November 10, 2005

 

FDA takes too long in cattle feed testing, says US Congress
 

 

The investigative arm of Congress on Wednesday issued a report pointing out weaknesses in the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) efforts to make sure feed given to cattle meets safety standards designed to prevent mad cow disease.

 

The General Accountability Office said FDA tests of cattle feed to see if it contained prohibited bovine material likely took too long-sometimes more than 100 days-and failed to monitor laboratory results.

 

Since 1997, the FDA has prohibited most bovine material from being included in cattle feed because mad cow disease, also known as BSE, is believed to be spread among cattle through feed containing infected cattle parts.

 

"FDA and industry agree that cattle feed is consumed very quickly," the GAO said in the report. "By the time FDA conducted its follow up to determine whether a violation had occurred, the feed may have been consumed."

 

The testing is hampered, the GAO said, by the fact that FDA's ban on most bovine material from cattle feed has exemptions for bovine blood and other material. That creates initial results that point to "potential violations" and requires follow-up testing.

 

FDA guidance instructs laboratories "to conduct follow-up reviews on each potential violation to determine whether the facility represented by the sample actually violates the feed ban," the GAO said, but no documentation on those reviews was required. "Although the districts may have conducted rigorous follow-up and exercised sound judgment, the basis for their decisions cannot be reviewed and confirmed."

 

Furthermore, FDA "did not adequately oversee the feed testing program" and "does not know whether or to what extent the feed testing program is contributing to the agency's BSE oversight efforts," according to the report.

 

Ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, Tom Harkin of Iowa, said in a prepared statement of the report: "Prohibiting ruminant by-products from feed for other ruminants is the most important firewall against BSE getting into or spreading among US cattle.

 

"If FDA's testing program is not catching violations, and catching them in time, that needs to be corrected immediately."

 

The GAO sent the results of its investigation to Harkin, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and other senators, according to a copy of a letter dated Oct 11.

 

The FDA, in a written response to the GAO, stressed that its feed-testing program is only a small part of its overall efforts to prevent the spread of BSE.

 

It added that the time it takes for testing is not key in those efforts. The FDA also rejected the GAO conclusions that "the sampling assignment was poorly implemented" and "FDA did not adequately oversee the assignment".

 

The FDA response, included by the GAO with its report, said, "The US cattle BSE control program consists of a multifaceted system to keep the disease from entering and spreading. The components consist of import controls on ruminant animals and animal feed, a BSE surveillance cattle testing program, an effective response to the finding of BSE-positive animals and a feed ban."

 

The USDA reported the discovery of two cattle infected with BSE in the US. The first was announced in December 2003. The second was confirmed in June 2005, but was originally misdiagnosed as negative for BSE in November 2004.

 

The FDA unveiled a new plan in October to tighten its safeguards against the spread of BSE by banning certain high-risk cattle materials that can potentially carry BSE from all livestock feed.