August 5, 2004

 

 

USDA Announce Changes In Mad Cow Tests
 

The U.S. Agriculture Department said on Wednesday it is changing mad cow testing procedures to double-check any inconclusive results from rapid-screening tests for the fatal disease.

 

Until now, the USDA reported to the public whenever a sample of brain tissue yielded an inconclusive result from a screening test and sent the sample to a USDA lab in Ames, Iowa, for a final round of tests.

 

Under the new protocol, two additional rapid tests would be conducted and only if one of them were inconclusive would the results be announced.

 

A USDA official said the new approach mirrored testing programs in Europe and Japan as well as the approach suggested by the manufacturer of the test.

 

"This is based on 30,000 samples and proficiency testing. We now have confidence in our labs," said Ron DeHaven, head of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

 

The Agriculture Department has a goal of testing at least 268,000 head of cattle for mad cow disease by mid-2005 as part of a "enhanced surveillance" program intended to identify the prevalence of the disease in America.

 

As of Monday, the USDA had conducted 28,812 tests. Two of the rapid tests were inconclusive, but the sophisticated immunohistochemistry tests conducted at Ames ruled out a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the formal name for mad cow disease.

 

There has been controversy in the livestock industry over USDA's decision to make public the inconclusive results. Some farmers have complained the announcements unduly depress cattle prices and cost them money.

 

USDA officials say it would be impossible to assure secrecy since the tests at Ames take several days to complete.

 

"This is one of the areas we are going to have criticism no matter how we do it," DeHaven told an USDA advisory committee on animal disease.

 

The first U.S. case of mad cow disease was discovered in December in a Holstein dairy cow in Washington state. U.S. officials have expressed guarded optimism that negotiations with Japan will soon result in the resumption of beef exports to Tokyo.