Mandatory Testing Urged for Mad Cow Disease

Unlike countries such as England and Japan whose reaction to finding bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cows was to order mandatory testing of all slaughtered cattle intended for market, Canada and the United States are not testing all cows before they are sent to market, even though both countries have recently had a case of BSE, or mad cow disease.

Other steps taken by England and other countries as protective measures were to keep detailed records of all cows within their borders and to ban the use of all ruminant feed. The high concentration of nerve and brain tissue in ruminant feed is thought to greatly increase the risk of transmission of mad cow disease. The United States and most other beef-producing countries have banned the use of ruminant feed, but there is currently no way to prevent small farmers from making and using ruminant feed. These criticisms were recently voiced by Ira Krull, Ph.D., a professor of chemistry at Northeastern University (Boston, MA, USA), echoing those of a number of U.S. consumer groups.

Only an estimated 0.03% of U.S. slaughtered cattle are randomly tested for mad cow disease. Currently, tests for BSE are effective only on slaughtered cattle because brain tissue is needed to make a diagnosis. Dr. Krull, together with Norman Chiu, Ph.D., assistant chemistry professor at Northeastern, are working to develop a clinical assay to detect chronic wasting disease, a variant of mad cow that affects deer and elk.

"The more cattle tested the more likely it is that some will be found with the disease,” noted Dr. Krull. "They don't want to find it. I don't believe we will see change until the beef industry is forced to be accountable for selling contaminated products to consumers.”




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