When you first think about it, testing all of our cattle for
”
Mad Cow
”
, also known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), may
sound like a good idea. But when you look closer, does testing
every single American cow really make sense?
Editor,
When you first think about it, testing all of our cattle for “Mad Cow”, also known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), may sound like a good idea. But when you look closer, does testing every single American cow really make sense?
In August, I chaired an informational hearing examining that very question; are we doing enough to reduce the threat of mad cow disease? To put it simply, yes.
Since the discovery of Mad Cow disease in 1986 in Europe, the United States has confirmed only two isolated cases of cattle testing positive for the disease. The first case occurred in Washington in 2003 in a cow that was imported from Canada. No other cows from the region tested positive. The second case was in June of this year when a Texas cow tested positive after repeated analysis of the animal’s tissue.
Since the first cow tested positive in 2003, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has tested over 400,000 cows and only one other tested positive. To put this in perspective, you have a better chance of being struck by lightning this year than a neighborhood cow testing positive for Mad Cow disease.
Some will still argue that those odds are not good enough and that every head of cattle should be tested. With more than 95.8 million cows nationwide, it simply is not feasible and not cost effective. What’s more, the USDA is testing those cattle with the highest likelihood of having Mad Cow disease – not just a random sampling. Cattle with the highest likelihood of contracting Mad Cow include “downer cows,” that are unable to stand-up, die unexpectedly or have other signs of illness are the ones that are tested. So those cattle that are healthy are even less likely to have Mad Cow disease.
While testing for Mad Cow may help identify if our cattle have the disease, it does little to protect our cattle from contracting it. Since the late 1980’s, the USDA has begun implementing effective controls to prevent the introduction and spread of Mad Cow in America. Specifically, the USDA limits cattle imports from infected countries, bans the use of cattle feeds that may spread the disease and eliminates material from the food chain that poses a significant risk of infection to humans.
With these safeguards in place the United States has been able to limit Mad Cow disease to only two cases of older cattle; both were alive prior to the security of the current feed ban. This combined with the reality that the youngest cow ever to test positive for Mad Cow was 21 months of age. Meanwhile, roughly 70 to 90 percent are slaughtered around 18 months of age, well before Mad Cow disease has a chance to manifest itself in cattle. So, does it make sense to spend $20 per cow to test cattle before they are even capable of finding the disease?
We as Americans demand the highest standard for the security of our food. But testing 100 percent of our beef cattle for Mad Cow would only offer a false sense of security to the public. As consumers, we would be paying more per pound of beef without getting any greater assurance of our food safety. After hearing testimony not only from the cattle industry, but also from USDA, California Department of Food and Agriculture and academics from the University of California, I am confident that every bite I take from my steak tonight is from the safest and best quality beef in the world.
Jeff Denham, State Senator
