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USDA Misleading American
Public about Beef Supply
12/24/03 USDA Misleading American Public about Beef
Safety
by Michael Greger,
M.D.
It is not surprising that the U.S. has mad cow disease
given our flaunting of World Health Organization recommendations.[1]
What is surprising, however, is that we actually found
a case given the inadequacy of our surveillance program,
a level of testing that Nobel laureate Stanley Prusiner,
probably the world's leading expert on these diseases,
calls simply "appalling."[2] Europe and Japan
follow World Health Organization guidelines[3] and test
every downer cow for
mad cow disease[4]; the U.S. has tested less than 2%
of downers over
the last decade.[5] Most of the U.S. downer cows, too
sick or injured
to even walk, end up on our dinner plates.[6]
In Canada, authorities were able to reassure the public
that at least the downer cow they discovered infected
with BSE — Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or
mad cow disease — was excluded from the human food
chain and only rendered into animal feed.[7] U.S. officials
don't seem to be able to offer the same reassurance,
as the mad cow we discovered may very well have been
ground into hamburger.[8] How then, can the USDA and
the beef industry insist that the American beef supply
is still safe? They argue that the infectious prions
that cause the disease are only found in the brain and
nervous tissue, not the muscles, not the meat.
For example, on NBC's Today, USDA Secretary Veneman
insisted "the fact of the matter is that all scientific
evidence would show, based upon what we know about this
disease, that muscle cuts — that is, the meat of
the animal itself — should not cause any risk to
human health. "[9] The National Cattlemen's Beef
Association echoed "Consumers should continue to
eat beef with confidence. All scientific studies show
that the BSE infectious agent has never been found in
beef muscle meat or milk and U.S. beef remains safe
to eat. "[10] This can be viewed as misleading
and irresponsible on two counts.
First, American do eat bovine central nervous system
tissue. The United States General Accounting Office
(GAO) is the investigative watchdog arm of Congress.
In 2002, the GAO released their report on the weaknesses
present in the U.S. defense against mad cow disease.
Quoting from that congressional report, "In terms
of the public health risk, consumers do not always know
when foods and other products they use may contain central
nervous system tissue... Many edible products, such
as beef stock, beef extract, and beef flavoring, are
frequently made by boiling the skeletal remains (including
the vertebral column) of the carcass..."[12] According
to the consumer advocacy organization Center for Science
in the Public Interest, spinal cord contamination may
also be found in U.S. hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza toppings,
and taco fillings.[13] In fact, a 2002 USDA survey showed
that approximately 35 percent of high risk meat products
tested positive for central nervous system tissues.[14]
The GAO report continues: "In light of the experiences
in Japan and other countries that were thought to be
BSE free, we believe that it would be prudent for USDA
to consider taking some action to inform consumers when
products may contain central nervous system or other
tissue that could pose a risk if taken from a BSE-infected
animal. This effort would allow American consumers to
make more informed choices about the products they consume."[15]
The USDA, however, did not follow those recommendations,
deciding such foods need not be labeled.[16]
Even if Americans just stick to steak, they may not
be shielded from risk. The "T" in a T-bone
steak is a vertebra from the animal's spinal column,
and as such may contain a section of the actual spinal
cord. Other potentially contaminated cuts include porterhouse,
standing rib roast, prime rib with bone, bone-in rib
steak, and (if they contain bone) chuck blade roast
and loin. These cuts may include spinal cord tissue
and/or so-called dorsal root ganglia, swellings of
nerve roots coming into the meat from the spinal cord
which have been proven to be infectious as well.[17]
This concern has led the FDA to consider banning the
incorporation of "plate waste" from restaurants
into cattle feed.[18] The American Feed Industry Association
defends the current exemption of plate scrapings from
the 1997 feed regulations: "How can you tell the
consumer 'Hey, you've just eaten a T-bone steak and
it's fine for you, but you can't feed it to animals'?
"[19]
Even boneless cuts may not be risk-free, though. In
the slaughterhouse, the bovine carcass is typically
split in half down the middle with a band saw, sawing
right through the spinal column. This has been shown
to aerosolize the spinal cord and contaminate the surrounding
meat.[20] A study in Europe found contamination with
spinal cord material on 100% of the split carcasses
examined.[21] Similar contamination of meat derived
from cattle cheeks can occur from brain tissue, if the
cheek meat is not removed before the skull is fragmented
or split.[22] The World Health Organization has pointed
out that American beef can be contaminated with brain
and spinal cord tissue in another way as well.[23]
Except for Islamic halal and Jewish kosher slaughter
(which involve slitting the cow's throat while the animal
is still conscious), cattle slaughtered in the United
States are first stunned unconscious with an impact
to the head before being bled to death. Medical science
has known for over 60 years that people suffering head
trauma can end up with bits of brain embolized into
their bloodstream; so Texas A&M researchers wondered
if fragments of brain could be found within the bodies
of cattle stunned for slaughter. They checked and reportedly
exclaimed, "Oh, boy did we find it."[24] They
even found a 14 cm piece of brain in one cow's lung.
They concluded, "It is likely that prion proteins
are found throughout the bodies of animals stunned for
slaughter."[25]
There are different types of stunning devices, however,
which likely have different levels of risk associated
with them. The Texas A&M study was published in
1996 using the prevailing method at the time, pneumatic-powered
air injection stunning.[26] The device is placed in
the middle of the animal's forehead and fired, shooting
a 4 inch bolt through the skull and injecting compressed
air into the cranial vault which scrambles the brain
tissue. The high pressure air not only "produces
a smearing of the head of the animal with liquefied
brain,"[27] but has been shown over and over to
blow brain back into the circulatory system, scattering
whole plugs of brain into a number of organs[28] and
smaller brain bits likely into the muscle meat as well.[29]
Although this method of stunning has been used in the
United States for over 20 years,[30] the meat industry,
to their credit, has been phasing out these particularly
risky air injection-type stunners. The Deputy Director
of Public Citizen argues that this industry initiative
should be given the force of federal regulation and
banned,[31] as they have been throughout Europe.[32]
The stunning devices that remain in widespread use
drive similar bolts through the skull of the animal,
but without air injection.[33] Operators then may or
may not pith the animals by sticking a rod into the
stun hole to further agitate the deeper brain structures
to reduce or eliminate reflex kicking during shackling
of the hind limbs.[34] Even without pithing, which has
been shown to be risky, these stunners currently in
use in the U.S. today may still force brain into the
bloodstream of some of these animals.[35-38]
In one experiment, for example, researchers applied
a marker onto the stunner bolt. The marker was later
detected within the muscle meat of the stunned animal.
They conclude: "This study demonstrates that material
present in... the CNS of cattle during commercial captive
bolt stunning may become widely dispersed across the
many animate and inanimate elements of the slaughter-dressing
environment and within derived carcasses including meat
entering the human food chain."[39] Even non-penetrative
"mushroom-headed" stunners which just rely
on concussive force to the skull to render the animal
unconscious may not be risk free. People in automobile
accidents with non-invasive head trauma can still end
up with brain embolization,[40] and these bolts move
at over 200 miles per hour.[41] The researchers at Texas
A&M conclude, "Reason dictates that any method
of stunning to the head will result in the likelihood
of brain emboli in the lungs or, indeed, other parts
of the body."[42]
And, finally, even if consumers of American beef just
stick to boneless cuts from ritually slaughtered animals
who just happen to have had their spinal columns safely
removed, the muscle meat itself may be infected with
prions. It is unconscionable that the USDA and the beef
industry continue to insist that the deadly prions aren't
found in muscle meat.[43] In 2002, Stanley Prusiner,
the scientist who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for
his discovery of prions, proved in mice, at least, that
muscle cells themselves were capable of forming prions.[44]
He describes the levels of prions in muscle as "quite
high," and describes the studies relied upon by
the Cattlemen's Association as "extraordinarily
inadequate."[45] Follow-up studies in Germany published
May, 2003 confirm Prusiner's findings, showing that
an animal who are orally infected may indeed end up
with prions contaminating muscles throughout their body.[46]
The discovery of a case of mad cow disease in the U.S.
highlights how ineffective current safeguards are in
North America. The explosive spread of mad cow disease
in Europe has been blamed on the cannibalistic practice
of feeding slaughterhouse waste to livestock.[47] Both
Canada[48] and the United States[49] banned the feeding
of the muscles and bones of most animals to cows and
sheep back in 1997, but unlike Europe left gaping loopholes
in the law. For example, blood is currently exempted
from the Canadian[50] and the U.S.[51] feed bans. You
can still feed calves cow's blood collected at the slaughterhouse.
In modern factory farming practice calves may be removed
from their mothers immediately after birth, so the calves
are fed milk replacer, which is often supplemented with
protein rich cow serum. Weaned calves and young pigs
also may have cattle blood sprayed directly on their
feed to save money on feed costs.[52] For more information
on this and other risky agriculture practices please
see http://organicconsumers.org/madcow/GregerBSE.cfm
And the Canadian[53] and U.S. feed bans[54] also allows
the feeding of pigs and horses to cows. Cattle remains
can be rendered down and fed to pigs, for example, and
then the pig remains can be fed back to cattle.[55]
Or rendered cattle remains can be fed to chickens and
then the chicken litter, or manure, can be legally fed
back to the cows.[56] So the fact that according to
the USDA the most infectious tissues of the U.S. mad
cow case, the brain spinal cord and intestines, "were
removed from this animal and sent to rendering"
is not necessarily reassuring.[57]
D. Carleton Gajdusek was also awarded the Nobel Prize
in Medicine for his work on mad cow-like diseases.[58]
He was quoted on Dateline NBC as saying, "it's
got to be in the pigs as well as the cattle. It's got
to be passing through the chickens."[59] Dr. Paul
Brown, medical director for the US Public Health Service,
believes that pigs and poultry could indeed be harboring
mad cow disease and passing it on to humans, adding
that pigs are especially sensitive to the disease. "It's
speculation," he says, "but I am perfectly
serious."[60]
The 2002 General Accounting Office report concluded:
"BSE may be silently incubating somewhere in the
United States. If that is the case, then FDA 's failure
to enforce the feed ban may already have placed U.S.
herds and, in turn, the human food supply at risk. FDA
has no clear enforcement strategy for dealing with firms
that do not obey the feed ban... Moreover, FDA has been
using inaccurate, incomplete, and unreliable data to
track and oversee feed ban compliance."[61] The
report can be downloaded at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02183.pdf
Despite these shortcomings, Secretary Veneman and Washington's
governor both assured the public that they were still
having beef for Christmas, reminiscent of the 1990 fiasco
in which the British agriculture minister appeared on
TV urging his 4-year-old daughter to eat a hamburger.[62]
Four years later, young people in Britain were dying
from an invariably fatal neurogenerative disease called
variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease — the human equivalent
of mad cow disease — which they contracted through
the consumption of infected beef.[63]
[1] http://organicconsumers.org/madcow/GregerBSE.cfm
[2] Mad Cow Disease in Canada. May 23, 2003 9:00am KQED
Forum hosted by Angie Coiro.
<http://www.kqed.org/programs/programarchive.jsp?progID=RD19&ResultStart=1&ResultCount=10&type=radio>.
[3] World Health Organization Consultation on Public
Health Issues Related to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
and the Emergence of a New Variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob
Disease. MMWR 45(14);295-6, 303. 12 April 1996.
[4] Mad Cow Disease in Canada. May 23, 2003 9:00am KQED
Forum hosted by Angie Coiro.
<http://www.kqed.org/programs/programarchive.jsp?progID=RD19&ResultStart=1&ResultCount=10&type=radio>.
[5] Even assuming 195,000 downers a year and that every
single of the tests in the surveillance program's history
was performed on downer cattle, (48,000 in 13 years)/(195,000
x 13 years) is less than 2%.
[6] A Review of USDA Slaughterhouse Records for Downed
Animals (U.S. District 65 from January, 1999 to June,
2001) Farm Sanctuary, October 2001. http://www.nodowners.org/downedanimals.pdf
[7] "Critics say U.S. needs to do more to protect
against mad cow." The Journal News (New York) 29
May 2003.
[8] "Mad Cow Meat May Have Been Eaten, Official
Says." Reuters. December 23, 2003.
[9] "First US Case Of Mad Cow Disease Found In
WA." The Bulletin's Frontrunner. December 24, 2003.
[10] National Cattlemen's Beef Association Statement.
December 23, 2003.
[11]
[12] United States General Accounting Office. GAO Report
to Congressional Requesters. January 2002 MAD COW DISEASE:
Improvements in the Animal Feed Ban and Other Regulatory
Areas Would Strengthen U.S. Prevention Efforts. GAO-02-183.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02183.pdf
[13] "Health and Consumer Groups Urge USDA to Keep
Cattle Spinal Cord Tissue Out of Processed Meat"
Center for Science in the Public Interest News Release.
10 August 2001.
[14] USDA, Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA
Begins Sampling Program for Advanced Meat Recovery Systems,
News Release.3 March 2002.
[15] United States General Accounting Office. GAO Report
to Congressional Requesters. January 2002 MAD COW DISEASE:
Improvements in the Animal Feed Ban and Other Regulatory
Areas Would Strengthen U.S. Prevention Efforts. GAO-02-183.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02183.pdf
[16] USDA Response To GAO Recommendations on BSE Prevention.
Release No. F.S. 0071.02.
[17] Center for Science in the Public Interest. Nutrition
Health Letter. June, 2001.
[18] FDA Veterinarian Newsletter. Volume XVII, No. VI.
November/December 2002.
[19] USA Today, June 10, 2003.
[20] Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. Risk Analysis
of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies in Cattle
and the Potential for Entry of the Etiologic Agent(s)
Into the U.S. Food Supply . 2001. <http://www.hcra.harvard.edu/pdf>/madcow_report.pdf>.
[21] Joint WHO/FAO/OIE Technical Consultation on BSE.
OIE Headquarters, Paris, 11-14 June 2001.
[22] USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service. Current
Thinking on Measures that Could be Implemented to Minimize
Human Exposure to Materials that Could Potentially Contain
the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Agent. 15 January
2002.
[23] Joint WHO/FAO/OIE Technical Consultation on BSE.
OIE Headquarters, Paris, 11-14 June 2001.
[24] Reuters 29 August 1996.
[25] Lancet Vol 348 August 31, 1996.
[26] Lancet Vol 348 August 31, 1996.
[27] European Commission Health & Consumer Protection
Directorate-General Scientific Opinion on Stunning Methods
and BSE Risks. January 2002.
[28] Transfusion, Vol. 41, No. 11, 1325, November 2001.
[29] European Commission Health & Consumer Protection
Directorate-General Scientific Opinion on Stunning Methods
and BSE Risks. January 2002.
[30] Transfusion, Vol. 41, No. 11, 1325, November 2001.
[31] Testimony of Peter Lurie, MD, MPH Deputy Director
Public Citizen's Health Research Group Before the Consumer
Affairs, Foreign Commerce and Tourism Subcommittee Senate
Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. 4 April
2001.
[32] Regulation (EC)No 999/2001 of the European Parliament
and of the Council. Laying down rules for the prevention,
control and eradication of certain transmissible spongiform
encephalopathies. 22 May 2001.
[33] European Commission Health & Consumer Protection
Directorate-General Scientific Opinion on Stunning Methods
and BSE Risks. January 2002.
[34] European Commission Scientific Report on Stunning
Methods And BSE Risks (The Risk of Dissemination of
Brain Particles Into the Blood And Carcass When Applying
Certain Stunning Methods. December 2001).
[35] Berliner und Münchener Tierärztliche
Wochenschrift 2002 Jan-Feb; 115(1-2): 1-5.
[36] Joint WHO/FAO/OIE Technical Consultation on BSE.
OIE Headquarters, Paris, 11-14 June 2001.
[37] European Commission Health & Consumer Protection
Directorate-General. Scientific Steering Committee Opinion
on the Safety of Ruminant Blood with Respect to Risks.
14 April 2000.
[38] European Commission Scientific Report On Stunning
Methods and BSE Risks (The Risk of Dissemination of
Brain Particles into the Blood and Carcass when Applying
Certain Stunning Methods. December 2001).
[39] Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 2002 Feb;
68(2): 791-8.
[40] Letters to the Editor. The Lancet Vol 348 September
14, 1996.
[41] European Commission Health & Consumer Protection
Directorate-General. Scientific Steering Committee Opinion
on the Safety of Ruminant Blood with Respect to Risks.
14 April 2000.
[42] Letters to the Editor. The Lancet Vol 348 September
14, 1996.
[43] National Cattlemen's Beef Association news release.
21 May 2003. <http://www.beef.org/dsp/dsp_content.cfm?locationId=45&contentTypeId=2&contentId=2098>.
[44] Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
2002 Mar 19;99(6):3812-7.
[45] Mad Cow Disease in Canada. May 23, 2003 9:00am
KQED Forum hosted by Angie Coiro.
<http://www.kqed.org/programs/programarchive.jsp?progID=RD19&ResultStart=1&ResultCount=10&type=radio>.
[46] European Molecular Biology Organization Reports
4, 5 (2003), 530.
[47] Kimberlin, R. H. "Human Spongiform Encephalopathies
and BSE." Medical Laboratory Sciences 49 (1992):
216-217.
[48] Canadian Food Inspection Agency BSE Fact Sheet.
May 2003 P0091E-00.
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/anima/heasan/disemala/bseesb/bseesbe.shtml
[49] Food and Drug Administration 2000 CFR Title 21,
Volume 6, Chapter 1, Part 589. http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_00/21cfr589_00.html
[50] Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Regulations: Food
for Ruminants, Livestock and Poultry (Part XIV), "Prohibited
Materials"
[51] Food and Drug Administration 2000 CFR Title 21,
Volume 6, Chapter 1, Part 589.
http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_00/21cfr589_00.html
[52] International Center for Technology Assessment.
Citizen Petition Before The United StatesFood And Drug
Administration. 1/9/03. http://www.icta.org/legal/madcow1.htm
[53] Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Regulations: Food
for Ruminants, Livestock and Poultry (Part XIV), "Prohibited
Materials"
[54] Food and Drug Administration 2000 CFR Title 21,
Volume 6, Chapter 1, Part 589. http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_00/21cfr589_00.html
[55] Public Citizen. Letter to the FDA and USDA RE:
BSE. 21 April 2001. http://www.citizen.org/cmep/foodsafety/gsfc/articles.cfm?ID=1562
[56] Food and Drug Administration Sec. 685.100 Recycled
Animal Waste (CPG 7126.34)
[57] FDCH Political Transcripts December 23, 2003
[58] Unconventional viruses and the origin and disappearance
of kuru. 13 December 1976.
http://www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1976/gajdusek-lecture.html
[59] NBC Dateline 14 March 1997.
[60] Pearce, Fred. "BSE May Lurk in Pigs and Chickens."
New Scientist 6 April 1996: 5.
[61] United States General Accounting Office. GAO Report
to Congressional Requesters. January 2002 MAD COW DISEASE:
Improvements in the Animal Feed Ban and Other Regulatory
Areas Would Strengthen U.S. Prevention Efforts. GAO-02-183.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02183.pdf
[62] Chicago Tribune 21 May 21 2003.
[63] "Ministers Hostile to Advice on BSE."
New Scientist 30 March 1996: 4.
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