February 5, 2004 The New York Times By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. and DENISE GRADY

The panel, made up of experts from Britain, New Zealand, Switzerland and the United States, also recommended testing many more head of cattle, adopting rapid European tests and removing brains, spinal columns and intestines of all cattle older than 1 from food supplies.

Convened after the first cow infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy in this country was found in December in Washington State, the panel released its report at a conference in Maryland. Its chairman, Dr. Ulrich Kihm, a Swiss veterinarian, said the United States "could have a case a month" of mad cow disease if it was doing enough testing, Reuters reported. Dr. Kihm made the estimate based on the experiences of European countries. But he did not predict an outbreak like the one in Britain, where hundreds of thousands of infected cows were found and more than 100 people died of a degenerative brain disease.

The chief veterinary officer for the Agriculture Department, Dr. Ron DeHaven, said that it was "no surprise that there may be other cases in North America," but that there was "no way to know whether there would be one a month or one every five years."

Even if there are more, Dr. DeHaven said, the panel acknowledged that the steps that the department took on Dec. 30 -- banning the slaughter of sick and injured cows for human food, as well as the removal of brains, spinal cords and intestines from older cows at slaughter -- are the most important to protect consumers. The department will respond to the report quickly, he said "because there is a sense of urgency about this."

Though the document, "Report on Measures Relating to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in the United States," was couched in dry uncritical language, it made clear that the panel believed that the department had not done enough to protect consumers or find all the diseased cows in North America. It also said blanket assurances that "beef is safe" could undermine regulatory efforts.

"It's explosive stuff," Michael Hansen, an expert on mad cow disease at Consumers Union, said. "It's an implicit admission that the critics have been correct and B.S.E. has been here all along."

Dr. Gary Weber, executive director for regulatory affairs at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, said the report was "not objective" and was "negative in tone." Dr. Weber called Dr. Kihm's remarks "more soothsayer than scientist."

European scientists "don't want to believe that the North American risk situation is different from Europe's," he said. One panel member whom Dr. Weber declined to name had privately told him that an earlier draft had been even more damning but that the member had been "able to moderate it."

It has been illegal since 1997 to feed meal made from ruminants like cows, sheep, goats and deer to other ruminants. It is legal to feed hogs and chickens. Partly because it has been so hard to prevent cross-contamination in rendering plants and the trucks that carry the dried meal, the panel recommended that cattle be given no more animal feed.

The department tests 40,000 head of the more than 30 million head of cattle slaughtered each year. Dr. DeHaven said it was possible that the agency would consider more aggressive tests and that the results would determine whether cattle as young as 1 needed to be treated if they could be infected.

Although testing all slaughtered cattle is "unjustified in terms of protecting animal and human health," the panel said, it recommended testing all cattle older than 30 months that die on farms, that collapse from illness or injury or that show the twitching, nervousness or aggressiveness symptomatic of mad cow disease. In addition, the panel suggested randomly testing healthy cattle.

Switzerland randomly tests 3 percent of healthy cattle at slaughter.

Decisions about what animals go into cattle feed are made by the Food and Drug Administration, which last week banned feeding cow blood, chicken waste and restaurant scraps to cattle, but continued with rendered hogs and chickens. Industry critics objected, saying hogs and chickens eat rendered cattle, so the disease could pass through.

Commentary by John Stauber, co-author, Mad Cow USA

The USDA's mad cow advisory panel came out yesterday with recommendations that might have been even stronger but for a paid beef industry expert on the panel, the former USDA official Will Hueston. The NYT article... [above] reports that "One panel member whom Dr. [Gary] Weber [of the NCBA] declined to name had privately told him that an earlier draft had been even more damning but that the member had been 'able to moderate it.'

Gary Weber is no doubt referring to his friend Dr. Will Hueston. Hueston was paid in 1997 as an expert witness to testify in court on behalf of the cattlemen trying to convict Oprah Winfrey for her "crime" of airing a program warning of mad cow risks in the US. I was told the amount he received to travel to Amarillo and take the stand to help convict Oprah for "food disparagement" was $25,000. For more information see:

The meat and livestock industry and the USDA continue to hide behind the $800,000 USDA-funded report of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis which concluded some years ago (based on a computer model) that mad cow disease would not occur in the US, and if it did it would be no big deal. The Center has a prestigious name but in essence it is an industry front group specializing in helping corporations downplay and manage in the media food and environmental health risks. For more information see:

Probably the most damning conclusion of yesterday's panel is their finding that mad cow disease is has likely been incubating, amplifying and spreading in the US for quite some time now. As long as the current animal feed regulations are in place, it will continue to do so.