USDA finds 1,000 violations of mad cow rules

Federal food safety

inspectors found more than 1,000 instances since 2004 where

U.S. meat plants cut corners or violated regulations aimed at

preventing the spread of mad cow disease, the U.S. Agriculture

Department said on Monday.

The USDA said it released documents to the American Meat

Institute and the consumer group Public Citizen showing that

federal inspectors filed 1,036 noncompliance reports from

January 2004 to May 2005 involving the removal of the brain,

skull and spinal cord of cattle aged 30 months and older.

The materials are considered to carry the highest risk in

spreading the brain-wasting disease, also known as bovine

spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The USDA banned them from the

human food supply a few days after the December 2003 discovery

of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease in a Washington state

dairy cow.

The nation's second confirmed case of BSE was discovered

earlier this summer in a Texas beef cow.

Public Citizen said the documents showed instances where

U.S. meat plants did not distinguish between older and younger

animals, banned materials were not removed and tools not

properly cleaned.

"I think there still has to be a concern about meat from an

infected animal making it into the food supply," said Tony

Corbo, legislative representative for Public Citizen. "It is

not a fail-safe system."

The meat industry disagreed.

"Some groups will no doubt attempt to use this information

as evidence of possible operational problems and even a food

safety concern, when nothing is further from the truth," said

Jim Hodges, president of the AMI Foundation.

AMI said the noncompliance reports represent just one-tenth

of 1 percent of the 46 million cattle slaughtered nationwide

during the 17-month period.

The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service said its

federal meat inspectors strictly enforced the regulations to

keep BSE out of the human food supply.

"These data demonstrate inspection program personnel took

immediate action when they determined that regulators were not

being strictly followed. The analysis demonstrates public

health was protected," the agency said in a statement posted on

its Web site.

The documents were released to the industry and consumer

groups in response to Freedom of Information Act requests, and

were not made public by the USDA.

Public Citizen said it was still reviewing all the

documents, and would need several days to summarize the

noncompliance

reports.

The U.S. Food and Drug and Administration has separately

been considering tougher safeguards against mad cow disease for

the past 18 months. The FDA in 1997 banned the use of cattle

remains as a protein supplement for cattle, but consumer groups

have urged the FDA to extend the ban to feed for poultry, pigs

and pet food.

LINKS:

* FSIS statement www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/BSE_Rules_Being_Strictly_Enforced/ index.asp