[Vision2020] Mad Cow Disease

[dickschmidt at moscow.com]

All,

Some of you may remember that I have posted a couple of articles on Mad 
Cow disease in the past. When Britian had their Mad Cow problem I 
followed it very closely daily. The following news article from the UPI 
does not shock me in the least as there have been reports of Mad Cow 
disease found in the past couple years but then the USDA sends out 
the "all clear". We have a very dishonest deceitful government who does 
not care about their citizens. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns needs 
the dog crap beat out of him. These bastards only care about big business.

Dick Schmidt


Feds probing alleged mad cow cover-up
By Steve Mitchell
Published 5/2/2005 1:30 PM

WASHINGTON, May 2 (UPI) -- Federal investigators are looking into 
allegations by a former U.S. Agriculture Department inspector that the 
agency sought to cover up cases of mad cow disease, United Press 
International has learned.

Lester Friedlander, a former USDA veterinarian, told UPI he was 
questioned recently by two representatives from the USDA's Office of 
Inspector General who were investigating statements he made before 
Canada's Parliament in April. 

"I told them I think there's a cover-up," said Friedlander, a 10-year 
veteran of the USDA who received official praise and recognition for 
outstanding performance during his tenure with the agency. 

Mad cow is a concern to public health because humans can contract a fatal 
brain illness known as variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease from eating beef 
products contaminated with the mad cow pathogen.

Friedlander's claims include that a USDA official told him in 1991 not to 
say anything if he ever discovered a case of mad cow disease, and that he 
knew of cows that had tested positive at private laboratories but were 
ruled negative by the USDA.

He said he was interviewed by Keith Arnold, from the OIG's regional 
office in Kansas City, Mo., and William Busby, of OIG's Denver office. 
The officials told him Phyllis Fong, the USDA's inspector general, 
ordered the investigation.

"The reason they interviewed me was there was a lot of talk about my 
comments made in Canada and they said they were getting a lot of flak," 
he said. "I told them I'd take a lie detector just to prove I'm telling 
the truth."

Paul Feeney, OIG's deputy counsel, told UPI the agency had no comment 
regarding Friedlander's allegations, but he noted the OIG is conducting 
an audit of USDA's surveillance plan for mad cow disease -- also known as 
bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE -- which includes collecting 
information from "any individuals who may have substantive information 
about BSE-testing issues." 

The USDA did not return a phone call from UPI seeking comment, but agency 
officials, including Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, previously have 
denied Friedlander's accusations.

Friedlander left the USDA in 1995 after reaching an agreement with the 
agency concerning his complaints that his immediate supervisors were 
discriminating against him for his religious beliefs. Friedlander insists 
the agency attempted to force him out after he appeared on national 
television programs alleging that meat from downer cows -- those unable 
to stand -- was included in school lunch programs and a drug that is 
toxic to people was being used to increase the volume of meat in veal 
calves.

Among the accusations Friedlander said the OIG's office is investigating 
is an incident in 1991 in which he said Pat McCaskey, a USDA pathologist 
branch chief, told him not to say anything if he ever found a mad cow 
case.

Friedlander said the discussion with McCaskey followed a meeting at the 
department's headquarters in Washington about economic consequences if 
the disease was discovered in a U.S. cow.

A recent study conducted by Kansas State University researchers 
calculated the U.S. beef industry already has lost billions of dollars in 
exports due to foreign nations closing their borders in response to the 
mad cow case detected in Washington state in 2003 -- the first and only 
confirmed case in the United States.

"The next day he (McCaskey) called me up at my USDA office and said, 'If 
you ever find it, don't tell anybody,'" Friedlander said.

Friedlander also told the inspectors about two cows in 1997 that other 
USDA employees initially said looked positive for mad cow disease. He 
said the agents told him they were going to interview Masuo Doi and Karl 
Langheinrich, the USDA employees involved in those cases.

A two-year UPI investigation found the two cows were extensively tested 
by the USDA and the National Institutes of Health and neither agency ever 
detected a trace of mad cow. 

Friedlander said he began collecting brains from cows with symptoms that 
could indicate mad cow disease on his own in 1989, although the official 
USDA surveillance program did not start until 1990. He said he told 
inspectors it was "highly suspicious when they had an official program to 
take brains, they never asked me for one cow brain and they knew I was 
taking brains on my own to test for mad cow disease." 

At the time, Friedlander worked in a Pennsylvania plant that he said 
would have been a good place for mad cow surveillance. The plant received 
the most downer cows in the country -- 25 to 30 per day -- and included 
cows coming from multiple states ranging as far west as Texas, as far 
North as Maine and as far south as Florida, he said. 

Friedlander said he sent the brains he collected to the USDA's laboratory 
in Athens, Ga., but none came back positive for mad cow. He said he was 
transferred from the Pennsylvania plant because he had "the highest" rate 
of condemning animals he deemed unsuitable for human consumption. The 
plant owner told the USDA he was losing $10,000 to $15,000 per day due to 
the condemnations, Friedlander said.

In another incident, Friedlander said Joe Oziano, a veterinarian from 
Veterinary Services in Michigan, informed him in 1995 that a cow brain he 
sent to be tested for mad cow disease at the USDA's lab in Ames, Iowa, 
was thrown away by lab personnel. 

Oziano had taken the brain from an old bull during the summer and sent it 
for testing on a Friday, Friedlander said. Because it arrived after hours 
and nobody was working during the weekend, the unrefrigerated sample 
remained on the loading dock in the hot sun all weekend. By the time a 
lab employee opened the sample on Monday, he said, it stunk so badly the 
employee just threw it away. When Oziano objected, arguing that although 
the brain tissue was badly deteriorated, it still should have been tested 
for mad cow, the lab technician responded, "Do you think anybody really 
cares?" Friedlander said.

The USDA ramped up its BSE surveillance to more than 300,000 animals in 
the wake of the 2003 case and has not detected any more infected animals, 
but this strategy also has generated controversy. 

In November 2004, a cow tested positive on two initial rapid tests, but 
it subsequently was ruled negative by the USDA on a different test. BSE-
testing experts and consumer groups have questioned the agency's 
rationale for not using a third type of test -- called a Western blot -- 
on the cow that may have helped clear up any confusion about whether the 
animal was infected.

The USDA plans to scale back its BSE testing program in 2006. Its 
proposed mad cow testing budget for fiscal year 2006 would fund testing 
of only 40,000 animals.



---------------------------------------------
This message was sent by First Step Internet.
           http://www.fsr.com/