Thursday, November 28, 2013

Department of Justice Former Suppliers of Beef to National School Lunch Program Settle Allegations of Improper Practices and Mistreating Cows

Department of Justice
 
Office of Public Affairs
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
 
Former Suppliers of Beef to National School Lunch Program Settle Allegations of Improper Practices and Mistreating Cows
 
Several California companies and individuals that formerly supplied beef to the National School Lunch Program have agreed to settle allegations of inhumane handling of cattle, circumventing appropriate inspection of nonambulatory disabled (“downer”) cattle and false representations regarding their eligibility to process beef, the Justice Department announced today. The announcement follows approval of the last of these settlements by a California probate court.
 
“Children across the country depend on the National School Lunch Program to provide them with a healthy meal each day, so we all depend on companies providing food to the program to follow the rules designed to ensure those meals are safe to eat,” said Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Division Stuart F. Delery. “The Justice Department will pursue aggressively anyone whose unlawful conduct puts the safety of our food at risk.”
 
“The contractors who supply beef and other meat products to schools and child-care facilities have a responsibility to provide our nation’s young people with products that come only from healthy and humanely handled animals,” said U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California AndrĂ© Birotte Jr. “This settlement holds accountable businesses that mistreated cows on a regular basis and routinely evaded a critically important USDA inspection procedure that allowed ‘downer cows’ to be processed into food.”
 
The settlements will conclude a lawsuit initiated by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act (FCA) after an HSUS investigator videotaped alleged inhumane cattle handling and improper downer cattle inspection practices at the slaughterhouse and meat processing facility of Westland Meat Co. and Hallmark Meat Packing Co. in Chino, Calif. The government later joined the lawsuit and brought additional claims that the defendants concealed their ineligibility to process beef because a convicted felon, Aaron “Arnie” Magidow, was a partner in and otherwise responsibly connected with the facility’s operations. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations applicable to suppliers of the National School Lunch Program prohibit the inhumane handling of cattle, require the proper inspection and disposition of downer cattle and require suppliers to identify convicted felons who are responsibly connected to the suppliers’ operations.
 
The National School Lunch Program, administered by the USDA, is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child-care institutions. The program provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children each school day. All ground beef containing the defendants’ products was recalled as of Feb. 16, 2008, and the defendants no longer supply beef to the National School Lunch Program.
 
“A top priority for USDA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) is protecting the integrity of America’s food supply by investigating violations of the Federal Meat Inspection Act,” said USDA-OIG Western Region Special Agent in Charge Lori Chan. “Agents from OIG’s Diamond Bar, Calif., office conducted an extensive investigation of the Hallmark/Westland facility, which supplied ground beef to schools through USDA’s National School Lunch Program. The government’s joint investigation led to one of the largest civil settlements in OIG’s history.” Under the settlements, Westland Meat Co., based in Corona Del Mar, Calif., and its owner Steve Mendell will pay $240,000, and Westland will enter into a consent judgment for $155.68 million. M&M Management, also based in Corona Del Mar, Calif., and Cattleman’s Choice, based in Commerce, Calif., and the estate of Cattleman’s deceased owner, Arnie Magidow, and Magidow’s surviving spouse will pay a total of approximately $2.45 million. Magidow’s surviving spouse was named in the lawsuit as a successor in interest to Magidow and is not alleged to have engaged in any wrongdoing. In October 2012, defendants Donald R. Hallmark and Donald W. Hallmark settled allegations for $304,130.
 
The FCA’s whistleblower provisions, under which HSUS filed the lawsuit, permit a private entity to bring a lawsuit on behalf of the government and to share in any proceeds from the suit. The FCA also allows the government to intervene in the lawsuit, as it has done in this case. As a result of the settlements announced today, HSUS will receive approximately $600,000.
 
The case was handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California and the Justice Department’s Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch; in cooperation with the USDA Office of Inspector General. The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only; there has been no determination of liability.
 
13-1264 Attorney General
 
 
 
U.S., suppliers settle over school lunch beef linked to recall
 
Posted Nov. 27th, 2013 by Reuter news service
 
Nov 27 (Reuters) – Several California companies and individuals tied to the largest beef recall in U.S. history agreed to settle charges of animal cruelty and the slaughtering of sick cattle for food, including beef supplied to the National School Lunch Program, the Justice Department said on Wednesday.
 
The settlements end a federal fraud lawsuit begun in February 2008 by the Humane Society of the United States, which had obtained a video that appeared to show inhumane cattle treatment and improper inspections of sick cattle at a Chino, California, plant run by Westland Meat Co. and Hallmark Meat Co.
 
Under the settlements, Westland agreed to enter a $155.68 million consent judgment, which its lawyer said is unlikely to be collected because the company is defunct, while its owner, Steve Mendell, agreed to pay $240,000.
 
The government also said M&M Management LLC, Cattleman’s Choice Inc., the estate of Cattleman’s late owner, Aaron “Arnie” Magidow, and Magidow’s widow JoAnn will pay $2.45 million. JoAnn Magidow was not accused of wrongdoing.
 
Two other defendants, Donald Hallmark Sr and Donald Hallmark Jr, settled in October 2012 for $304,130, the government said. The government joined the case in May 2009.
 
According to the lawsuit, Westland/Hallmark treated cattle inhumanely and falsely represented that it processed meat only from ambulatory cattle, when it also used “downer” cattle that can walk only with help. Such cattle are considered a greater risk to spread illness.
 
The case was tied to contracts from August 2003 to January 2008 under which the U.S. Department of Agriculture bought fresh and frozen beef from Westland/Hallmark for school lunches. The USDA now bans non-ambulatory cattle from entering the human food chain.
 
“Children across the country depend on the National School Lunch Program to provide them with a healthy meal each day,” Stuart Delery, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil division, said in a statement. “We all depend on companies providing food to the program to follow the rules designed to ensure those meals are safe to eat.”
 
Mark Troy, a partner at the law firm Crowell & Moring representing Westland, Mendell and M&M, said federal meat inspectors “had been on site 100 percent of the time and inspected every single cow,” but the government blamed Westland because workers had been caught on the video mistreating cows.
 
He said the Westland judgment is not expected to be paid because the company is out of business.
 
An uncollectible $497 million judgment was previously entered against Hallmark Meat, the Humane Society has said.
 
Edward Woods, a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld representing Cattleman’s Choice, Arnie Magidow’s estate and JoAnn Magidow, in a statement said his clients “were able to reach a settlement with the U.S. for the costs of suit, a mere fraction of what the U.S. had been seeking.”
 
Both lawyers noted that a federal judge had earlier this year dismissed parts of the government’s case.
 
A February 2008 recall of Westland/Hallmark beef covered 143 million pounds (64.9 million kg) of meat over two years, of which 37 million pounds (16.8 million kg) had been bought for school lunches and other federal programs.
 
USDA officials at the time said much of the recalled beef had probably been consumed, but that there had been only a minor risk of illness from eating it.
 
Westland and M&M were based in Corona Del Mar, California, and Cattleman’s Choice in Commerce, California, the Justice Department said.
 
The case is U.S. ex rel. Humane Society of the United States v. Westland/Hallmark Meat Co et al, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, No. 08-00221.
 
 
 
 
NOW, these same corporate bozo's, decided amongst themselves, that it would be alright, to feed our children all across the USA, via the NSLP, DEAD STOCK DOWNER COWS, the most high risk cattle for mad cow type disease, and other dangerous pathogens, and they did this for 4 years, that was documented, then hid what they did by having a recall, one of the largest recalls ever, and they made this recall and masked the reason for the recall due to animal abuse, not for the reason of the potential for these animals to have mad cow BSE type disease. these TSE prion disease can lay dormant for 5, 10, 20 years, or longer, WHO WILL WATCH OUR CHILDREN FOR THE NEXT 5 DECADES FOR CJD ???
 
 
Saturday, September 21, 2013
 
Westland/Hallmark: 2008 Beef Recall A Case Study by The Food Industry Center January 2010 THE FLIM-FLAM REPORT
 
 
 
 
DID YOUR CHILD CONSUME SOME OF THESE DEAD STOCK DOWNER COWS, THE MOST HIGH RISK FOR MAD COW DISEASE ???
 
this recall was not for the welfare of the animals. ...tss
 
you can check and see here ;
 
(link now dead, does not work...tss)
 
 
 
 
try this link ;
 
 
 
 
Sunday, November 13, 2011
 
California BSE mad cow beef recall, QFC, CJD, and dead stock downer livestock
 
 
 
 
Saturday, November 2, 2013
 
APHIS Finalizes Bovine Import Regulations in Line with International Animal Health Standards while enhancing the spread of BSE TSE prion mad cow type disease around the Globe
 
 
 
 
I AGREE WITH MR. BULLARD, it’s all about trade and money, BSE TSE PRION aka mad cow type disease and sound science there from, was thrown out the window by the USDA et al that fateful day in December 23, 2003, when the USDA lost it’s ‘gold card’ of supposedly being BSE FREE, (that was and still is a sad joke though), that’s when mad cow junk science was adopted by the USDA...
 
see why below...kind regards, terry
 
 
Monday, November 4, 2013
 
*** R-CALF Bullard new BSE rule represents the abrogation of USDA’s responsibility to protect U.S. consumers and the U.S. cattle herd from the introduction of foreign animal disease
 
 
 
 
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
 
SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL (SRM) CONTROL VERIFICATION TASK FSIS NOTICE 70-13 10/30/13
 
 
 
 
NATURE OF THE CASE
 
 
 
1. This is an action for negligence against the Defendants arising from the improper and negligent use of contaminated material in the preparation of the Bacterial Master Cell Bank ("MCB") for a new breakthrough drug, Cethrin" (BA-21 0), researched and developed by BIOAXONE. Cethrin is a biologic drug that will provide the most advanced treatment for patients who have suffered acute spinal cord injury. Defendants negligently prepared the MCB using kanamycin they purchased that was made in China and that contained beef broth and avian products. The MCB is contaminated with beef broth and avian products that cause human disease including bovine spongiform encephalopathy ("BSE"), commonly known as mad cow disease, which created an unreasonably dangerous risk of the development of BSE in patients to whom the Cethrin made from the contaminated MCB would be administered.
 
 
 
Case 0:12-cv-60739-RNS Document 1 Entered on FLSD Docket 04/26/2012 Page 3 of 15
 
 
 
JURISDICTION AND VENUE
 
 
 
2. This Court has subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to 28 V.S.C. § 1332 because the matter in controversy exceeds the minimum jurisdictional requirements of this Court and because the Plaintiff is a citizen of a state different from the Defendants.
 
 
 
3. Venue for this action is proper in this Court because each Defendant holds a certificate of authority to transact business in Florida. is registered to transact business in Florida. and Plaintiff resides and transacts business in this District. Many of the acts that are alleged in this Complaint occurred in this District and at least one of the Defendants can be found, resides, or transacts business in this District.
 
 
 
4. At all times material hereto, the parties hereto transacted business related to Cethrin in Florida by and through their employees and/or agents including but not limited to participating in telephonic and in person meetings, correspondence, and making and/or accepting payments.
 
 
 
5. MDS PHARMA SERVICES, INC., was a wholly owned subsidiary of MDS, INC., now known as Defendant, NORDION. As its wholly owned subsidiary, NORDION, exercised extensive control over MDS PHARMA SERVICES and, as such, MDS PHARMA SERVICES, served as the agent or apparent agent of NORD ION. In addition, NORDION sells its products in Florida and as such its products are in the stream of commerce throughout the State of Florida. PARTIES
 
 
 
6. At all times material hereto, Plaintiff, BIOAXONE, was and is the owner and developer of Cethrin, a new breakthrough biologic drug providing treatment for patients who have suffered acute spinal cord injury. Defendant, MDS was retained by BIOAXONE to create, prepare, and qualify a Bacterial Master Cell Bank to be used in the development of Cethrin.
 
 
 
7. At all times material hereto, Defendant, MDS PHARMA SERVICES, INC., provided discovery, pre-clinical studies, and clinical trial services to biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies incorporated and doing business in Florida. such as BIOAXONE.
 
 
 
SNIP...
 
 
 
27. On or about October 16, 2008, a formal status report was provided to BIOAXONE during which BIOAXONE was informed, for the first time, that the MCB was not GMP compliant.
 
 
 
28. At all times prior to October 16, 2008, MDS/RICERCA had actual or constructive knowledge that the kanamycin it purchased and used in the preparation of the MCB for BIOAXONE was contaminated and was not fit or intended for use in humans.
 
 
 
29. At all times prior to October 16,2008, MDS/RICERCA had actual or constructive knowledge that the purchase and use of contaminated kanamycin in the preparation of the MCB for BIOAXONE created an unreasonably dangerous and foreseeable risk of adventitious agents that cause human disease including the development of BSE or mad cow disease in humans.
 
 
 
30. At all times material hereto, MDS/RICERCA knew that the preparation of the MCB for
 
 
 
 Case 0:12-cv-60739-RNS Document 1 Entered on FLSD Docket 04/26/2012 Page 9 of 15
 
 
 
BIOAXONE was for use in the development of a biologic drug, Cethrin, to be administered to humans.
 
 
 
31. At all times prior to October 16, 2008, MDS/RICERCA had actual or constructive knowledge that the purchase and use of contaminated kanamycin in the preparation of the MCB for BIOAXONE created a foreseeable risk that the FDA would deem Cethrin adulterated and cause the FDA and/or any other regulatory agency to fail to approve its use as a drug product to be administered to human patients.
 
 
 
32. At all times material hereto, MDS/RICERCA knew or should have known that it had a continuing duty to follow and comply with the GMPs in the preparation of the MCB. In addition to ensuring compliance with the GMPs, MDS/RICERCA had a duty to follow its own standard operating procedures and quality assurance standards in its purchase and use of animal-free raw materials in the preparation and qualification of the MCB for BIOAXONE.
 
 
 
33. Despite its actual or constructive knowledge of its use of the contaminated kanamycin in the preparation of the MCB, MDS/RICERCA failed to diligently, timely, properly or otherwise inform BIOAXONE that the kanamycin used in the preparation and qualification of the MCB was animal-derived, was not fit or intended for human use, and, as a result, had contaminated the MCB.
 
 
 
 SNIP...END...(no url...TSS)
 
 
 
 The Clerk shall CLOSE this case. Any party may move to re-open the case if there is a problem in reaching a final settlement agreement. Any pending motions are DENIED as moot. DONE and ORDERED in chambers, at Miami, Florida on September 19,2013.
 
 
 
 Case 0:12-cv-60739-RNS Document 115 Entered on FLSD Docket 09/20/2013 Page 1 of 1
 
 
 
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
 
 
 
Case No. 12-60739-Civ-SCOLA/ROSENBAUM
 
 
snip...see full text ;
 
 
 
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
 
NORDION (US), INC., AND BIOAXONE BIOSCIENCES, INC., Settles $90M Mad Cow TSE prion Contamination Suit Cethrin(R)
 
*** Case 0:12-cv-60739-RNS Document 1 Entered on FLSD Docket 04/26/2012 Page 1 of 15 ***
 
 
 
 
***Together with previous experiments performed in ovinized and bovinized transgenic mice and hamsters [8,9] indicating similarities between TME and L-BSE, the data support the hypothesis that L-BSE could be the origin of the TME outbreaks in North America and Europe during the mid-1900s.
 
 
 
 
Saturday, November 2, 2013
 
Exploring the risks of a putative transmission of BSE to new species
 
 
 
 
Wednesday, October 09, 2013
 
*** WHY THE UKBSEnvCJD ONLY THEORY IS SO POPULAR IN IT'S FALLACY, £41,078,281 in compensation REVISED
 
 
 
 
Thursday, October 10, 2013
 
*** CJD REPORT 1994 increased risk for consumption of veal and venison and lamb
 
 
 
 
Monday, October 14, 2013
 
*** Researchers estimate one in 2,000 people in the UK carry variant CJD proteins
 
 
 
 
Friday, August 16, 2013
 
*** Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) biannual update August 2013 U.K. and Contaminated blood products induce a highly atypical prion disease devoid of PrPres in primates
 
 
 
 
WHAT about the sporadic CJD TSE proteins ?
 
WE now know that some cases of sporadic CJD are linked to atypical BSE and atypical Scrapie, so why are not MORE concerned about the sporadic CJD, and all it’s sub-types $$$
 
 
snip...see full text and more here ;
 
 
Sunday, August 11, 2013
 
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease CJD cases rising North America updated report August 2013
 
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease CJD cases rising North America with Canada seeing an extreme increase of 48% between 2008 and 2010
 
 
 
 
*** U.S.A. 50 STATE BSE MAD COW CONFERENCE CALL Jan. 9, 2001 ***
 
 
 
 
 
 
Thursday, November 28, 2013
 
U.S., suppliers settle over school lunch beef linked to recall
 
 
 
 
 
TSS

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Republicans put 'national interest' requirement on US science agency

Republicans put 'national interest' requirement on US science agency

 

Proposed bill would require the National Science Foundation to justify awards using criteria including economic competitiveness and national defence. Sarah Zhang 05 November 2013

 

Article tools Rights & Permissions

 

 Lamar Smith, chairman of the House of Representatives science committee, wants NSF grants to benefit the United States.

 

Associated Press

 

Key members of the US House of Representatives are calling for the National Science Foundation (NSF) to justify every grant it awards as being in the “national interest”. The proposal, which is included in a draft bill from the Republican-led House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology that was obtained by Nature, would force the NSF to document how its basic-science grants benefit the country.

 

The requirement is similar to one in a discussion draft circulated in April by committee chairman Lamar Smith (Republican, Texas). At the time, scientists raised concerns that ‘national interest’ was defined much too narrowly. The current draft bill provides a more expansive definition that includes six goals: economic competitiveness, health and welfare, scientific literacy, partnerships between academia and industry, promotion of scientific progress and national defence.

 

Those criteria are in line with a ‘broader impacts’ assessment that the NSF, based in Arlington, Virginia, already requires scientists to include in their grant applications. But the bill, called the Frontiers in Innovation, Research, Science, and Technology (FIRST) Act of 2013, would place an extra burden on NSF programme directors by requiring them to publish justification for each grant award on the foundation’s website. In a time of tight budgets, says a Republican committee aide, research with a high return on investment should be prioritized. “It is the role of a government official who is using federal funds to provide the justification,” says the aide.

 

But former NSF programme director Scott Collins, a biologist at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, questions whether the national-interest provision is an appropriate use of NSF staff time. “Conducting cutting-edge science is clearly in the national interest,” he says.

 

Related stories •Quiet Texan to head science committee •US Congress passes strategic science bill •Science funding: Science for the masses

 

More related stories

 

Others say that predicting the broader impacts of basic research is tantamount to gazing into a crystal ball. John Bruer, president of the James S. McDonnell Foundation in St Louis, Missouri, and former co-chair of an NSF task force that examined broader impacts, thinks that the requirement should be eliminated. He says that scientists often make something up to fill that space on NSF grant applications because they cannot predict what will come of their work. “All scientists know it’s nonsense,” says Bruer.

 

Budget numbers are conspicuously absent from the draft bill, which would reauthorize the America COMPETES Act of 2007, a key funding bill for the NSF and other agencies that support physical-sciences research. That bill, reauthorized for the first time in 2010, aimed to double the budgets of the NSF, the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science in Washington DC.

 

Although the original America COMPETES Act was enacted with broad support, Congress has never appropriated enough money to match the authorization. And hopes for boosting US science funding have been dashed both by the government shutdown in October and by sequestration, which incurred across-the-board budget cuts that began in March.

 

With the Republican-controlled House and the Democrat-controlled Senate still negotiating a budget for the remainder of the 2014 fiscal year, the FIRST bill avoids funding issues and focuses on policy. It emphasizes the pursuit of translational research in federal science agencies, and partnership with private funding sources. That does not sit well with the NSF’s core mission of basic science, says Michael Lubell, director of public affairs at the American Physical Society in Washington DC. The bill would also ban NSF grantees who deliberately misrepresent data from receiving new NSF awards for 10 years.

 

Some of the bill’s controversial prescriptions may not survive an encounter with a Senate version of the reauthorization. The House committee will hold a hearing on the draft bill on 13 November. Nature doi:10.1038/nature.2013.14102


well, we know how republicans think about testing for mad cow type TSE prion disease, and we know what republicans think about mad cow disease and National Interest there from, they don’t think, they COVER UP AT ALL COST, just ask GW and or slick rick perry. mad cow type disease has never ever been a national interest to the USDA, other than when the USDA was considered BSE FREE i.e. when they had the GOLD CARD of BSE FREE. this BSE FREE GOLD card was fabricated by the USDA, with the help of the OIE. please let me show you. ...as follows ;

 

 

Rick Perry, Texas, and Mad Cow Disease--12 Years of Lies

 

By Terry S. Singeltary Sr. August 28, 2011 Straight to the Source

 

For related articles and more information, please visit OCA's Mad Cow Disease page.

 

I am sure that most of you are aware of the Texas mad cow cases that were covered up. the 1st documented cover-up was successful, the second documented case of mad cow in Texas would have been successful, but after literally, an act of Congress to override Austin, Texas officials (rick perry), only after the Honorable Fong of the OIG, and scientist all over the world, and a few others, including myself wrote to the OIG about said cover-up, and 7 months later, did they finally retest that covered-up highly suspect mad cow, and said covered up mad cow was finally _confirmed_ by Weybridge as a confirmed Texas BSE mad cow case. this 7 months after the fact on a Government BSE REDBOOK regulations of a 48 turn around on said test. over course this was all done for a reason, the BSE MRR policy was being put into place while all this was going on, and Heaven forbid if rick perry would have had a confirmed BSE mad cow case while those regulations were over riding the BSE GBR risk assessments. however, during all this political science on mad cow disease, it was nothing more than a crap shoot, and 15 years later, we now know that some of the sporadic CJD cases are indeed tied to the atypical BSE cases here in North America. How many people during the Bush/Perry era, how many did they needlessly expose to mad cow disease? how many will go clinical and die in the decades to come? Whether or not you dare care, during the Bush/Perry era, they exposed our kids to mad cow disease, by feeding them dead stock downer cows via the NSLP, for over 4 years. DEAD STOCK DOWNER COWS ARE THE MOST HIGH RISK COW FOR MAD COW DISEASE. WHO will watch the children for the next 5 decades for CJD ???

 


 

 

 >>> Read the Full Article

 

 


 

 

 ANOTHER sad day for sound science. instead, we will be awash in more corporate bought off junk science, which is where we are with politics today, corporate and bought off. so, no better place to start off with is the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies i.e. the TSE prion aka mad cow type disease (you did not think that it was all gone and or eradicated did you$), but if you see from what the USDA/OIE inc did, they just changed the science to where these TSE prion disease aka mad cow type disease are not a TRADE BURDON, where the TSE prions are now a LEGAL TRADING COMMODITY, where it’s legal for these TSE prion disease to just tag right along with the commodities in which they may be exposed too. face it world, as humans, as a society, we have failed, we have let the corporate world take over our societies, our governments, and just about every thing else. I have watched the mad cow follies daily since 1997, and what I witnessed, especially since that fateful day December 23, 2003, when the USDA inc lost it’s gold card, i.e. BSE FREE status (which the USA never was BSE free before that day, the USDA just managed to keep the mad cows from ever being documented until that day), but that day in Dec. 2003, the BSE mad cow science changed forever, just because the USA lost it’s BSE gold card. from that day forward, BSE aka mad cow junk science was the normal for the USDA et al, and every other country that went by the OIE BSE TSE guidelines.

 

 SO, where does this leave us with a slow incubating TSE prion disease, that once goes clinical, is 100% fatal, a disease that is spreading in many species, including humans, mutating, becoming more virulent with some of these variants of the TSE prion diseases that have emerged?

 

 let me kindly try to explain my dire concerns with the USDA et al new junk science policy on the mad cow type diseases aka TSE prion disease in humans and animals...

 

 

May 4, 2004

 

 Statement on Texas Cow With Central Nervous System Symptoms

 

 On Friday, April 30th, the Food and Drug Administration learned that a cow with central nervous system symptoms had been killed and shipped to a processor for rendering into animal protein for use in animal feed.

 

 FDA, which is responsible for the safety of animal feed, immediately began an investigation. On Friday and throughout the weekend, FDA investigators inspected the slaughterhouse, the rendering facility, the farm where the animal came from, and the processor that initially received the cow from the slaughterhouse.

 

 FDA's investigation showed that the animal in question had already been rendered into "meat and bone meal" (a type of protein animal feed). Over the weekend FDA was able to track down all the implicated material. That material is being held by the firm, which is cooperating fully with FDA.

 

 Cattle with central nervous system symptoms are of particular interest because cattle with bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE, also known as "mad cow disease," can exhibit such symptoms. In this case, there is no way now to test for BSE. But even if the cow had BSE, FDA's animal feed rule would prohibit the feeding of its rendered protein to other ruminant animals (e.g., cows, goats, sheep, bison)...

 


 

 

Subject: USDA OIG SEMIANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS FY 2007 1st Half (bogus BSE sampling FROM HEALTHY USDA CATTLE)

 

 Date: June 21, 2007 at 2:49 pm PST

 

 Owner and Corporation Plead Guilty to Defrauding Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Surveillance Program

 

 An Arizona meat processing company and its owner pled guilty in February 2007 to charges of theft of Government funds, mail fraud, and wire fraud. The owner and his company defrauded the BSE Surveillance Program when they falsified BSE Surveillance Data Collection Forms and then submitted payment requests to USDA for the services. In addition to the targeted sample population (those cattle that were more than 30 months old or had other risk factors for BSE), the owner submitted to USDA, or caused to be submitted, BSE obex (brain stem) samples from healthy USDA-inspected cattle. As a result, the owner fraudulently received approximately $390,000. Sentencing is scheduled for May 2007.

 

 snip...

 

 Topics that will be covered in ongoing or planned reviews under Goal 1 include:

 

 soundness of BSE maintenance sampling (APHIS),

 

 implementation of Performance-Based Inspection System enhancements for specified risk material (SRM) violations and improved inspection controls over SRMs (FSIS and APHIS),

 

 snip...

 

 The findings and recommendations from these efforts will be covered in future semiannual reports as the relevant audits and investigations are completed.

 

 4 USDA OIG SEMIANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS FY 2007 1st Half

 


 

 

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

 

 IN CONFIDENCE

 

 The information contained herein should not be disseminated further except on the basis of "NEED TO KNOW".

 

 BSE - ATYPICAL LESION DISTRIBUTION (RBSE 92-21367) statutory (obex only) diagnostic criteria CVL 1992

 


 

 

2009 UPDATE ON ALABAMA AND TEXAS MAD COWS 2005 and 2006

 


 

 

CDC DR. PAUL BROWN TSE EXPERT COMMENTS 2006

 

 The U.S. Department of Agriculture was quick to assure the public earlier this week that the third case of mad cow disease did not pose a risk to them, but what federal officials have not acknowledged is that this latest case indicates the deadly disease has been circulating in U.S. herds for at least a decade.

 

 The second case, which was detected last year in a Texas cow and which USDA officials were reluctant to verify, was approximately 12 years old.

 

 These two cases (the latest was detected in an Alabama cow) present a picture of the disease having been here for 10 years or so, since it is thought that cows usually contract the disease from contaminated feed they consume as calves. The concern is that humans can contract a fatal, incurable, brain-wasting illness from consuming beef products contaminated with the mad cow pathogen.

 

 "The fact the Texas cow showed up fairly clearly implied the existence of other undetected cases," Dr. Paul Brown, former medical director of the National Institutes of Health's Laboratory for Central Nervous System Studies and an expert on mad cow-like diseases, told United Press International. "The question was, 'How many?' and we still can't answer that."

 

 Brown, who is preparing a scientific paper based on the latest two mad cow cases to estimate the maximum number of infected cows that occurred in the United States, said he has "absolutely no confidence in USDA tests before one year ago" because of the agency's reluctance to retest the Texas cow that initially tested positive.

 

 USDA officials finally retested the cow and confirmed it was infected seven months later, but only at the insistence of the agency's inspector general.

 

 "Everything they did on the Texas cow makes everything USDA did before 2005 suspect," Brown said. ...snip...end

 


 

 

CDC - Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy and Variant Creutzfeldt ... Dr. Paul Brown is Senior Research Scientist in the Laboratory of Central Nervous System ... Address for correspondence: Paul Brown, Building 36, Room 4A-05, ...

 


 

 

In this context, a word is in order about the US testing program. After the discovery of the first (imported) cow in 2003, the magnitude of testing was much increased, reaching a level of >400,000 tests in 2005 (Figure 4). Neither of the 2 more recently indigenously infected older animals with nonspecific clinical features would have been detected without such testing, and neither would have been identified as atypical without confirmatory Western blots. Despite these facts, surveillance has now been decimated to 40,000 annual tests (USDA news release no. 0255.06, July 20, 2006) and invites the accusation that the United States will never know the true status of its involvement with BSE.

 

 In short, a great deal of further work will need to be done before the phenotypic features and prevalence of atypical BSE are understood. More than a single strain may have been present from the beginning of the epidemic, but this possibility has been overlooked by virtue of the absence of widespread Western blot confirmatory testing of positive screening test results; or these new phenotypes may be found, at least in part, to result from infections at an older age by a typical BSE agent, rather than neonatal infections with new "strains" of BSE. Neither alternative has yet been investigated.

 


 


 

 

Terry S. Singeltary Sr. 6/12/08

 

 Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy; Minimal-Risk Regions; Importation of Live Bovines and Products Derived from Bovines Commodities APHIS-2006-0041

 


 

 

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

 

 *** Canada, USA, Bad feed, mad cows: Why we know three BSE cases had a common origin and why the SSS policy is in full force $$$

 


 

 

CFIA, USDA, AND OIE SHOOT, SHOVEL, AND SHUT THE HELL UP SSS BSE TSE PRION MAD COW TYPE POLICY $$$, and the media is buying it hook, line, and sinker $$$

 

 EDMONTON - Some of former Alberta premier Ralph Klein's most colourful quotes — and the reactions they elicited:

 

 SNIP...

 

 "This all came about through the discovery of a single, isolated case of mad cow disease in one Alberta cow on May 20th.

 

 The farmer — I think he was a Louisiana fish farmer who knew nothing about cattle ranching.

 

 *** I guess any self-respecting rancher would have shot, shovelled and shut up, but he didn't do that." — Klein recalls how the mad cow crisis started and rancher Marwyn Peaster's role.

 

 The premier was speaking at the Western Governors Association meeting in Big Sky, Mont. September 2004.

 


 

 

Wednesday, December 22, 2010.

 

 Manitoba veterinarian has been fined $10,000 for falsifying certification documents for U.S. bound cattle and what about mad cow disease?

 


 

 

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

 

 Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease Human TSE report update North America, Canada, Mexico, and USDA PRION UNIT as of May 18, 2012

 


 

 

CENSORSHIP IS A TERRIBLE THING $$$

 

 Canada has had a COVER-UP policy of mad cow disease since about the 17th case OR 18th case of mad cow disease. AFTER THAT, all FOIA request were ignored $$$

 

 Thursday, February 10, 2011

 

 TRANSMISSIBLE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY REPORT UPDATE CANADA FEBRUARY 2011 and how to hide mad cow disease in Canada Current as of: 2011-01-31

 


 

 

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

 

 REPORT ON THE INVESTIGATION OF THE SIXTEENTH CASE OF BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY (BSE) IN CANADA

 


 

 

Thursday, August 19, 2010

 

 REPORT ON THE INVESTIGATION OF THE SEVENTEENTH CASE OF BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY (BSE) IN CANADA

 


 

 

Friday, March 4, 2011

 

 Alberta dairy cow found with mad cow disease

 


 

 

 

2012 ATYPICAL L-TYPE BASE BSE CONFIRMED CALIFORNIA

 

 

Saturday, August 4, 2012

 

 Final Feed Investigation Summary - California BSE Case - July 2012

 


 

 

 

Saturday, August 4, 2012

 

 Update from APHIS Regarding Release of the Final Report on the BSE Epidemiological Investigation

 


 

 

 

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

 

 SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL (SRM) CONTROL VERIFICATION TASK FSIS NOTICE 70-13 10/30/13

 


 

 

 

Monday, November 4, 2013

 

 R-CALF Bullard new BSE rule represents the abrogation of USDA’s responsibility to protect U.S. consumers and the U.S. cattle herd from the introduction of foreign animal disease

 


 

 

 

 NOW, WHAT ABOUT ALL THOSE MAD COWS THEY DID NOT FIND, DID NOT WANT TO FIND, I THINK AT ONE TIME I CALLED IT THE OBEX ONLY BSE TSE DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA BY THE USDA/OIE ;

 

 SPREADING IT ALL AROUND

 

 

============================================================

 

 

Saturday, October 19, 2013

 

 ***A comparative study of modified confirmatory techniques and additional immuno-based methods for non-conclusive autolytic Bovine spongiform encephalopathy cases ***

 


 

 

=============================================================

 

 

 

Sunday, July 21, 2013

 

 Welsh Government and Food Standards Agency Wales Joint Public Consultation on the Proposed Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (Wales) Regulations 2013 Singeltary Submission WG18417

 


 

 

Saturday, July 6, 2013

 

 Small Ruminant Nor98 Prions Share Biochemical Features with Human Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker Disease and Variably Protease-Sensitive Prionopathy

 

 Research Article

 


 

 

 

Monday, September 02, 2013

 

 Atypical BSE: role of the E211K prion polymorphism

 

 Research Project: TRANSMISSION, DIFFERENTIATION, AND PATHOBIOLOGY OF TRANSMISSIBLE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES

 

 Location: Virus and Prion Research Unit

 


 

 

Sunday, September 1, 2013

 

 Evaluation of the Zoonotic Potential of Transmissible Mink Encephalopathy

 

 We previously described the biochemical similarities between PrPres derived from L-BSE infected macaque and cortical MM2 sporadic CJD: those observations suggest a link between these two uncommon prion phenotypes in a primate model (it is to note that such a link has not been observed in other models less relevant from the human situation as hamsters or transgenic mice overexpressing ovine PrP [28]). We speculate that a group of related animal prion strains (L-BSE, c-BSE and TME) would have a zoonotic potential and lead to prion diseases in humans with a type 2 PrPres molecular signature (and more specifically type 2B for vCJD)

 

 snip...

 

 ***Together with previous experiments performed in ovinized and bovinized transgenic mice and hamsters [8,9] indicating similarities between TME and L-BSE, the data support the hypothesis that L-BSE could be the origin of the TME outbreaks in North America and Europe during the mid-1900s.

 


 

 

 

Saturday, May 2, 2009

 

 APHIS AND WHO PLAN TO EXEMPT THE ATYPICAL SCRAPIE NOR-98 FROM REGULATIONS AT MEETING THIS MONTH

 


 

 

Monday, November 30, 2009

 

 USDA AND OIE COLLABORATE TO EXCLUDE ATYPICAL SCRAPIE NOR-98 ANIMAL HEALTH CODE

 


 

 

Thursday, December 20, 2012

 

 OIE GROUP RECOMMENDS THAT SCRAPE PRION DISEASE BE DELISTED AND SAME OLD BSe WITH BOVINE MAD COW DISEASE

 


 

 

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

 

 APHIS USDA Administrator Message to Stakeholders: Agency Vision and Goals Eliminating ALL remaining BSE barriers to export market

 


 

 

IT is of my opinion, that the OIE and the USDA et al, are the soul reason, and responsible parties, for Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy TSE prion diseases, including typical and atypical BSE, typical and atypical Scrapie, and all strains of CWD, and human TSE there from, spreading around the globe.

 

I have lost all confidence of this organization as a regulatory authority on animal disease, and consider it nothing more than a National Trading Brokerage for all strains of animal TSE, just to satisfy there commodity. AS i said before, OIE should hang up there jock strap now, since it appears they will buckle every time a country makes some political hay about trade protocol, commodities and futures. IF they are not going to be science based, they should do everyone a favor and dissolve there organization.

 

JUST because of low documented human body count with nvCJD and the long incubation periods, the lack of sound science being replaced by political and corporate science in relations with the fact that science has now linked some sporadic CJD with atypical BSE and atypical scrapie, and the very real threat of CWD being zoonosis, I believed the O.I.E. has failed terribly and again, I call for this organization to be dissolved. ...

 

 

IN A NUT SHELL ;

 

 (Adopted by the International Committee of the OIE on 23 May 2006)

 

 11. Information published by the OIE is derived from appropriate declarations made by the official Veterinary Services of Member Countries. The OIE is not responsible for inaccurate publication of country disease status based on inaccurate information or changes in epidemiological status or other significant events that were not promptly reported to the Central Bureau,

 


 

 

Thursday, May 30, 2013

 

 World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) has upgraded the United States' risk classification for mad cow disease to "negligible" from "controlled", and risk further exposing the globe to the TSE prion mad cow type disease

 

 U.S. gets top mad-cow rating from international group and risk further exposing the globe to the TSE prion mad cow type disease

 


 


 

 

 

*** Saturday, November 2, 2013 ***

 

 Exploring the risks of a putative transmission of BSE to new species

 


 

 

 

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

 

 Presence of subclinical infection in gene-targeted human prion protein transgenic mice exposed to atypical BSE

 


 

 

 

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

 

 SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL (SRM) CONTROL VERIFICATION TASK FSIS NOTICE 70-13 10/30/13

 


 

 

 

Monday, August 26, 2013

 

 The Presence of Disease-Associated Prion Protein in Skeletal Muscle of Cattle Infected with Classical Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy

 


 

 

 

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

 

 NORDION (US), INC., AND BIOAXONE BIOSCIENCES, INC., Settles $90M Mad Cow TSE prion Contamination Suit Cethrin(R)

 

 *** Case 0:12-cv-60739-RNS Document 1 Entered on FLSD Docket 04/26/2012 Page 1 of 15 ***

 


 

 

 

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

 

 APHIS USDA Administrator Message to Stakeholders: Agency Vision and Goals Eliminating ALL remaining BSE barriers to export market

 


 

 

 

Saturday, November 2, 2013

 

 APHIS Finalizes Bovine Import Regulations in Line with International Animal Health Standards while enhancing the spread of BSE TSE prion mad cow type disease around the Globe

 


 

 

 

 *** The discovery of previously unrecognized prion diseases in both humans and animals (i.e., Nor98 in small ruminants) demonstrates that the range of prion diseases might be wider than expected and raises crucial questions about the epidemiology and strain properties of these new forms. We are investigating this latter issue by molecular and biological comparison of VPSPr, GSS and Nor98.

 

 

 

Saturday, July 6, 2013

 

 *** Small Ruminant Nor98 Prions Share Biochemical Features with Human Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker Disease and Variably Protease-Sensitive Prionopathy

 

 Research Article

 


 

 Saturday, October 19, 2013

 

 ACA Council Meets to Endorse Several Proposed USAHA Resolutions (CWD TSE PRION DISEASE)

 


 

 

 

Wednesday, October 09, 2013

 

 WHY THE UKBSEnvCJD ONLY THEORY IS SO POPULAR IN IT'S FALLACY, £41,078,281 in compensation REVISED

 


 

 

 

Thursday, October 10, 2013

 

 CJD REPORT 1994 increased risk for consumption of veal and venison and lamb

 


 

 

 

Monday, October 14, 2013

 

 Researchers estimate one in 2,000 people in the UK carry variant CJD proteins

 


 

 

 

Friday, August 16, 2013

 

 *** Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) biannual update August 2013 U.K. and Contaminated blood products induce a highly atypical prion disease devoid of PrPres in primates

 


 

 

 

WHAT about the sporadic CJD TSE proteins ?

 

 WE now know that some cases of sporadic CJD are linked to atypical BSE and atypical Scrapie, so why are not MORE concerned about the sporadic CJD, and all it’s sub-types $$$

 

 

 

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease CJD cases rising North America updated report August 2013

 

 *** Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease CJD cases rising North America with Canada seeing an extreme increase of 48% between 2008 and 2010 ***

 


 

 

 

Sunday, October 13, 2013

 

 CJD TSE Prion Disease Cases in Texas by Year, 2003-2012

 


 

 

 

Sunday, September 08, 2013

 

 Iatrogenic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease via surgical instruments and decontamination possibilities for the TSE prion

 


 

 

 

Thursday, September 26, 2013

 

 Minimise transmission risk of CJD and vCJD in healthcare settings Guidance

 


 

 

 

Sunday, June 9, 2013

 

 TSEAC March 14, 2013: Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Advisory Committee Meeting Webcast

 


 

 

 

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

 

 Late-in-life surgery associated with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: a methodological outline for evidence-based guidance

 


 

 

 

Tuesday, March 05, 2013

 

 A closer look at prion strains Characterization and important implications Prion

 

 7:2, 99–108; March/April 2013; © 2013 Landes Bioscience

 


 

 

 

Saturday, November 2, 2013

 

 Recommendation of the Swiss Expert Committee for Biosafety on the classification of activities using prion genes and prion protein January 2013

 


 

 

 

*** U.S.A. 50 STATE BSE MAD COW CONFERENCE CALL Jan. 9, 2001 ***

 


 


 

 

NOW, these same corporate bozo's, decided amongst themselves, that it would be alright, to feed our children all across the USA, via the NSLP, DEAD STOCK DOWNER COWS, the most high risk cattle for mad cow type disease, and other dangerous pathogens, and they did this for 4 years, that was documented, then hid what they did by having a recall, one of the largest recalls ever, and they made this recall and masked the reason for the recall due to animal abuse, not for the reason of the potential for these animals to have mad cow BSE type disease. these TSE prion disease can lay dormant for 5, 10, 20 years, or longer, WHO WILL WATCH OUR CHILDREN FOR THE NEXT 5 DECADES FOR CJD ???

 

 

Saturday, September 21, 2013

 

 Westland/Hallmark: 2008 Beef Recall A Case Study by The Food Industry Center January 2010 THE FLIM-FLAM REPORT

 


 

 
In Confidence - Perceptions of unconventional slow virus diseases of animals in the USA - APRIL-MAY 1989 - G A H Wells
 
3. Prof. A. Robertson gave a brief account of BSE. The US approach was to accord it a very low profile indeed. Dr. A Thiermann showed the picture in the ''Independent'' with cattle being incinerated and thought this was a fanatical incident to be avoided in the US at all costs. ...
 
 
 

 
 
and they meant it too $$$
 
 
 
 
Sunday, November 3, 2013
 
 
Environmental Impact Statements; Availability, etc.: Animal Carcass Management [Docket No. APHIS-2013-0044]
 
 
 
 
 
 

with sad regards, these are the facts as I have come to know them. ...

 

terry

 

layperson MOM DOD 12/14/97 confirm ‘hvCJD’...just made a promise to mom, NEVER FORGET!

 

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Food Standards Agency FSA 13/11/05 Open Board – 05 November 2013 BSE

Food Standards Agency FSA 13/11/05 Open Board – 05 November 2013 BSE
 
 
 
TWEAKING BSE TSE PRION MAD COW SCIENCE TO SUIT THE INDUSTRY...AGAIN.

 

talking or wishing mad cow disease away, will not work.

 

the OIE/USDA/APHIS/FSIS/CFIA/MAFF/DEFRA/WTO have failed the world terribly in regards to mad cow disease (all types and strains in all species i.e. the TSE prion disease), no matter how hard you try, will not put those mad cows back in the barn, but to now, go forward, as if it never happened, and start relaxing all the rules, before the science is finished dictating how much further this mad cow type TSE prion disease will spread and mutate, is absolutely not scientific.

 

who’s kidding whom $$$

 

for the FSA et al, to go along with the USDA/OIE et al, in now what I call the legal trading of commodities in different Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy TSE prion disease, by allowing the free trading of the TSE prion disease, by exempting atypical scrapie and typical scrapie, and now trying to omit all TSE prion disease including the atypical BSE strains, is absurd, and risk taking us back 3 decades in the attempted eradication of BSE. ...TSS

 

 

 

Food Standards Agency FSA 13/11/05

 

Open Board – 05 November 2013

 

1

 

BSE BSE – A REPORT ON SURVEILLANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF A REPORT ON SURVEILLANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF A REPORT ON SURVEILLANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF A REPORT ON SURVEILLANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF A REPORT ON SURVEILLANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF A REPORT ON SURVEILLANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF A REPORT ON SURVEILLANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF A REPORT ON SURVEILLANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF A REPORT ON SURVEILLANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF A REPORT ON SURVEILLANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF A REPORT ON SURVEILLANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF A REPORT ON SURVEILLANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF A REPORT ON SURVEILLANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF A REPORT ON SURVEILLANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF A REPORT ON SURVEILLANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF A REPORT ON SURVEILLANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF A REPORT ON SURVEILLANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF A REPORT ON SURVEILLANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF A REPORT ON SURVEILLANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF A REPORT ON SURVEILLANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF CONTROLS ON SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL AND ANIMAL FEEDCONTROLS ON SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL AND ANIMAL FEED CONTROLS ON SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL AND ANIMAL FEED CONTROLS ON SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL AND ANIMAL FEED CONTROLS ON SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL AND ANIMAL FEEDCONTROLS ON SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL AND ANIMAL FEED CONTROLS ON SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL AND ANIMAL FEEDCONTROLS ON SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL AND ANIMAL FEEDCONTROLS ON SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL AND ANIMAL FEED CONTROLS ON SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL AND ANIMAL FEEDCONTROLS ON SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL AND ANIMAL FEED CONTROLS ON SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL AND ANIMAL FEEDCONTROLS ON SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL AND ANIMAL FEED CONTROLS ON SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL AND ANIMAL FEED CONTROLS ON SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL AND ANIMAL FEED CONTROLS ON SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL AND ANIMAL FEEDCONTROLS ON SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL AND ANIMAL FEEDCONTROLS ON SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL AND ANIMAL FEED - MARCH MARCH to AUGUST 2013 AUGUST 2013 AUGUST 2013 AUGUST 2013 AUGUST 2013 AUGUST 2013 AUGUST 2013 AUGUST 2013

 

Report by Steve Wearne, Director of Policy

 

For further information contact Chris Walding on 0207 276 8334, email chris.walding@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk or Liz Olney on 07738 198928, email liz.olney@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk

 

SUMMARY

 

1.1. At the meeting on 11 December 2012 the FSA Board agreed to advise Ministers that it would be acceptable on grounds of negligible risk to consumers and proportionality to stop BSE testing of healthy cattle slaughtered for human consumption in the UK.1 This advice was subject to higher-risk cattle aged over 48 months continuing to be tested for BSE and the specified risk material (SRM) and feed controls remaining in force. This change in BSE testing requirements was implemented on 1 March 2013.

 

1.2. In making its decision, the Board requested a regular report on the results of BSE monitoring and enforcement of feed and SRM controls to ensure confidence in the continued effectiveness of the BSE controls.

 

1.3 The Board is asked to:

 

• Note the contents of this paper;

 

• Comment on the data presented and the action being taken by the FSA on the issues raised; and

 

• Note that results of increased monitoring will be included in the next six monthly report to the Board.

 

INTRODUCTION

 

2.1. With the relaxation of BSE testing requirements, the FSA has placed an increased focus on ensuring SRM controls are robust and effective to ensure that consumer safeguards are maintained. Two main BSE controls work together to eradicate BSE in cattle and protect consumers:

 

1 Advice from the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) of March 2011, in relation to the raising of the age threshold for BSE testing of healthy cattle from 48 to 72 months, remains relevant. SEAC advised that in the short-term an insignificant additional risk to human health would result from raising the age for testing healthy cattle from 48 to 72 months or equally from stopping testing of these cattle altogether. The full text of the SEAC advice is annexed to the earlier Board paper on this issue - http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/board/fsa121204.pdf

 

Food Standards Agency FSA 13/11/05

 

Open Board – 05 November 2013

 

2

 

• the ban on feeding animal protein to farmed animals prevents the spread of BSE to animals through feed;

 

• removing specified risk material (SRM) – the most risky parts of animals – protects consumers from the risk from food.

 

2.2. The main purpose of the current BSE testing is for animal disease surveillance, to monitor the level of BSE in cattle over time and thereby check on the continued effectiveness of BSE controls.

 

2.3. This is the first of the regular reports requested by the Board on the results of BSE monitoring and enforcement of feed and SRM controls to ensure confidence in the continued effectiveness of BSE controls. This report covers the period 1

 

March – 31 August 2013.

 

STRATEGIC AIMS

 

3.1. To protect public health through effective, risk-based and proportionate application of EU regulation.

 

EVIDENCE

 

4.1. BSE monitoring data and information on the enforcement of animal feed controls have been obtained from Defra. Information for the report on the enforcement of controls on SRM has been obtained from the FSA’s own records and is split into two sections:

 

• Non-compliance information, where an operator of a slaughterhouse has not complied with the SRM controls and this has been discovered during routine daily inspection by FSA’s plant based staff; and

 

• Breaches of SRM controls which occur when non-compliant carcases and part carcases leave a premises undetected and are discovered subsequently.

 

4.2. All NI data within the report has been obtained from DARD.

 

DISCUSSION

 

BSE Monitoring Data

 

5.1. In the period 1 March 2013 – 31 August 2013, a total of 77,778 higher risk cattle were tested in GB with a further 17,295 tested in NI. Only two positive tests were reported, both being from fallen stock that were not destined for human consumption. Cross checks on animals slaughtered and testing data have not revealed any animals requiring testing that missed tests and entered the food chain. Two FBOs have been referred for investigation for failure to test animals that required testing. These failures were found during routine

 

Food Standards Agency FSA 13/11/05

 

Open Board – 05 November 2013

 

3

 

checks at the slaughterhouse and no untested carcases entered the food chain.

 

Controls on Animal Feed

 

5.2. A report from AHVLA on the National Feed Audit shows that:

 

• No evidence of the presence of processed animal proteins in animal feed was detected in a total of 1,008 inspections of feed premises and hauliers and targeted surveillance of livestock farms.

 

• The presence of animal protein from terrestrial animals was detected in seven of 2,350 samples of feed materials and compound feeding stuffs.

 

• Four separate incidents of the presence of animal protein in feeding stuffs intended for farm animals have been reported.

 

5.3. The AHVLA report concludes that the samples where processed animal protein was detected were likely to be the result of the contamination of sugar beet pellets with bone fragments of adventitious origin. The bones most likely originated from rodents with the contamination occurring either during the harvesting of the sugar beet or as a result of the presence of rodents in storage facilities. Rodents are not known to be a pathway for BSE exposure. 5.4. In the period of this report, no breaches or non-compliances were detected during animal feed inspections in Northern Ireland. During this time 206 animal feed samples were collected and tested for processed animal protein. These were all negative.

 

SRM Controls – Non-compliance

 

5.5. A non-compliance is when a food business operator is not operating in accordance with TSE requirements and this is identified during routine daily inspection, and FSA plant-based staff intervene to rectify the problem.

 

5.6 In the period of the report a total of 153 interventions were made by FSA staff in 14 slaughterhouses in GB and NI to ensure the appropriate removal and disposal of SRM. Of these, 44 related to the incomplete removal of SRM with most of the remainder being related to the staining of SRM and the labelling and condition of the containers in which the SRM was stored.

 

5.7 To put these non-compliances into perspective, 213 premises in G.B. slaughtered a total of 1.065m cattle during the period of this report. None of the non-compliances resulted in SRM entering the food chain. Food Standards Agency FSA 13/11/05 Open Board – 05 November 2013

 

4

 

SRM Controls - Breaches

 

5.8 A breach of controls takes place when a non-compliance is not identified at the slaughterhouse or cutting plant and results in meat containing SRM leaving the premises and potentially reaching the market.

 

5.9 Since March 2013, 7 cutting plants (out of 171 authorised to remove SRM VC) in GB have been identified as having breached rules on the removal and disposal of SRM vertebral column (VC). No similar breaches were detected in Northern Ireland where there were a total of 530 inspections and 18 unannounced audits in the 18 authorised cutting plants in the period of this report. No breaches involving other specified risk material were detected in either GB or NI during this period.

 

5.10 The breaches included the following FBO failures:

 

• Failure of the cutting plant FBO to notify FSA that they were to process OTM carcases, meaning that processing was not subject to official supervision.

 

• Failure of the slaughterhouse FBO to despatch OTM carcases to an authorised cutting plant.

 

• SRM VC removed by an unauthorised cutting plant without official supervision.

 

• Despatch of small OTM bone-in cuts to another Member State without the required agreement between the two competent authorities being in place.

 

• Despatch of OTM bone-in cuts to butchers’ premises (which are not permitted to remove SRM VC)

 

• Removed VC not stained or disposed of as a Category 1 ABP

 

5.11 Breaches of this kind have the potential to expose consumers to SRM, or for the removed SRM to be incorrectly disposed of as a Category 3 ABP, potentially allowing it into pet food. Our enquiries have found that one of the seven breaches is likely to have resulted in consumer exposure to VC SRM. Of the remaining six cases there is evidence in four that the VC was removed. In the other two, the FBOs concerned maintain that the SRM was removed and disposed of correctly but documentation to confirm this is not available.

 

5.12 The one incident in which VC SRM is likely to have resulted in consumer exposure to VC SRM involved a combined GB slaughterhouse and cutting plant which despatched cuts of meat containing SRM VC to four premises in Spain and to a small chain of butchers in the UK over a period of 22 months. Only one of the premises, a cutting plant in Spain, was authorised to remove

 

Food Standards Agency FSA 13/11/05

 

Open Board – 05 November 2013

 

5

 

SRM VC. The UK butchers were supplied with nearly 2000 individual bone-in cuts which will have been sold to restaurants or direct to the public. Action Taken Following the Breaches

 

5.13 Ensuring the necessary controls are in place and that these are effective remains a high priority for the FSA. The FSA has proactively sought to verify SRM controls in the round and the particular area of concern is in the removal of VC in cutting plants.

 

• In the case referred to in paragraph 5.12 that led to consumer exposure to VC SRM, the FBO’s procedures have been modified to prevent a recurrence of this breach. The FBO is no longer selling bone-in cuts from over 30 months old animals and is removing all SRM VC in the co-located cutting plant under official supervision.  The FSA wrote to all red meat slaughterhouses and cutting plants in GB on 31 May 2013 to remind them of their obligations in relation to the removal of VC from over 30 month beef carcases. The letter was copied to the main trade associations representing meat processors. A similar letter was sent to FSA’s contract vets and reminders were issued to plant based staff. This was in response to issues flagged up during a series of unannounced visits to standalone cutting plants commissioned in February 2013 (reported to the Board in July 20132).

 

• In June and July 2013, a series of themed Lead Veterinarian visits was organised to carry out more detailed checks on the effectiveness of SRM VC removal and disposal. 144 establishments were visited, these being a cross-section of slaughterhouses processing OTM cattle and sheep, and cutting plants approved for VC removal. This represented just over 28% of all the establishments involved in these activities in GB.

 

• The themed visits raised concerns about both the FBOs’ controls and the FSA’s operational performance including ability to verify FBO controls in a significant minority of premises. Results have been shared with trade organisations and the FSA continues to work in collaboration with industry representatives to ensure controls are as they should be.

 

• A further series of unannounced visits was commissioned in September for completion during October to check VC removal activities in standalone cutting plants.

 

• Normal operating requirements would be that the FSA would verify cutting plant controls, through audit and additional attendance as required.

 


 

Food Standards Agency FSA 13/11/05

 

Open Board – 05 November 2013

 

6

 

However, in the current circumstances enhanced monitoring of the effectiveness of FBO controls, over and above those required by the legal framework, is taking place. Over a 3 month period, from September to November 2013, OVs in slaughterhouses dispatching OTM carcases for off-site VC removal are checking that the slaughterhouse has confirmed that receiving plants have the necessary authorisation. The slaughterhouse OVs are also notifying FSA officials with responsibility for official controls at the receiving premises, to ensure appropriate supervision at the receiving premises. Following evaluation of the results we will assess the value and practicalities of these additional checks and the impact of any costs associated with the activity.

 

• Statements of Resources setting out FBO operating requirements and FSA supervision requirements are being reviewed for all plants authorised to remove VC to ensure FBOs have up to date FSA contact information so that they can comply with their obligation to notify the FSA of the intention to remove VC and FSA resources can be deployed effectively to supervise the activities.

 

• With support from trade organisations, strict enforcement measures are being imposed on those cutting plants found to be in breach of requirements for VC removal. These include active application of the enforcement hierarchy and ultimately could lead to revoking or suspending authorisations for those FBOs who continue not to meet their legal obligations and requirements.

 

• Five of the FBOs involved in the breaches have so far been referred for investigation with a view to prosecution. RISK IMPLICATIONS

 

Public health risk

 

6.1 The potential BSE health risk to people (variant Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease)3 from consumption of meat containing SRM VC is extremely low because:

 

• There are now very few cases of BSE, three so far in the UK in 2013 (one atypical, two classical), and three in 2012 (one atypical and two classical). All but two of these cases were in animals born before 1996, which are excluded from the food chain.

 

• In the unlikely event of a BSE infected animal entering the food chain, the infectivity in the VC is contained in the dorsal root ganglia which is embedded into the VC and is therefore unlikely to be eaten with the meat. 3 See http://www.cjd.ed.ac.uk/documents/figs.pdf for current statistics on vCJD incidence in the UK.

 

Food Standards Agency FSA 13/11/05

 

Open Board – 05 November 2013

 

7

 

Potential for further breaches

 

6.2 The identified breaches have illustrated the potential for SRM material to reach the food chain. Whilst we have no evidence that other breaches have occurred in the period of this report in addition to those reported on in this paper, we cannot be totally sure about this or provide an assurance that similar breaches may not occur in future. This is because the FSA does not have full-time presence in cutting plants. EU law does not specify this as a requirement, simply that official controls are carried out to verify that bovine VC is correctly removed at cutting plants and disposed of as ABP. Domestic UK law does already provide for controls additional to EU controls, namely that cutting plants are specifically authorised to remove bovine VC, that the slaughterhouse notifies the cutting plant of dispatch of carcases requiring VC removal and that verification checks are carried out by FSA or DARD during the removal process. Given the recent breaches, the level of FSA presence during VC removal will be kept under review in light of the additional checks and monitoring we are carrying out.

 

6.3 It is important to stress that responsibility for correct removal of SRM, together with responsibility for compliance with other aspects of food legislation, sits with the food business operator.

 

6.4 It is worth noting that whilst the SRM controls described in this paper and the remedial action taken in the event of a breach of those controls are intended to protect consumers from exposure to SRM, this does not provide protection in the event of meat produced through illegal slaughter. Reputational risks

 

6.5 The identified breaches pose reputational risks for the FSA and for the UK meat industry and continuation of such breaches could impact on consumer and trade confidence in UK meat. In line with normal practice, the FSA made the European Commission aware of the breach which led to the dispatch of meat containing SRM VC to establishments in Spain that are not authorised to remove VC. This could lead to the Food and Veterinary Office focusing on this issue in a future audit of UK meat establishments. The issue has been discussed extensively with UK industry leaders to raise their awareness of both the need for greater FBO compliance and the risks associated with non-compliance. FSA operational performance

 

6.6 Our monitoring of SRM removal and disposal has identified the need for greater vigilance by staff visiting cutting plants, additional checks and for new procedures to be put in place to provide greater assurance on the effectiveness of FBO activities. This increased activity is currently being

 

Food Standards Agency FSA 13/11/05

 

Open Board – 05 November 2013

 

8

 

undertaken within existing FSA resources. The need for increased levels of FSA presence at cutting plants, which could require an increase to existing resources, will be kept under review.

 

DEVOLUTION IMPLICATIONS

 

7.1. No specific devolved issues.

 

CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT

 

8.1. No specific consumer engagement on the issues raised in this paper is envisaged at this stage. Information on the breaches of SRM controls referred to in this paper will be published on the website when investigations are completed, in line with normal practice. The FBOs directly involved in the breaches will be identified in these reports.

 

8.2 Consumers generally, and the families of vCJD victims in particular, may be concerned about these breaches and the effectiveness of SRM controls in general in protecting human health from the potential BSE risk. They will want to be re-assured that the corrective measures that have been, and are being, taken to tighten controls on the removal of bovine vertebral column will be effective. We have described in section 5.13 above the action that has been taken, and we will include results of increased monitoring in the next six monthly report to the Board.

 

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

 

9.1. The relaxation of BSE testing controls has provided a renewed focus on SRM controls. This report identifies the need for these controls to be more effective and robust. The FSA and industry stakeholders are therefore taking action to ensure that consumer safeguards are maintained, through raised awareness, increased monitoring and supervision, and robust application of the enforcement hierarchy.

 

9.2. Ensuring strict adherence to operational requirements to verify FBO controls and with additional assurance checks and notification procedures for FBOs, the FSA is guarding against industry non-compliance with application of the enforcement hierarchy where there are non-compliances. The FSA will keep the effectiveness of the controls under review, including an assessment of the benefits of the additional controls introduced in September at slaughterhouses dispatching OTM carcases for off-site VC removal, and FSA communications to officials at receiving plants to ensure necessary supervision is in place. Results of the increased monitoring will be reported to the FSA Board in the next six monthly report.

 

Food Standards Agency FSA 13/11/05

 

Open Board – 05 November 2013

 

9

 

9.3. The Board is asked to:

 

• note the contents of this paper;

 

• comment on the data presented and the action being taken by the FSA on the issues raised; and

 

• note that results of increased monitoring will be included in the next six monthly report to the Board.

 

 


 

 


 

 

Board meeting agenda: 5 November 2013

 

Food Standards Agency FSA 13/11/05

 

Open Board – 05 November 2013

 

1

 

BSE – A REPORT ON SURVEILLANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF CONTROLS ON SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL AND ANIMAL FEED - MARCH to AUGUST 2013

 

Report by Steve Wearne, Director of Policy

 

For further information contact Chris Walding on 0207 276 8334, email chris.walding@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk or Liz Olney on 07738 198928, email liz.olney@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk

 

SUMMARY

 

1.1. At the meeting on 11 December 2012 the FSA Board agreed to advise Ministers that it would be acceptable on grounds of negligible risk to consumers and proportionality to stop BSE testing of healthy cattle slaughtered for human consumption in the UK.1 This advice was subject to higher-risk cattle aged over 48 months continuing to be tested for BSE and the specified risk material (SRM) and feed controls remaining in force. This change in BSE testing requirements was implemented on 1 March 2013.

 

1.2. In making its decision, the Board requested a regular report on the results of BSE monitoring and enforcement of feed and SRM controls to ensure confidence in the continued effectiveness of the BSE controls.

 

1.3 The Board is asked to:

 

• Note the contents of this paper;

 

• Comment on the data presented and the action being taken by the FSA on the issues raised; and

 

• Note that results of increased monitoring will be included in the next six monthly report to the Board.

 

INTRODUCTION

 

snip...

 

DISCUSSION

 

BSE Monitoring Data

 

5.1. In the period 1 March 2013 – 31 August 2013, a total of 77,778 higher risk cattle were tested in GB with a further 17,295 tested in NI. Only two positive tests were reported, both being from fallen stock that were not destined for human consumption. Cross checks on animals slaughtered and testing data have not revealed any animals requiring testing that missed tests and entered the food chain. Two FBOs have been referred for investigation for failure to test animals that required testing. These failures were found during routine

 

Food Standards Agency FSA 13/11/05

 

Open Board – 05 November 2013

 

3

 

checks at the slaughterhouse and no untested carcases entered the food chain.

 

DEVOLUTION IMPLICATIONS

 

7.1. No specific devolved issues.

 

CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT

 

8.1. No specific consumer engagement on the issues raised in this paper is envisaged at this stage. Information on the breaches of SRM controls referred to in this paper will be published on the website when investigations are completed, in line with normal practice. The FBOs directly involved in the breaches will be identified in these reports.

 

8.2 Consumers generally, and the families of vCJD victims in particular, may be concerned about these breaches and the effectiveness of SRM controls in general in protecting human health from the potential BSE risk. They will want to be re-assured that the corrective measures that have been, and are being, taken to tighten controls on the removal of bovine vertebral column will be effective. We have described in section 5.13 above the action that has been taken, and we will include results of increased monitoring in the next six monthly report to the Board.

 

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

 

9.1. The relaxation of BSE testing controls has provided a renewed focus on SRM controls. This report identifies the need for these controls to be more effective and robust. The FSA and industry stakeholders are therefore taking action to ensure that consumer safeguards are maintained, through raised awareness, increased monitoring and supervision, and robust application of the enforcement hierarchy.

 

9.2. Ensuring strict adherence to operational requirements to verify FBO controls and with additional assurance checks and notification procedures for FBOs, the FSA is guarding against industry non-compliance with application of the enforcement hierarchy where there are non-compliances. The FSA will keep the effectiveness of the controls under review, including an assessment of the benefits of the additional controls introduced in September at slaughterhouses dispatching OTM carcases for off-site VC removal, and FSA communications to officials at receiving plants to ensure necessary supervision is in place. Results of the increased monitoring will be reported to the FSA Board in the next six monthly report.

 

Food Standards Agency FSA 13/11/05

 

Open Board – 05 November 2013

 

9

 

9.3. The Board is asked to:

 

• note the contents of this paper;

 

• comment on the data presented and the action being taken by the FSA on the issues raised; and

 

• note that results of increased monitoring will be included in the next six monthly report to the Board.

 

 

snip...see full text ;

 


 

 

please see ;

 

Conclusions

 

***In conclusion, demonstration of transmission of the disease even with low concentrations of PrPsc [54], highlights BSE’s ability to adopt different behavior, even sometimes similar to Scrapie [55], should reinforce that vigilance is required in interpreting results so that subtle changes do not go unnoticed. Additionally, to maintain a continued supervision of the techniques which are applied in the routine diagnosis would prove essential for the ultimate eradication of the disease. A study of the actual BSE presence should be considered as necessary because a state of sporadic prevalence could exist [56] and samples without a diagnosis [57,58] could reach the food chain, involving therefore a risk for public health.

 

Keywords

 

TSEs, BSE, Confirmatory diagnosis, Non-conclusive cases

 


 

 

WOW! holy mad cows, how many more were there, and how many were consumed or put into by-products for consumption, for humans and animals ???

 

 

From: Terry S. Singeltary Sr.

 

Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2013 3:58 PM

 

To: Science.Advisory.Council@defra.gsi.gov.uk

 

Subject: Idiopathic Brainstem Neuronal Chromatolysis (IBNC): a novel prion protein related disorder of cattle?

 

Greetings Honorable Science Advisory Council et al @ DEFRA,

 

I wish to ask a question about something I have seen no updates on, that concerns me.

 

IDIOPATHIC BRAINSTEM NEURONAL CHROMATOLYSIS IBNC or what I some times call, IBNC BSE.

 

I have seen nothing in the scientific literature updated on this in years, since around 2008, then it was like it fell off the face of the earth ?

 

can you please give me some sort of update on the IBNC BSE science to date ?

 

how many cases of IBNC BSE have been detected ?

 

is there an ongoing surveillance for this the IBNC BSE, and are the BSE test even capable of detecting it ?

 

could the USA and or North America even detect, if they were even looking for it ?

 

latest studies, if any more since "All of the 15 cattle tested showed that the brains had abnormally accumulated PrP" ?

 

thank you,

 

kind regards,

 

terry

 

SNIP...see full text ;

 

 

MAD COW TESTING ONLY CATCHES SOME MAD COWS

 

SPREADING IT ALL AROUND

 

 

Saturday, October 19, 2013

 

***A comparative study of modified confirmatory techniques and additional immuno-based methods for non-conclusive autolytic Bovine spongiform encephalopathy cases

 


 

 

Thursday, June 6, 2013

 

FSA MORE BSE MAD COW CONTROL BREACHES JUNE 2013

 


 

 

Friday, October 25, 2013

 

UK FSA TSE BSE Board meeting agenda: 5 November 2013

 


 

 

New USDA Rule Designed to Help Meatpackers Break Domestic Cattle Market

 

November 1, 2013 Washington, D.C. – Today the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced its plans to radically relax U.S. import restrictions for countries where bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or mad cow disease) continues to persist.

 

“Despite the fact that BSE persists in the European Union (EU), which reported four new BSE cases in 2013, the new USDA rule opens the door to allow U.S. meatpackers to begin supplementing tight U.S. beef supplies with beef of questionable safety from Europe,” said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard.

 

Bullard continued: “USDA cannot explain why BSE persists in Europe despite the fact that all scientific measures that are believed to be effective at breaking the BSE cycle have been rigorously enforced in Europe for nearly two decades.

 

“If you believe what USDA is telling the public – that BSE is no longer a concern in European livestock because all steps necessary to control BSE are already in place, then it is impossible for Europe to be continually detecting new BSE cases. But this is exactly what Europe continues to do as it has detected 83 new cases of BSE just since 2010.

 

“This irresponsible action by USDA underscores the need for country of origin labeling (COOL), which is presently under attack by meatpackers and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) in the federal court system, by members of Congress in the 2013 Farm Bill, and by foreign countries at the World Trade Organization (WTO).”

 

According to Bullard, COOL would provide consumers the opportunity to better safeguard their families by enabling them to avoid meat products from countries that have not controlled BSE and that cannot explain why they continue to detect the pernicious disease in their livestock.

 

Bullard said the new BSE rule represents the abrogation of USDA’s responsibility to protect U.S. consumers and the U.S. cattle herd from the introduction of foreign animal disease and it exemplifies how USDA is acquiescing to the unelected and un-appointed officials at the WTO who have no loyalties whatsoever to U.S. livestock producers or to U.S. consumers.

 

“USDA is working closely with the multinational meatpackers to open new import platforms so they can break the U.S. cattle market that has only recently reached profitable levels after being severely depressed for more than a decade. Cargill’s recent announcement that it has partnered with an Australian exporter to import grain-fed and grass-fed beef in the U.S. will now be followed by announcements to further increase price-depressing imports from Europe, thanks to USDA,” Bullard concluded.

 

# # #

 

 

R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America) is the largest producer-only cattle trade association in the United States. It is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle industry. For more information, visit www.r-calfusa.com or, call 406-252-2516.

 


 

 

I AGREE WITH MR. BULLARD, it’s all about trade and money, BSE TSE PRION aka mad cow type disease and sound science there from, was thrown out the window by the USDA et al that fateful day in December 23, 2003, when the USDA lost it’s ‘gold card’ of supposedly being BSE FREE, (that was and still is a sad joke though), that’s when mad cow junk science was adopted by the USDA...

 

see why below...kind regards, terry

 

 

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

 

*** Inspections, Compliance, Enforcement, and Criminal Investigations BSE TSE PRION 2013

 


 

 

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

 

*** SPECIFIED RISK MATERIAL (SRM) CONTROL VERIFICATION TASK FSIS NOTICE 70-13 10/30/13

 


 

 

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

 

*** NORDION (US), INC., AND BIOAXONE BIOSCIENCES, INC., Settles $90M Mad Cow TSE prion Contamination Suit Cethrin(R)

 

Case 0:12-cv-60739-RNS Document 1 Entered on FLSD Docket 04/26/2012 Page 1 of 15

 

snip...

 

 NATURE OF THE CASE

 

1. This is an action for negligence against the Defendants arising from the improper and negligent use of contaminated material in the preparation of the Bacterial Master Cell Bank ("MCB") for a new breakthrough drug, Cethrin" (BA-21 0), researched and developed by BIOAXONE. Cethrin is a biologic drug that will provide the most advanced treatment for patients who have suffered acute spinal cord injury. Defendants negligently prepared the MCB using kanamycin they purchased that was made in China and that contained beef broth and avian products. The MCB is contaminated with beef broth and avian products that cause human disease including bovine spongiform encephalopathy ("BSE"), commonly known as mad cow disease, which created an unreasonably dangerous risk of the development of BSE in patients to whom the Cethrin made from the contaminated MCB would be administered.

 

Case 0:12-cv-60739-RNS Document 1 Entered on FLSD Docket 04/26/2012 Page 3 of 15

 

JURISDICTION AND VENUE

 

28. At all times prior to October 16, 2008, MDS/RICERCA had actual or constructive knowledge that the kanamycin it purchased and used in the preparation of the MCB for BIOAXONE was contaminated and was not fit or intended for use in humans.

 

 29. At all times prior to October 16,2008, MDS/RICERCA had actual or constructive knowledge that the purchase and use of contaminated kanamycin in the preparation of the MCB for BIOAXONE created an unreasonably dangerous and foreseeable risk of adventitious agents that cause human disease including the development of BSE or mad cow disease in humans.

 

Case 0:12-cv-60739-RNS Document 1 Entered on FLSD Docket 04/26/2012 Page 9 of 15

 

snip...see full text and more here ;'

 

 

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

 

 

*** NORDION (US), INC., AND BIOAXONE BIOSCIENCES, INC., Settles $90M Mad Cow TSE prion Contamination Suit Cethrin(R)

 

 

Case 0:12-cv-60739-RNS Document 1 Entered on FLSD Docket 04/26/2012 Page 1 of 15

 

 


 

 

with great sadness and disgust, I must inform you that our federal government has failed us again, and chose the industry over sound science, with regards to TSE prion disease, aka mad cow type disease...tss

 

 

Saturday, November 2, 2013

 

APHIS Finalizes Bovine Import Regulations in Line with International Animal Health Standards while enhancing the spread of BSE TSE prion mad cow type disease around the Globe

 


 

 

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

 

APHIS USDA Administrator Message to Stakeholders: Agency Vision and Goals Eliminating ALL remaining BSE barriers to export market

 


 

 

Sunday, November 3, 2013

 

***Environmental Impact Statements; Availability, etc.: Animal Carcass Management [Docket No. APHIS-2013-0044]

 


 

 

I kindly urge the OIE to upgrade the USA BSE GBR risk facto to BSE GBR IV, for the reasons listed above. ...

 

 

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

 

*** World Organization for Animal Health Recommends United States' BSE Risk Status Be Upgraded

 

Statement from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack:

 


 

 

2013 USA

 

 

Monday, September 02, 2013

 

Atypical BSE: role of the E211K prion polymorphism

 

*** Research Project: TRANSMISSION, DIFFERENTIATION, AND PATHOBIOLOGY OF TRANSMISSIBLE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES

 

Location: Virus and Prion Research Unit

 


 

 

Sunday, September 1, 2013

 

Evaluation of the Zoonotic Potential of Transmissible Mink Encephalopathy

 

We previously described the biochemical similarities between PrPres derived from L-BSE infected macaque and cortical MM2 sporadic CJD: those observations suggest a link between these two uncommon prion phenotypes in a primate model (it is to note that such a link has not been observed in other models less relevant from the human situation as hamsters or transgenic mice overexpressing ovine PrP [28]). We speculate that a group of related animal prion strains (L-BSE, c-BSE and TME) would have a zoonotic potential and lead to prion diseases in humans with a type 2 PrPres molecular signature (and more specifically type 2B for vCJD)

 

snip...

 

***Together with previous experiments performed in ovinized and bovinized transgenic mice and hamsters [8,9] indicating similarities between TME and L-BSE, the data support the hypothesis that L-BSE could be the origin of the TME outbreaks in North America and Europe during the mid-1900s.

 


 

 

Monday, November 4, 2013

 

*** R-CALF Bullard new BSE rule represents the abrogation of USDA’s responsibility to protect U.S. consumers and the U.S. cattle herd from the introduction of foreign animal disease

 


 

 

Monday, October 7, 2013

 

*** BARBACOA BLUES AND SPECIFIED RISK MATERIALS SRMs BSE TSE PRION aka MAD COW DISEASE

 


 

 

Sunday, July 21, 2013

 

*** Welsh Government and Food Standards Agency Wales Joint Public Consultation on the Proposed Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (Wales) Regulations 2013 Singeltary Submission WG18417

 


 

 

Saturday, September 21, 2013

 

*** Westland/Hallmark: 2008 Beef Recall A Case Study by The Food Industry Center January 2010 THE FLIM-FLAM REPORT

 


 

 

Wednesday, October 09, 2013

 

*** WHY THE UKBSEnvCJD ONLY THEORY IS SO POPULAR IN IT'S FALLACY, £41,078,281 in compensation REVISED

 


 

 

Thursday, October 10, 2013

 

*** CJD REPORT 1994 increased risk for consumption of veal and venison and lamb

 


 

 

Monday, October 14, 2013

 

***Researchers estimate one in 2,000 people in the UK carry variant CJD proteins

 


 

 

Friday, August 16, 2013

 

*** Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) biannual update August 2013 U.K. and Contaminated blood products induce a highly atypical prion disease devoid of PrPres in primates

 


 

 

WHAT about the sporadic CJD TSE proteins ?

 

WE now know that some cases of sporadic CJD are linked to atypical BSE and atypical Scrapie, so why are not MORE concerned about the sporadic CJD, and all it’s sub-types $$$

 

 

Sunday, August 11, 2013

 

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease CJD cases rising North America updated report August 2013

 

*** Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease CJD cases rising North America with Canada seeing an extreme increase of 48% between 2008 and 2010

 


 

 

Sunday, October 13, 2013

 

*** CJD TSE Prion Disease Cases in Texas by Year, 2003-2012

 


 

 

 

kind regards, terry

 

 

layperson

 

mom dod 12/14/97 confirmed hvCJD

 

 

Terry S. Singeltary Sr.

P.O. Box 42

Bacliff, Texas USA 77518