USDA Ordered that Suspected Mad Cow in Texas Not Be Tested

USDA's San Angelo vets and techs ordered not to test suspect cow

by Daniel Yovich on 5/5/04 for Meatingplace.com

It was a trio of Agriculture Department staff < two veterinarians and one
technician < who were supposed to follow agency protocol by testing what
they determined was an older cow that likely had a central nervous system
disorder when it arrived April 27 at the Lone Star Beef plant in San Angelo,
Texas.

One government source and another within the industry, both of whom say they
have firsthand knowledge of events that day, said the final call on not to
test the animal was made by an APHIS supervisor in Austin, Texas, after an
APHIS technician at the plant advised her supervisor she was preparing to
take a tissue sample from the culled animal for BSE testing. Both sources
spoke to Meatingplace.com on condition of anonymity, and USDA officials did
not return telephone calls Tuesday seeking comment and confirmation of the
allegations.

What USDA has confirmed is that the agency's standard operating procedures
call for animals condemned due to a possible CNS disorder be kept until
APHIS officials can collect samples for testing. That clearly was done in
this case. The animal sat for more than 90 minutes and less than two hours
after it was condemned, stunned and killed before the APHIS tech told Lone
Star Beef management to dispose of the animal "in a routine manner."

As a condemned cow, there was never any chance that the meat from the animal
would enter the food chain. What is less clear is what went wrong at USDA
and why.

USDA spokesman Ed Loyd said the agency was conducting an investigation into
the issue < attempting to establish a timeline and chronology of who was
involved and who made the decisions last week in San Angelo.

What is clear, in the mind of the two sources who spoke to Meatingplace.com
, is that all three of USDA's key decision makers on the ground at the San
Angelo plant were overruled by a staffer with more authority in Austin.

"Everybody expected a test, and then the word came that there wasn't going
to be any test," one source said. "I'm not sure why that decision was made,
and I'm not going to speculate about the reasons for it. But I think what
USDA is going to find is that the final decision was made up the food chain,
and I think a lot of people will be interested in why that decision was
made."

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