January/February
2004
Mad
Cow Roundup: BSE and the Food Chain
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Last month’s discovery of the first confirmed
case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease,
in the U.S. wouldn’t have come as a big surprise to most Satya
readers. A so-called “downer” cow was reportedly singled
out by a USDA inspector in Washington state and tested for BSE, which
is suspected of transmitting new variant Creutzfeld Jacob disease—a
similar brain wasting disease—to humans.
“Downers,” or “nonambulatory disabled animals”
as the U.S. Department of Agriculture calls them, cannot walk by themselves,
because they are too injured or too ill, to their own slaughter (or
as one Wyoming reporter described it, they can’t “stand
or walk out of the food supply chain”). Some are aging animals,
such as “spent” dairy cows. Sometimes downed animals are
dragged or pushed by bulldozer or simply beaten until they drag themselves
to the kill floor. More often, they are discarded in a pile of broken
bodies—many still alive—and left eventually to be sold and
rendered into human and nonhuman food.
The muddled responses from the USDA to last month’s BSE case left
us scratching our heads, and wondering... Since this issue of Satya
focuses on companion animals, we wanted to know how this relates to
the flesh many of us serve our furry friends. Are there any safeguards
to protect them from BSE, and did last month’s case change anything?
We turned to a group of those in the know and offer a roundup of their
answers.—C.C.
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| Michael
Greger, M.D. |
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Brian Halweil |
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Gene and
Lori Bauston |
Michael Greger, M.D. is a physician
and an authority on mad cow disease.
Brian Halweil is a Senior Researcher and expert on food and
agricultural issues at the Worldwatch Institute (www.worldwatch.org).
Gene Bauston is co-founder and president of Farm Sanctuary
(www.farmsanctuary.org),
and has been at the forefront of a long effort to change legislation
to treat downed animals more humanely.
Why was that specific cow tested for BSE?
B.H. That cow was tested because it arrived at the
slaughterhouse unable to walk, a so-called “downer” cow.
It’s not clear whether it couldn’t walk because it was sick
(with mad cow or some other illness) or because it was injured while
birthing calves or during the arduous trip to the slaughterhouse.
M.G. The cow seemed to be suffering from a birthing
injury (thanks to breeding methods that tend to ignore the welfare of
farmed animals, many calves are oversized and can result in difficult
births) which interfered with her ability to walk. She was seemingly
picked at random as one of the 0.1 to one percent of “downer”
cows tested for mad cow disease in the U.S. every year. It seemed to
be a fluke she was picked up at all. Presumably if she hadn’t
had a birthing injury, she would have been able to walk to slaughter
and would not have been tested. How many other infected cows are currently
ending up in school cafeterias and restaurants and kitchens? We won’t
know until we follow Japan’s example and test every cow destined
for human consumption.
Prior to last month’s USDA mandate, so-called “downed”
animals were slaughtered for human consumption, correct?
G.B. Ironically, industry has often argued that using
the meat from injured animals for human food poses no threat
to human consumers because the animals are otherwise healthy.
M.G. Meat from downed animals was not allowed in the
federal school lunch program (deemed too risky for schoolchildren but
evidently not too risky for adults), but millions of pounds of their
flesh entered into the rest of the human meat supply.
Is the slaughter of all downed animals now banned, or only downed cows?
M.G. Only cows. The industry estimates that hundreds
of thousands of downer pigs, for example, too sick or crippled by injury
to even walk, arrive at U.S. slaughterhouses every year. We know that
pigs can be susceptible to BSE as well, so perhaps one’s “other
white meat” should be tofu.
B.H. The USDA has now prohibited parts from downed
cows for human consumption but not for use as feed for other animals,
and other downed livestock (pigs, chickens, sheep) still make it into
the food chain.
USDA regulations require that animals slaughtered for human
food be alive at the time of slaughter. Is this not the case for animals
killed for nonhuman consumption?
G.B. Animals who are not killed for human consumption
do not need to arrive at the slaughterhouse alive.
M.G. Companion animals can be fed dead and diseased
animals, which not only include farmed animals—roadkill is scraped
up and taken to rendering plants as well as animals euthanized in animal
shelters across the country.
B.H. Remember, from the perspective of the meat industry,
it’s all edible protein, regardless of where it comes from or
how sick the animal was at the moment of death.
Are there provisions for how long an animal may be dead before
slaughtered?
M.G. Not sure.
Are downed animals also slaughtered for nonhuman consumption, like for
pet food and farmed animal feed?
G.B. Downed and dead animals are used for animal
food and other ‘rendered’ products. The ban would not have
an impact on those practices. But, banning the use of downed cattle
for human food removes the requirement that animals arrive at the
slaughterhouse alive, so their use for pet food (instead of human food)
would allow them to be killed before being transported.
M.G. They are now killed and sent to rendering plants
where they end up as pig and chicken feed, pet food, or even products
destined for human consumption, such as gelatin or tallow used in cosmetics.
So buying “cruelty-free” cosmetics without animal products
may be not only kinder, but safer as well.
Does the ban have any bearing on animals slaughtered for nonhuman
consumption?
M.G. Only that now more potentially diseased tissues
will be going into nonhuman animal feed.
B.H. No, the ban has no bearing on animals slaughtered
for nonhuman consumption, which is one of the main problems or loopholes.
Although farmers aren’t allowed to feed cow parts back to cows,
they are still allowed to feed cow parts to pigs, chickens or other
livestock; and waste from pigs, chickens and other livestock is still
fed back to cows. So the agents that carry mad cow disease (and other
illnesses) are still being circulated throughout the animal herds. In
contrast, Europe has banned all feeding of animal parts (often called
animal “protein”) back to animals.
Are there any restrictions on what animals or animal parts
are rendered into pet food or animal feed?
M.G. Not that I am aware of.
B.H. Not as far as I know.
Are there cat and/or dog versions of BSE or “wasting”
disease? If so, have there been any cases of intra- or inter-species
transmission through consumption?
M.G. Tragically, about a hundred cats in Britain died
from feline spongiform encephalopathy, the cat version of mad cow, because
they ate pet food containing infected cattle parts.
Has it been determined what infected animal parts can transfer
BSE to humans?
B.H. As far as we understand, the most infectious parts
of an animal are nervous system tissue, including the brain and spinal
cord. There are small bits of nervous tissue in most body parts, including
muscle and bones, and some scientists believe that any parts of an infected
animal can transmit BSE—although with less likelihood—and
that the odds of transmission go up if the animal is slaughtered or
butchered in such a way as to spread nervous system tissue into the
meat. For instance, cutting an animal in half with a powerful saw can
embed bits of spinal cord into nearby flesh.
M.G. We do know that the deadly prions concentrate
in the brain, spinal cord, eyes and guts of the animals, but we have
evidence now that suggests that blood and even the muscle itself may
be harboring the prions, so the best way to reduce one’s risk
is to eschew meat altogether.
For more information on downers and legislation, visit www.nodowners.org.
For periodic updates on mad cow, send a blank email to DrGregerMadCowUpdates-subscribe@lists.riseup.net.
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