New York Stock Exchange after the news broke Tuesday evening.

On May 20, Canada confirmed that one Alberta cow, which was slaughtered in January, had mad cow disease. The disease has been widespread in Europe and has been linked to about 130 human deaths.

The discovery of the sick Canadian cow triggered an immediate halt of Canadian meat exports by most countries as a precaution.

http://money.cnn.com/2003/12/23/news/economy/madcow.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes

2

Along similar lines, maybe more dangerous in that the supervisor - USDA - wasn’t interested in doing a good job. In fact went after those who brought its attention to the misdeeds of the meat industry.

"Small Businessman Whistleblower Risks it all in the Name of Conscience
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Mr. Munsell charged that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) tried to drive him out of business because he exposed the department’s failure to act on evidence that the giant ConAgra beefpacking company was shipping E. coli contaminated ground beef carrying the USDA’s own seal of approval as wholesome.

The USDA’s aggressive “do not look, do not tell” non-interference policy with ConAgra backfired when it was finally required to recall over 19 million pounds of ground beef and related trim during the summer of 2002. The reason: Laboratory tests confirmed E.coli 0157:H7 – the same deadly germ that had taken lives and hospitalized many in previous contamination tragedies.

When John Munsell found that the hamburger he ground from ConAgra-provided meat contained the pathogen E.coli, he informed the USDA. Whereupon the Department launched an inspection of his operation, but not the source of the contamination – ConAgra, and closed Munsell’s plant for four months.

USDA’s delay in going after ConAgra’s Greeley plant resulted in the death of an Ohio woman and sickness for 35 other consumers before ConAgra recalled 19 million pounds of beef.
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Munsell, a Republican, is on the move – demanding action from Congress, writing detailed letters to the USDA and agitating in every direction he can think of for safer meat products and effective regulation. Thousands of USDA meat inspectors are cheering him on. They are fed up with the large companies contacting the higher-ups in the USDA and in Congress to pressure inspectors to lay off or be transferred out. Tough enforcement and USDA have not mixed.
…"
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1222-11.htm

3

I suppose this means even cheaper Burgers at Macs ! :D

4

Mad Cow Disease has now reached the US, with many blaming the food safety policies of the Bush Administration for its occurrance.

Analysis: Bush Administration’s Role in US Mad Cow Disease](http://www.republicons.org/view_article.asp?RP_ARTICLE_ID=1061) Republicons 24 Dec 03

In February 2003, Carol Tucker Foreman waxed prophetic in her analysis of the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) budget for FY 2004. “President Bush is funding tax cuts [for] millionaires by cutting food safety,” said Tucker Foreman, Consumer Federation of America’s Food Policy Institute director. “Inspection is not a service to meat processors. It is a vital public health function. Meat inspectors are public health officers, just as a policeman on the beat is a public safety officer. Consumers do not want any meat inspector to view the owner of a filthy meat plant as the source of his pay check.”

Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman announced on December 23 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has diagnosed a presumptive positive case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE better known as Mad Cow Disease) in a cow in the state of Washington. How did the US allow the disease to occur after the consumer confidence and economic debacle experienced in the United Kingdom and Canada? Full Article

5

Last night CNN was reporting that Japan and Korea have slapped bans on US beef. Today Chile and some other Latin American country joined them. European Union is playing cool for a while.

McDonald and Wendy's stock took the plunge this morning (5+% and 4+% drop in morning trading).

The chances of any human getting very sick are pretty remote (this thing has killed, like, 100 people since 1986, so its not exactly an epidemic), but even then this thing has tremendour financial consequences. It has the potential to cause wide-spread panic and people won't be eating beef for some time now. It sounds all and out bad news for the industry.

6

This is bad news for Bush. The repercussions from this could be huge, we all saw what happened in the uk where millions of cows were slaughtered so as to stop the spread of the disease. A similar plan of action may have to be deployed by the US authorities. The effects of the culling and the loss of thousands of workers in this sector due to the export ban is enough to give any politician a nightmare.

7

Canada should ban US beef. Tit for tat.

8

It already has.

Canada Bans Some U.S. Beef Imports Guardian 25 Dec 03

TORONTO (AP) - Canada said Wednesday that it will ban imports of some beef products from the United States in response to the discovery of a suspected case of the brain-wasting mad cow disease in a cow from Washington state.

The ban includes some processed meat, but does not include products not considered to pose a threat of transmitting the disease to humans, Agriculture Minister Bob Speller said. ``As a precautionary measure, we’re implementing import restrictions,‘’ Speller said. …

9

Didnt the US ban ALL beef from Canada? Canada banning SOME isnt tit for tat.

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"Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Russia, Egypt, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Colombia, Singapore, Thailand, Brazil, Malaysia, Australia, Chile and Ukraine have all banned U.S. beef imports, the U.S. Meat Export Federation said. The countries represent about 87 percent of volume and value for beef exports. "

U.S. beef banned by 15 nations](http://washingtontimes.com/business/20031224-090827-7501r.htm) The Washington Times 25 Dec 03

11

Does that mean all the meat will end up in Pakistan by any chance? :konfused:

12

Fanta, I dont think Pakistan imports Beef directly from the States although processed Beef products such as corned Beef are exported by third party suppliers but these are mostly sourced from Australia.

13

All this means “prevention is better than cure”
With high percentage of obese Children and adult, US looking for Vegetarian options.

Diseases have no bias to Race, nationality, Religion or caste.
Go Veggie to live healthy life.

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check this ……….. http://www.peta.org.

14

Interesting indeed. I wonder who the WTO DSU would handle this. Will they do a follow up case like the one preceeding this. For those who dont know. The actions of these 15 countries are "illegal" under WTO law. However as they are cases of medical disease, they can be covered by the SPS (its cover health issues in trade) agreement. If the DSU rules that these sanctions are illegal US meat will be forced to be sold. However that is not gonna happen unless the US takes this case to the WTO itself.

15

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Agriculture Department says it believes the dairy cow infected with mad cow disease was imported from Canada in 2001.

The USDA said meat linked to the infected cow was sold in four western states – Washington, Oregon, California and

US blames Canada for Mad Cow!

OTTAWA, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Canada, which detected one case of mad cow seven months ago, said on Tuesday there was no evidence its cow was linked to the mad cow case in the United States.

Canada denies US accusations!

Nice to know US is friendly with its neighbours! talk about shifting the blame why not typical capitalists when the chips are down blame someone else!

16

^ As much as I want Canada to ban all American beef - America is'nt "blaming" Canada, infact Mad Cow develops over a short period of time - thus meaning the cow was infected with Mad Cow in the States.