January 16, 2004 Chicago Tribune by Andrew Martin

U.S. consumers seem largely unfazed by the case of mad cow disease that was discovered in Washington state just before Christmas. But Japan, the biggest foreign customer for American beef, has cut off all imports and suggested that it won't reopen its borders unless the U.S. adopts a much tougher testing regimen.

"Either we test more, or they change their eating habits," said Chuck Levitt, senior livestock analyst for Alaron Trading, a Chicago-based firm. "They can do without U.S. beef."

In the three weeks since federal officials announced the discovery of mad cow disease, the U.S. Agriculture Department's program for testing cattle for the disease has come under increasing fire.

Besides the demands of foreign governments, consumer groups and members of Congress have criticized the program as inadequate and called on the USDA to significantly increase the number of cattle that are tested.

On Thursday, at a news conference sponsored by the advocacy group Public Citizen, several USDA inspectors said crucial aspects of the mad cow testing program were left in the hands of slaughterhouse officials.

The inspectors said USDA officials call ahead and ask the slaughterhouse to set aside heads from sickly cows and, in some cases, even draw samples from the cows' brains that are used for testing. The testing program samples sickly cows--called downers--because they are most likely to have the disease.

"Meat processing plant personnel do all the sampling," said Paul Carney, a USDA inspector in California, in a written affidavit. "We just trust the industry to pick out the most suspect cows from their own herds, then we test those and tell the public there is no mad cow."

USDA officials said that only slaughterhouses that specialize in downer cows are allowed to select animals for testing.

Officials at the agency have long maintained that widespread testing was unnecessary and that the demand was based more on hysteria than science. Now faced with billions of dollars in lost exports to nations around the world, however, USDA officials say they are trying to figure out a way to accommodate Japan while at the same time not short-changing other foreign governments and the American public.

"That is probably the $64 question for the day," said J.B. Penn, an undersecretary in the Department of Agriculture, who met with Japanese officials last week. "We're trying to more fully understand what the Japanese will require."

An official at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, who asked not to be identified, said his country will reopen its borders to U.S. beef only after America adopts a beef safety system that is at least as rigorous as Japan's, where every cow that is slaughtered is tested for mad cow disease.

Results in 4 hours

For the U.S., wider testing would likely mean replacing the sophisticated but time-consuming test it currently uses with simpler test kits that can produce results in as little as four hours. These devices, which cost anywhere from $15 to $50 per cow -- or as little as a penny a hamburger -- are used to test all Japanese cows, and 1 out of every 4 slaughtered in Europe.

In contrast, just 20,000 of the 36 million cows slaughtered in the U.S. each year are tested for mad cow, though USDA officials say they will double the tests in the coming year. The current test used by the U.S., which costs about $50 per cow, takes anywhere from two days to two weeks to complete.

The purpose of the quick mad cow tests is to exclude cows that don't have the disease and move them into the slaughterhouse. When a positive result is discovered, the carcass is held in a cooler while a second, confirmatory test is conducted through microscopic examination of the brain tissue.

"We see that there may be a need to start using some of these more rapid tests as part of our ongoing surveillance system," said Ron DeHaven, chief veterinary officer for the USDA.

The U.S. testing regimen for mad cow disease drew little notice prior to Dec. 23, when USDA officials announced that they had discovered the first case of the disease on American soil. Other beef-exporting countries that are considered free of mad cow disease, such as Australia, Argentina and Brazil, have similarly modest surveillance programs for the disease.

But as Canada discovered last May when it found its first case of mad cow disease and saw its beef industry collapse, the rules of world trade immediately change with the appearance of a single infected cow. More than three dozen countries have closed their borders to U.S. beef in the last three weeks.

None is more important than Japan, which buys about 45 percent of its imported beef from the United States, accounting for more than $1 billion in annual sales, and another 45 percent from Australia. The Japanese ban on U.S. beef is likely to benefit Australia and New Zealand the most because other major beef-exporting nations such as Argentina and Brazil are banned from Japan because of recent outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease.

Testing on a wide scale in the U.S. for mad cow disease presents logistical problems, from setting up a massive database to keep track of the tests to finding laboratories and technicians to do the work. In addition, some slaughterhouses would have to be reconfigured to hold the carcasses in coolers until the tests were complete.

It also poses some risk. Many European countries didn't learn the extent of their mad cow problems until they began aggressive testing, and finding more cases in the U.S. could hurt beef sales, at least in the short term.

"If you have a certain rate of [mad cow] cases, the more you test, the more you'll find," said Markus Mozer, co-chief executive officer of Prionics, a Swiss company that supplies test kits to many European countries.

If the U.S. adopted Europe's system of testing only older animals--30 months or older--that would cover about 6 million or 7 million of the animals slaughtered each year, said Bo Reagan, a vice president at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

'Very uncommon disease'

A Japanese-style universal testing system would be vastly more complex, and many believe that it is a classic case of overkill because the disease is typically found in older cows, though Japan recently found a 21-month-old cow with mad cow.

"The reality is, it's a rare and very uncommon disease," said Dan Murphy, vice president of communications for the American Meat Institute.

Researchers are working on a test that could uncover mad cow disease in live cattle. Scott McKinlay, president and chief operating officer of InPro Biotechnology, said he hopes the test for live animals will be commercially available in a year.

Greg Frazier, an industry consultant who was a former chief of staff in the USDA, said he believes the agency has little choice but to impose more rigorous testing given the commercial and political pressures.

But, he added, "if the U.S. relents and imposes universal or enhanced testing on meat destined for export, U.S. consumers will want the same."

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USDA ponders new tests for mad cow

USDA officials are considering using newly testing methods for mad cow disease to appease Japanese officials, who have banned American beef. Japan imports more U.S. beef than any other nation.

HOW THE U.S. AND JAPAN TEST NOW

Test description

U.S.: USDA scientists examine slices of brain or spinal cord tissue from cows under a microscope to look for prions--abnormal proteins that in large amounts can destroy the brain and central nervous system. The scientists study the amount and location of prions to confirm whether the animal has mad cow disease.

JAPAN: Japanese officials grind up small amounts of brain issue and wash them in chemicals, which can detect the presence of prions. If the test is positive, the cow carcass is isolated and subjected to a test like the one used in the U.S.

Cost*

U.S.: About $50 per animal

JAPAN: $15-50 per animal

Duration

U.S.: About 5 days, depending on testing backlogs and other factors.

JAPAN: About 4 hours

Animals tested

U.S.: Fewer than 1 percent of all cows slaughtered. In 2003, this equaled 20,526 cows out of 36 million animals.

JAPAN: All cows slaughtered for human consumption.

*Does not include shipping costs

Source: Dr. Will Hueston, University of Minnesota, USDA, Bio-Rad Laboratories