*EPF503 01/09/2004
Text: New Food Safety Rules Boost Protections Against Mad Cow Disease
(USDA publishes rules to safeguard cattle products) (1400)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has issued four new rules to enhance existing protections against bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.

The rules implement safeguards announced December 30 by Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman following discovery of the United States' first known case of BSE, according to a January 8 news release from the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), an agency in USDA.

The new regulations impose stricter controls on establishments that use advanced meat recovery (AMR) systems to extract meat from cattle carcasses, and require processors to hold meat from cattle that have been tested for BSE until negative test results are received. The rules prohibit the air-injection stunning of cattle to ensure that portions of the cow's brain are not dislocated into the tissues of the carcass, and expand the list cattle products --- especially from older cattle -- that are banned from the human food chain, FSIS said.

Veneman additionally announced an immediate ban from the human food supply of all "downer" cattle, or cattle too sick or injured to walk.

BSE is a brain-wasting disease that is believed to spread through cattle feed that includes brain or spinal cord tissue from the remains of infected ruminants. Both Canada and the United States banned the use of ruminant material in cattle feed in 1997; DNA tests on the infected U.S. cow show that it was born in Canada just months before the ban entered into force, making contaminated feed a likely source of infection.

U.S. and Canadian officials continue efforts to trace animals that were imported to the United States along with the BSE-positive cow. In a separate January 8 news release, USDA announced that it had, as a precautionary measure, destroyed a herd of 450 calves in Washington State that included one born to the diseased cow.

Officials from both the United States and Canada continue to stress that safeguards are in place to protect consumers and that North American beef is safe to eat.

Following are the texts of the two USDA news releases:

(begin text)

U.S. Department of Agriculture
Food Safety and Inspection Service

USDA Issues New Regulations To Address BSE

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8, 2004 -The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service today issued four new rules to implement announcements made last week by Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman to further enhance safeguards against Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE).

On Dec. 30, 2003, Secretary Veneman announced a number of policies that will further strengthen protections against BSE, including the immediate banning of non-ambulatory (downer) animals from the human food supply. Rules to address the remaining issues are on display at the Federal Register today and are the result of many months of development. These policies involve: requiring additional process controls for establishments using advanced meat recovery (AMR) systems; holding meat from cattle that have been tested for BSE until the test results are received and they are negative; and prohibiting the air-injection stunning of cattle.

The rules released today include:

Product Holding

USDA is publishing a notice announcing that FSIS inspectors are no longer marking cattle tested for BSE as "inspected and passed" until confirmation is received that the cattle have, in fact, tested negative for BSE. FSIS will be issuing a directive to inspection program personnel outlining this policy.

Specified Risk Material

With the filing of an interim final rule, FSIS is declaring that skull, brain, trigeminal ganglia, eyes, vertebral column, spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia of cattle 30 months of age or older and the small intestine of all cattle are specified risk materials, thus prohibiting their use in the human food supply. Tonsils from all cattle are already considered inedible and therefore do not enter the food supply. These enhancements are consistent with the actions taken by Canada after the discovery of BSE there in May. These prohibitions are effective immediately upon publication in the Federal Register.

In this rule, FSIS is requiring federally inspected establishments that slaughter cattle remove, segregate and dispose of these specified risk materials so that they cannot possibly enter the food chain. To facilitate the enforcement of this rule, FSIS has developed procedures for verifying the approximate age of cattle that are slaughtered in official establishments. State inspected plants must have equivalent procedures in place to prevent these specified risk materials from entering the food supply.

Comments on this interim final rule will be accepted for 90 days after the publication of the rule in the Federal Register. Comments should be directed to: FSIS Docket Clerk, Docket #03-025IF, Room 102, Cotton Annex, 300 12th and C Street, SW, Washington, DC 20250-3700.

Advanced Meat Recovery

AMR is a technology that removes muscle tissue from the bone of beef carcasses under high pressure without incorporating bone material. AMR product can be labeled as "meat." FSIS has previously established and enforced regulations that prohibit spinal cord from being included in products labeled as "meat."

This interim final rule expands that prohibition to include dorsal root ganglia, clusters of nerve cells connected to the spinal cord along the vertebral column, in addition to spinal cord tissue. In addition, because the vertebral column and skull in cattle 30 months and older will be considered inedible, they cannot be used for AMR.

Comments on this interim final rule will be accepted for 90 days after the publication of the rule in the Federal Register. Comments should be directed to: FSIS Docket Clerk, Docket #03-038IF, Room 102, Cotton Annex, 300 12th and C Street, SW, Washington, DC 20250-3700.

Air-Injection Stunning

To ensure that portions of the brain are not dislocated into the tissues of the carcass as a consequence of humanely stunning cattle during the slaughter process, FSIS is issuing an interim final rule to ban the practice of air-injection stunning.

Comments on this interim final rule will be accepted for 90 days after the publication of the rule in the Federal Register. Comments should be directed to: FSIS Docket Clerk, Docket #01-033DF, Room 102, Cotton Annex, 300 12th and C Street, SW, Washington, DC 20250-3700.

NOTE: Access news releases and other information at the FSIS web site at http://www.fsis.usda.gov.

(end FSIS release)

(begin USDA release)

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
BSE [bovine spongiform ecephalopathy) Update --- January 8, 2004

On January 6, USDA euthanized the entire bull calf herd from Sunnyside, Washington. Approximately 450 animals were euthanized according to American Veterinary Medical Association humane guidelines. USDA officials secured the animal carcasses overnight and disposed of the carcasses by landfill on January 7. None of the carcasses entered the human food supply chain or were rendered.

In regard to the ongoing investigation, USDA has located another animal that came into the United States with the index cow. This animal is also part of the dairy herd located in Mattawa, Washington, that is under a Washington State hold order. USDA now has 12 of the 82 cattle listed on the Canadian health certificate definitely accounted for. These animals include the index cow; nine animals known to be part of the index herd; and two animals on the Mattawa premises. USDA also believes that one of the animals listed on the health certificate remained in Canada and did not enter the United States.

Tracebacks of the other 69 animals that entered the United States continues. USDA has good leads on the whereabouts of many of these animals. In regard to the 17 animals from the BSE-infected animal's birth herd that may have also arrived in the United States as part of a later shipment, USDA and Canadian officials continue to work to confirm if any or all of these 17 animals -- all heifers -- did in fact enter the United States.

The new policies include the immediate banning of non-ambulatory (downer) animals from the human food supply. Rules to address the remaining issues are on display at the Federal Register today and are the result of many months of development. These policies involve: requiring additional process controls for establishments using advanced meat recovery (AMR) systems; holding meat from cattle that have been tested for BSE until the test results are received and they are negative; and prohibiting the air-injection stunning of cattle.

(end text)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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