Animal health panel suggests overhaul of inspection system

Sharp changes in the U.S. animal feed supply system were recommended Wednesday by the panel of animal health experts invited by Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman to review the United States' response to its case of mad cow disease.

The panel of veterinarians, who are from the United States, Switzerland and New Zealand, made its presentation at a public meeting of Veneman's Committee on Foreign Animal and Poultry Diseases. The panel was expected to brief Veneman on Wednesday, but while USDA and FDA officials have promised to consider the recommendations, they have not said they will follow them.

The recommendation, which was posted on the USDA Web site, said that specified high-risk material, such as brains and spinal cord tissue from cattle, should be excluded from all animal feed, including pet food, and that all mammalian and poultry protein should be excluded from all feeds for ruminant animals.

The United States has banned the high-risk material from feed for ruminant animals but has allowed it for pigs, chickens and pets. The panel said it was recommending the changes due to the danger of cross-contamination in the manufacturing and transportation of feed. The panel said that British studies had shown that cattle could be infected with mad cow disease -- bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE -- by eating as little as 10 milligrams of infectious brain tissue.

The panel said it considered the cases of mad cow disease discovered in Washington state in late December and of a cow in Canada last May to be "North American." The cow in Washington state was born in Canada, but the panel said it "cannot be dismissed by considering it an 'imported case.'" It added that it encouraged the implementation of a national animal identification system "that is appropriate to North American farming" but did not say whether the identification system should be mandatory. Canada instituted a mandatory system after it got only 70 to75 percent participation in a voluntary program. The United States needs a broad surveillance program because "it is probable that other infected animals have been imported from Canada and possibly also from Europe," the panel said, adding that "infective material has likely been rendered, fed to cattle and amplified within the cattle population."

The panel also decided it was imperative that USDA gain access to downed animals not brought to slaughter, even if that meant offering financial incentives to the owners. It also obliquely criticized U.S. policy of quickly banning beef from countries where mad cow cases were discovered and then leaving those bans in place for long periods. The United States "should demonstrate leadership in trade matters by adopting import/export policy in accordance with international standards, and thus encourage the discontinuation of irrational trade barriers when countries identify their first case of BSE," the panel said.