UPI: USDA refused to
release mad cow records

Published 12/26/03 on www.meatingplace.com
By Brendan O'Neill

According to United Press International, the Agriculture Department
refused to release its tests for mad cow during the past six months. UPI
said USDA reported it has tested about 20,000 cows for the disease in 2002
and 2003, but has been unable to provide any documentation in support of
this.

UPI's report comes in the wake of Tuesday's announcement by Agriculture
Secretary Ann M. Veneman that a cow slaughtered on Dec. 9 on a farm in
Mabton, Wash., had tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

USDA officials told UPI as recently as Dec. 17 the agency was still
searching for documentation of its mad cow testing results from 2002 and
2003. UPI initially requested the documents on July 10, and after repeated
attempts over the past six months, including Freedom of Information Act
requests and threatened legal action, USDA never sent any corresponding
documents.

"If any documents exist, they will be forwarded," USDA official Michael
Marquis wrote in the letter, according to UPI.

"The government doesn't have records to substantiate their testing so how
do they know whether this is an isolated case," Lester Friedlander, a
former USDA veterinarian who has been insisting mad cow is present in
American herds for years, told UPI.

Michael Schwochert, a retired USDA veterinarian in Ft. Morgan, Colo.,
agreed with that, saying the USDA's sparse testing means they cannot say
with any confidence whether there are additional cases or not.

"It scares the hell out of me what it's going to do to the cattle
industry," Schwochert said. "This could be catastrophic."

Other BSE animals?

In addition, former USDA veterinarians told UPI they have long suspected
the disease was in U.S herds and there are probably additional infected
animals.

"It's always concerned me that they haven't used the same rapid testing
technique that's used in Europe," where mad cow has been detected in
several additional countries outside of the United Kingdom, said
Schwochert.

According to the UPI report, Schwochert noted that he had been informed
that about six months ago a cow displaying symptoms suggestive of mad cow
disease showed up at the Excel slaughtering plant in Ft. Morgan.

"It was almost like they didn't want to find mad cow disease," Schwochert
said.

Once cows are unloaded off the truck they are required to be inspected by
USDA veterinarians. However, the cow was spotted by plant employees before
USDA officials saw it and "it went back out on a special truck and they
called the guys in the office and said don't say anything about this," UPI
reported Schwochert as saying.