Impact of mad cow case ripples through agencies

The discovery of a single case of mad cow disease in Washington state last month is likely to affect a range of federal legislative, regulatory, trade and political issues.

For starters, the case may affect the pending Senate cloture vote on the fiscal 2004 omnibus appropriations bill. While the omnibus has passed the House, one of the controversies generating opposition in the Senate is a provision that calls for a two-year delay in implementing a 2002 farm bill measure requiring country-of-origin labeling of red meat and certain other farm products by Sept. 30.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said at a late December news conference in Bismarck, N.D., that while he had not counted votes, the determination that the cow with mad cow disease was born in Canada "adds weight to the problems of the omnibus." But Republican Senate aides have said GOP leaders plan to push ahead with the vote.

Lawmakers also are likely to carefully watch the Bush administration's fiscal 2005 budget, expected in early February, for its plans to implement a national animal identification system, which could be used to track any animals with disease problems of any type. A Senate Democratic aide said in December that the budget that the Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service was preparing did not include enough money for a full-scale animal identification program.

Meanwhile, U.S. Chief Veterinarian Ron DeHaven said Monday it is "way premature" to tell if the United States could be declared "BSE-free" because the cow in Washington state that was determined to have bovine spongifrom encephalopatchy is likely to be of Canadian birth. DeHaven also said the Agriculture Department has decided to "depopulate" 450 bull calves in Washington state as part of its program to control BSE. DeHaven said USDA would reach agreement with the owners of the calves to compensate them for "fair market value."

Since USDA has announced a number of steps to stop mad cow disease and reassure trading partners, the focus of attention has shifted to feed regulations, which are controlled mostly by the Food and Drug Administration.

Jim Wiesemeyer, a commodity analyst for Sparks Companies Inc. said in his column on the web site Agweb Monday that consumer activists are increasingly asking why FDA "continues to allow high risk materials (brains and spinal cord) to be rendered into feed for pigs, chickens and household pets." Wiesemeyer also noted the agency has considered restricting the use of poultry litter, pet food and restaurant leftovers as cattle feed, but still allows all of them to be used.