Q: What is BSE?
A: A fatal neurological disease that destroys the brains of infected cattle, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), has shaken the U.S. beef industry with the first confirmed case of an infected Holstein cow confirmed in Washington state. A decade ago, an outbreak in Great Britain of what’s widely referred to as mad cow disease devastated the British beef industry, resulting in a massive disposal of its domestic herds. The disease poses risk to humans who can contract a strain of the disease, commonly known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, by consuming central nervous system tissue of infected cattle. USDA officials cited an "abundance of caution" from the recall of at least 10,000 pounds of beef traced to the infected cow and 19 others slaughtered in December. Experts say the risk to humans is extremely low because it is believed the disease can only be contracted by eating infected neurological parts of beef, not regular muscle cuts of meat.
Q: How has the BSE incident affected the U.S. beef industry?
A: The announcement on December 23 by the USDA captured widespread attention and had an abrupt impact on U.S. beef exports, which led to a downturn in the cattle markets. Key trading partners immediately imposed a ban on imported U.S. beef, including Japan. The Japanese bought more than $1 billion worth of U.S. beef in 2002. Federal authorities, livestock producers and all sectors of the food chain cooperated swiftly and aggressively to begin a sweeping investigation tracking how and where the dairy cow contracted the disease. Authorities in January traced the infected cow's origin with DNA testing to a Canadian farm. The Holstein was sold to a dairy farm in Washington in 2001. This information ought to give consumers confidence that BSE is not a systemic problem in the United States. As the only working family farmer in the U.S. Senate and a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, I am committed to ensuring the federal government acts in the best interests of producers and consumers and responds with swift, reasonable measures to guarantee the integrity of the U.S. food supply.
Q: What policy measures are under consideration to address the situation?
A: The first case of BSE in the United States ought to serve as a catalyst for policy makers, regulators, and cattle producers to work together and coordinate a credible, long-term strategy to keep the U.S. beef supply disease-free. As a long-time advocate of a bipartisan proposal to institute a country-of-origin labeling law, I strongly believe consumers have the right to know where the meat they buy at the store comes from. I’ll continue to push hard to get this law fully enacted under the original timeline of Sept. 30, 2004. In addition, the USDA announced measures to increase regulatory and enforcement safeguards to prevent tainted meat from entering the food supply. The new steps include: accelerating the creation of a nationwide tracking system to trace cattle from birth to slaughter; prohibiting consumption of certain high-risk parts from older cattle; tightening restrictions on slaughterhouse methods to curb contamination risks; and banning sick and non-ambulatory animals from the food supply. I have encouraged the USDA Secretary to take the additional step of appointing a special envoy to work directly with our trading partners on this issue. This would send a strong signal that the U.S. is committed to working in a science-based manner to re-open trade. In the meantime, I’ve made a personal pledge to continue eating U.S. beef to show my unwavering confidence in the safety of our food supply. My commitment to eat a pound of beef per week underscores my long-standing belief in the wholesome, nutritional, tasty value of American beef, especially when it’s corn-fed in Iowa.