Sen. Cantwell Calls on Bush Administration to Keep Promise to Close Loopholes in Mad Cow Rules
WA Agriculture Director, Cattle Producers Also Voice Support for Imposing Rules Announced in January, But Not Yet Enforced
SEATTLE – Senator Maria Cantwell today called on the Bush Administration to promptly implement long-promised and long-overdue rules to prevent the spread of mad cow disease through animal feed in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and Acting Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Lester Crawford. Cantwell also called for the implementation of her Animal Feed Protection Act (S.2051), enacting a comprehensive ban on all animal feed containing the risky materials that cause mad cow disease.
In January, Secretary Thompson announced new FDA rules that would close loopholes in current regulations which allow feeding cattle cow blood, plate waste, or chicken litter to cattle and leave the door open to cross-contamination during the production of feed.
When they announced the rules, administration officials promised the rules would "take effect in a few days" according to The New York Times. However, exactly twelve weeks later, the rules have still not been imposed and the loopholes remain in place.
"Consumers deserve to be protected and the Bush Administration continues to drag its heels on new rules to prevent the spread of mad cow disease," said Cantwell. "They made a promise and I expect them to keep it."
Washington State Agriculture Director Valoria Loveland and Cattle Producers of Washington President Lee Englehardt joined Senator Cantwell in calling for the FDA rules to be imposed.
"Washington cattle producers support and appreciate Senator Cantwell's efforts on behalf of consumers and cattlemen," said Sid Viebrock, President of the Washington Cattleman's Association. "Enacting these rules promptly will send a powerful message that it is safe to eat beef and will help strengthen our case for reopening international markets."
Cantwell said that for the rules to be effective, they should be expanded to include her proposed ban on the material that causes mad cow disease from all animal feed, not just cattle feed.
"In order to protect our food supply, Congress must enact a comprehensive ban on the risky material that causes mad cow disease in the first place," Cantwell said. "We have a responsibility to be proactive. Waiting for another case of mad cow disease risks the safety of our food supply and the economic health of our cattle industry."
"Simply put, the dangerous material that causes mad cow disease should be banned completely in all animal feed," she added.
Cantwell proposed the ban in legislation she introduced last February. Cantwell's bill would ban specified risk materials (SRMs), including bovine spinal and brain tissue, from all animal feed. Current rules ban feeding cattle the animal feed that includes the kinds of dangerous materials that cause mad cow disease. But since the feed is still freely available on the market and can be fed to other farm animals, it is possible for cows to consume dangerous feed by mistake.
Scientists agree that SRMs cause mad cow disease and that banning them from all animal food is a critical part of preventing the spread of mad cow disease. For example, contaminated feed from a Canadian feed mill caused the case of mad cow disease in the Mabton cow. On March 19th, an official with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced that the agency had traced the source of the feed that probably caused North America's two cases of mad cow disease to two feed mills in Canada saying that "our best hypothesis [on what happened] was the animals were exposed to contaminated feed."
On February 4, an expert panel convened by Agriculture Secretary Anne Veneman released a report calling for the complete elimination of the risky feed material that causes mad cow disease. The Harvard Center for Risk Analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health found that a ban on SRM in all animal feed and human food would reduce the predicted number of mad cow cases in cattle by 82 percent and the potential for human exposure by 95 percent.
In late December, the USDA announced new rules to help prevent mad cow disease from entering the human food chain. The USDA imposed the rules in early January with interim rules. The USDA rules banned downer cattle from entering the human food chain, banned SRMs in human food, and required that tests from cattle for mad cow disease be confirmed as negative before their meat is distributed. The FDA rules, announced in January but still not yet imposed, would reduce the risk of new cases of mad cow being caused in the first place.
In addition to her legislation banning SRMs from all animal food, Cantwell has also co-sponsored S.2007, which would enact further safeguards. Cantwell also co-sponsored legislation prohibiting the use of downer cattle for human consumption.
Senator Cantwell's proposals at-a-glance:
First, impose the new rules announced by the FDA on January 26. These rules would close loopholes in the current regulations on cattle feed. There are four new rules:
1) Close the blood loophole -- no mammalian blood or blood products can be fed to cows, sheep, bison, elk, or deer.
2) Close the poultry loophol e -- no poultry litter (bedding, spilled feed, feathers, fecal matter, dead birds) to be used in feed for cows, sheep, bison, elk, or deer.
3) Close the cross-contamination loophole -- feed production facilities cannot make ruminant and non-ruminant feed on the same equipment. They must be kept separate.
4) Close the plate waste loophole -- no uneaten restaurant scraps to be rendered and included in feed for cows, sheep, bison, elk, or deer. Scraps create testing problems when checking cattle feed.
Second, make the feed ban airtight by implementing Senator Cantwell's legislation, which would:
Ban specified risk material (SRM) – the products which cause mad cow in the first place -- in feed of any type - including feed for pets, chickens and pigs. This is needed because the potential exists for SRM to find its way into cattle feed, and subsequently the cow. For example, pet food can, and often does, contain SRM material. Currently, pet food can legally be recycled back into cattle feed.
The text of the letter follows:
April 19, 2004
The Honorable Tommy G. Thompson Secretary U.S. Department of Health & Human Services 200 Independence Ave., S.W. Washington, D.C. 20201 Dr. Lester Crawford Acting Commissioner U. S. Food and Drug Administration 5600 Fishers Lane Rockville, Maryland 20857
Dear Secretary Thompson and Acting Commissioner Crawford:
On December 23, 2003, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) had been discovered in a cow in Washington state. Following this discovery, Washington state residents have expressed concern to me about the importance of strengthening the safety of the U.S. food supply. Due to the closure of international beef markets, Washington state ranchers, farmers, meatpackers, related businesses and rural communities have all suffered serious economic losses. Washington state is at ground zero of this disaster and I want to do everything I can to make sure we eliminate BSE to ensure that this dislocation does not happen again.
Accordingly, I was pleased by your announcement on January 26, 2004 to further safeguard our nation's food supply by closing several loopholes in the animal feed supply chain, banning specified risk material (SRM) from products under the Food and Drug Administration's jurisdiction and stepping up FDA's enforcement activities. I agree with your statement that "this is the time to make sure the public is protected to the greatest extent possible." At the time of your announcement, Department officials were quoted as saying that these rules would be issued within days.
However, today marks twelve weeks since your announcement. As of today, the Administration has yet to issue a rule in the Federal Register. The twelve week delay has left the public without the protections that you said are necessary to improve public health. This delay has also left the farmers, ranchers and rural communities in my state wondering about the commitment of the Administration to strengthen the safety of the feed system at a time when international markets remain closed to U.S. beef.
I call on you to live up to your promise to the American people and issue these rules immediately.
While I strongly support your feed proposals announced on January 26, 2004, I believe that additional measures should be taken. In particular, I urge you to issue a separate rule banning SRM in animal feed. This measure would significantly reduce the likelihood that specified risk material would contaminate the feed given to cattle or other animals. Accordingly, I have introduced legislation, S.2051, the Animal Feed Protection Act, which would impose a ban on SRM in animal feed. I plan to pursue this legislation in Congress. At the same time, I believe that the FDA should pursue an SRM ban via rulemaking.
My proposal for a ban on specified risk material in feed is based on science and recent findings. In its 2001 report entitled " Evaluation of the Potential for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in the United States," the Harvard Center for Risk Assessment noted that a ban on SRM in feed would reduce the predicted number of BSE cases in cattle by 80 percent and the potential human exposure by 95 percent. In addition, the USDA's international review team recommended that the U.S. ban all SRM from animal feed.
On March 19, 2004, an official with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced that the agency had traced the source of the feed that caused North America's two cases of mad cow disease to two feed mills in Canada. The CFIA noted that: "our best hypothesis [on how the U.S. and Canadian BSE cases occurred] was the animals were exposed by contaminated feed." Now that we know this, and in light of the Harvard study results, I believe that the most effective way to preventing any future cases of BSE is by implementing a front-end feed ban now.
In addition, I understand that FDA's position is that if additional cases of mad cow disease are found through the newly expanded testing program, that the FDA would strongly consider an SRM ban in animal feed. However, the public health and economic implications of another case of mad cow disease are too serious to take a reactive approach.
I understand that there will be challenges in banning SRM from animal feed and I'm prepared to work with you to address these challenges. Nevertheless, I remain very concerned about the delay and the FDA's opposition to moving forward with an SRM ban.
Sincerely,
Maria Cantwell
United States Senator
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