USDA Misleading American Public about Beef Safety by Michael Greger, M.D.

Published on December 24, 2003
by short3

12/24/03 USDA Misleading American Public about Beef Safety
by Michael Greger, M.D.

It is not surprising that the U.S. has mad cow disease given our
flaunting of World Health Organization recommendations.[1] What is
surprising, however, is that we actually found a case given the
inadequacy of our surveillance program, a level of testing that Nobel
laureate Stanley Prusiner, probably the world's leading expert on
these diseases, calls simply "appalling."[2] Europe and Japan follow
World Health Organization guidelines[3] and test every downer cow for
mad cow disease[4]; the U.S. has tested less than 2% of downers over
the last decade.[5] Most of the U.S. downer cows, too sick or injured
to even walk, end up on our dinner plates.[6]

In Canada, authorities were able to reassure the public that at least
the downer cow they discovered infected with BSE--Bovine Spongiform
Encephalopathy, or mad cow disease--was excluded from the human food
chain and only rendered into animal feed.[7] U.S. officials don't
seem to be able to offer the same reassurance, as the mad cow we
discovered may very well have been ground into hamburger.[8] How
then, can the USDA and the beef industry insist that the American
beef supply is still safe? They argue that the infectious prions that
cause the disease are only found in the brain and nervous tissue, not
the muscles, not the meat.

For example, on NBC's Today, USDA Secretary Veneman insisted "the
fact of the matter is that all scientific evidence would show, based
upon what we know about this disease, that muscle cuts -- that is,
the meat of the animal itself -- should not cause any risk to human
health. "[9] The National Cattlemen's Beef Association echoed
"Consumers should continue to eat beef with confidence. All
scientific studies show that the BSE infectious agent has never been
found in beef muscle meat or milk and U.S. beef remains safe to eat.
"[10] This can be viewed as misleading and irresponsible on two
counts.

First, American do eat bovine central nervous system tissue. The
United States General Accounting Office (GAO) is the investigative
watchdog arm of Congress. In 2002, the GAO released their report on
the weaknesses present in the U.S. defense against mad cow disease.
Quoting from that congressional report, "In terms of the public
health risk, consumers do not always know when foods and other
products they use may contain central nervous system tissue... Many
edible products, such as beef stock, beef extract, and beef
flavoring, are frequently made by boiling the skeletal remains
(including the vertebral column) of the carcass..."[12] According to
the consumer advocacy organization Center for Science in the Public
Interest, spinal cord contamination may also be found in U.S. hot
dogs, hamburgers, pizza toppings, and taco fillings.[13] In fact, a
2002 USDA survey showed that approximately 35 percent of high risk
meat products tested positive for central nervous system tissues.[14]

The GAO report continues: "In light of the experiences in Japan and
other countries that were thought to be BSE free, we believe that it
would be prudent for USDA to consider taking some action to inform
consumers when products may contain central nervous system or other
tissue that could pose a risk if taken from a BSE-infected animal.
This effort would allow American consumers to make more informed
choices about the products they consume."[15] The USDA, however, did
not follow those recommendations, deciding such foods need not be
labeled.[16]

Even if Americans just stick to steak, they may not be shielded from
risk. The "T" in a T-bone steak is a vertebra from the animal's
spinal column, and as such may contain a section of the actual spinal
cord. Other potentially contaminated cuts include porterhouse,
standing rib roast, prime rib with bone, bone-in rib steak, and (if
they contain bone) chuck blade roast and loin. These cuts may include
spinal cord tissue and/or so-called dorsal root ganglia, swellings of
nerve roots coming into the meat from the spinal cord which have been
proven to be infectious as well.[17] This concern has led the FDA to
consider banning the incorporation of "plate waste" from restaurants
into cattle feed.[18] The American Feed Industry Association defends
the current exemption of plate scrapings from the 1997 feed
regulations: "How can you tell the consumer 'Hey, you've just eaten a
T-bone steak and it's fine for you, but you can't feed it to
animals'? "[19]

Even boneless cuts may not be risk-free, though. In the
slaughterhouse, the bovine carcass is typically split in half down
the middle with a band saw, sawing right through the spinal column.
This has been shown to aerosolize the spinal cord and contaminate the
surrounding meat.[20] A study in Europe found contamination with
spinal cord material on 100% of the split carcasses examined.[21]
Similar contamination of meat derived from cattle cheeks can occur
from brain tissue, if the cheek meat is not removed before the skull
is fragmented or split.[22] The World Health Organization has pointed
out that American beef can be contaminated with brain and spinal cord
tissue in another way as well.[23]

Except for Islamic halal and Jewish kosher slaughter (which involve
slitting the cow's throat while the animal is still conscious),
cattle slaughtered in the United States are first stunned unconscious
with an impact to the head before being bled to death. Medical
science has known for over 60 years that people suffering head trauma
can end up with bits of brain embolized into their bloodstream; so
Texas A&M researchers wondered if fragments of brain could be found
within the bodies of cattle stunned for slaughter. They checked and
reportedly exclaimed, "Oh, boy did we find it."[24] They even found a
14 cm piece of brain in one cow's lung. They concluded, "It is likely
that prion proteins are found throughout the bodies of animals
stunned for slaughter."[25]

There are different types of stunning devices, however, which likely
have different levels of risk associated with them. The Texas A&M
study was published in 1996 using the prevailing method at the time,
pneumatic-powered air injection stunning.[26] The device is placed in
the middle of the animal's forehead and fired, shooting a 4 inch bolt
through the skull and injecting compressed air into the cranial vault
which scrambles the brain tissue. The high pressure air not only
"produces a smearing of the head of the animal with liquefied
brain,"[27] but has been shown over and over to blow brain back into
the circulatory system, scattering whole plugs of brain into a number
of organs[28] and smaller brain bits likely into the muscle meat as
well.[29]

Although this method of stunning has been used in the United States
for over 20 years,[30] the meat industry, to their credit, has been
phasing out these particularly risky air injection-type stunners. The
Deputy Director of Public Citizen argues that this industry
initiative should be given the force of federal regulation and
banned,[31] as they have been throughout Europe.[32]

The stunning devices that remain in widespread use drive similar
bolts through the skull of the animal, but without air injection.[33]
Operators then may or may not pith the animals by sticking a rod into
the stun hole to further agitate the deeper brain structures to
reduce or eliminate reflex kicking during shackling of the hind
limbs.[34] Even without pithing, which has been shown to be risky,
these stunners currently in use in the U.S. today may still force
brain into the bloodstream of some of these animals.[35-38]

In one experiment, for example, researchers applied a marker onto the
stunner bolt. The marker was later detected within the muscle meat of
the stunned animal. They conclude: "This study demonstrates that
material present in... the CNS of cattle during commercial captive
bolt stunning may become widely dispersed across the many animate and
inanimate elements of the slaughter-dressing environment and within
derived carcasses including meat entering the human food chain."[39]
Even non-penetrative "mushroom-headed" stunners which just rely on
concussive force to the skull to render the animal unconscious may
not be risk free. People in automobile accidents with non-invasive
head trauma can still end up with brain embolization,[40] and these
bolts move at over 200 miles per hour.[41] The researchers at Texas
A&M conclude, "Reason dictates that any method of stunning to the
head will result in the likelihood of brain emboli in the lungs or,
indeed, other parts of the body."[42]

And, finally, even if consumers of American beef just stick to
boneless cuts from ritually slaughtered animals who just happen to
have had their spinal columns safely removed, the muscle meat itself
may be infected with prions. It is unconscionable that the USDA and
the beef industry continue to insist that the deadly prions aren't
found in muscle meat.[43] In 2002, Stanley Prusiner, the scientist
who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery of prions,
proved in mice, at least, that muscle cells themselves were capable
of forming prions.[44] He describes the levels of prions in muscle as
"quite high," and describes the studies relied upon by the
Cattlemen's Association as "extraordinarily inadequate."[45]
Follow-up studies in Germany published May, 2003 confirm Prusiner's
findings, showing that an animal who are orally infected may indeed
end up with prions contaminating muscles throughout their body.[46]

The discovery of a case of mad cow disease in the U.S. highlights how
ineffective current safeguards are in North America. The explosive
spread of mad cow disease in Europe has been blamed on the
cannibalistic practice of feeding slaughterhouse waste to
livestock.[47] Both Canada[48] and the United States[49] banned the
feeding of the muscles and bones of most animals to cows and sheep
back in 1997, but unlike Europe left gaping loopholes in the law. For
example, blood is currently exempted from the Canadian[50] and the
U.S.[51] feed bans. You can still feed calves cow's blood collected
at the slaughterhouse. In modern factory farming practice calves may
be removed from their mothers immediately after birth, so the calves
are fed milk replacer, which is often supplemented with protein rich
cow serum. Weaned calves and young pigs also may have cattle blood
sprayed directly on their feed to save money on feed costs.[52] For
more information on this and other risky agriculture practices please
see http://organicconsumers.org/madcow/GregerBSE.cfm

And the Canadian[53] and U.S. feed bans[54] also allows the feeding
of pigs and horses to cows. Cattle remains can be rendered down and
fed to pigs, for example, and then the pig remains can be fed back to
cattle.[55] Or rendered cattle remains can be fed to chickens and
then the chicken litter, or manure, can be legally fed back to the
cows.[56] So the fact that according to the USDA the most infectious
tissues of the U.S. mad cow case, the brain spinal cord and
intestines, "were removed from this animal and sent to rendering" is
not necessarily reassuring.[57]

D. Carleton Gajdusek was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for
his work on mad cow-like diseases.[58] He was quoted on Dateline NBC
as saying, "it's got to be in the pigs as well as the cattle. It's
got to be passing through the chickens."[59] Dr. Paul Brown, medical
director for the US Public Health Service, believes that pigs and
poultry could indeed be harboring mad cow disease and passing it on
to humans, adding that pigs are especially sensitive to the disease.
"It's speculation," he says, "but I am perfectly serious."[60]

The 2002 General Accounting Office report concluded: "BSE may be
silently incubating somewhere in the United States. If that is the
case, then FDA 's failure to enforce the feed ban may already have
placed U.S. herds and, in turn, the human food supply at risk. FDA
has no clear enforcement strategy for dealing with firms that do not
obey the feed ban... Moreover, FDA has been using inaccurate,
incomplete, and unreliable data to track and oversee feed ban
compliance."[61] The report can be downloaded at
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02183.pdf

Despite these shortcomings, Secretary Veneman and Washington's
governor both assured the public that they were still having beef for
Christmas, reminiscent of the 1990 fiasco in which the British
agriculture minister appeared on TV urging his 4-year-old daughter to
eat a hamburger.[62] Four years later, young people in Britain were
dying from an invariably fatal neurogenerative disease called variant
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease--the human equivalent of mad cow
disease--which they contracted through the consumption of infected
beef.[63]

[1] http://organicconsumers.org/madcow/GregerBSE.cfm
[2] Mad Cow Disease in Canada. May 23, 2003 9:00am KQED Forum hosted
by Angie Coiro.
esultCount=10&type=radio>.
[3] World Health Organization Consultation on Public Health Issues
Related to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy and the Emergence of a
New Variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. MMWR 45(14);295-6, 303. 12
April 1996.
[4] Mad Cow Disease in Canada. May 23, 2003 9:00am KQED Forum hosted
by Angie Coiro.
esultCount=10&type=radio>.
[5] Even assuming 195,000 downers a year and that every single of the
tests in the surveillance program's history was performed on downer
cattle, (48,000 in 13 years)/(195,000 x 13 years) is less than 2%.
[6] A Review of USDA Slaughterhouse Records for Downed Animals (U.S.
District 65 from January, 1999 to June, 2001) Farm Sanctuary, October
2001. http://www.nodowners.org/downedanimals.pdf
[7] "Critics say U.S. needs to do more to protect against mad cow."
The Journal News (New York) 29 May 2003.
[8] "Mad Cow Meat May Have Been Eaten, Official Says." Reuters.
December 23, 2003.
[9] "First US Case Of Mad Cow Disease Found In WA." The Bulletin's
Frontrunner. December 24, 2003.
[10] National Cattlemen's Beef Association Statement. December 23, 2003.
[11]
[12] United States General Accounting Office. GAO Report to
Congressional Requesters. January 2002 MAD COW DISEASE: Improvements
in the Animal Feed Ban and Other Regulatory Areas Would Strengthen
U.S. Prevention Efforts. GAO-02-183.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02183.pdf
[13] "Health and Consumer Groups Urge USDA to Keep Cattle Spinal Cord
Tissue Out of Processed Meat" Center for Science in the Public
Interest News Release. 10 August 2001.
[14] USDA, Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA Begins Sampling
Program for Advanced Meat Recovery Systems, News Release.3 March 2002.
[15] United States General Accounting Office. GAO Report to
Congressional Requesters. January 2002 MAD COW DISEASE: Improvements
in the Animal Feed Ban and Other Regulatory Areas Would Strengthen
U.S. Prevention Efforts. GAO-02-183.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02183.pdf
[16] USDA Response To GAO Recommendations on BSE Prevention. Release
No. F.S. 0071.02.
[17] Center for Science in the Public Interest. Nutrition Health
Letter. June, 2001.
[18] FDA Veterinarian Newsletter. Volume XVII, No. VI. November/December
2002.
[19] USA Today, June 10, 2003.
[20] Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. Risk Analysis of Transmissible
Spongiform Encephalopathies in Cattle and the Potential for Entry of
the Etiologic Agent(s) Into the U.S. Food Supply . 2001.
/madcow_report.pdf>.
[21] Joint WHO/FAO/OIE Technical Consultation on BSE. OIE
Headquarters, Paris, 11-14 June 2001.
[22] USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service. Current Thinking on
Measures that Could be Implemented to Minimize Human Exposure to
Materials that Could Potentially Contain the Bovine Spongiform
Encephalopathy Agent. 15 January 2002.
[23] Joint WHO/FAO/OIE Technical Consultation on BSE. OIE
Headquarters, Paris, 11-14 June 2001.
[24] Reuters 29 August 1996.
[25] Lancet Vol 348 August 31, 1996.
[26] Lancet Vol 348 August 31, 1996.
[27] European Commission Health & Consumer Protection
Directorate-General Scientific Opinion on Stunning Methods and BSE
Risks. January 2002.
[28] Transfusion, Vol. 41, No. 11, 1325, November 2001.
[29] European Commission Health & Consumer Protection
Directorate-General Scientific Opinion on Stunning Methods and BSE
Risks. January 2002.
[30] Transfusion, Vol. 41, No. 11, 1325, November 2001.
[31] Testimony of Peter Lurie, MD, MPH Deputy Director Public
Citizen's Health Research Group Before the Consumer Affairs, Foreign
Commerce and Tourism Subcommittee Senate Commerce, Science and
Transportation Committee. 4 April 2001.
[32] Regulation (EC)No 999/2001 of the European Parliament and of the
Council. Laying down rules for the prevention, control and
eradication of certain transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. 22
May 2001.
[33] European Commission Health & Consumer Protection
Directorate-General Scientific Opinion on Stunning Methods and BSE
Risks. January 2002.
[34] European Commission Scientific Report on Stunning Methods And
BSE Risks (The Risk of Dissemination of Brain Particles Into the
Blood And Carcass When Applying Certain Stunning Methods. December
2001).
[35] Berliner und Münchener Tierärztliche Wochenschrift 2002 Jan-Feb;
115(1-2): 1-5.
[36] Joint WHO/FAO/OIE Technical Consultation on BSE. OIE
Headquarters, Paris, 11-14 June 2001.
[37] European Commission Health & Consumer Protection
Directorate-General. Scientific Steering Committee Opinion on the
Safety of Ruminant Blood with Respect to Risks. 14 April 2000.
[38] European Commission Scientific Report On Stunning Methods and
BSE Risks (The Risk of Dissemination of Brain Particles into the
Blood and Carcass when Applying Certain Stunning Methods. December
2001).
[39] Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 2002 Feb; 68(2): 791-8.
[40] Letters to the Editor. The Lancet Vol 348 September 14, 1996.
[41] European Commission Health & Consumer Protection
Directorate-General. Scientific Steering Committee Opinion on the
Safety of Ruminant Blood with Respect to Risks. 14 April 2000.
[42] Letters to the Editor. The Lancet Vol 348 September 14, 1996.
[43] National Cattlemen's Beef Association news release. 21 May 2003.
ntId=2098>.
[44] Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2002 Mar
19;99(6):3812-7.
[45] Mad Cow Disease in Canada. May 23, 2003 9:00am KQED Forum hosted
by Angie Coiro.
esultCount=10&type=radio>.
[46] European Molecular Biology Organization Reports 4, 5 (2003), 530.
[47] Kimberlin, R. H. "Human Spongiform Encephalopathies and BSE."
Medical Laboratory Sciences 49 (1992): 216-217.
[48] Canadian Food Inspection Agency BSE Fact Sheet. May 2003
P0091E-00.
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/anima/heasan/disemala/bseesb/bseesbe.shtml
[49] Food and Drug Administration 2000 CFR Title 21, Volume 6,
Chapter 1, Part 589.
http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_00/21cfr589_00.html
[50] Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Regulations: Food for
Ruminants, Livestock and Poultry (Part XIV), "Prohibited Materials"
[51] Food and Drug Administration 2000 CFR Title 21, Volume 6,
Chapter 1, Part 589.
http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_00/21cfr589_00.html
[52] International Center for Technology Assessment. Citizen Petition
Before The United States
Food And Drug Administration. 1/9/03. http://www.icta.org/legal/madcow1.htm
[53] Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Regulations: Food for
Ruminants, Livestock and Poultry (Part XIV), "Prohibited Materials"
[54] Food and Drug Administration 2000 CFR Title 21, Volume 6,
Chapter 1, Part 589.
http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_00/21cfr589_00.html
[55] Public Citizen. Letter to the FDA and USDA RE: BSE. 21 April
2001. http://www.citizen.org/cmep/foodsafety/gsfc/articles.cfm?ID=1562
[56] Food and Drug Administration Sec. 685.100 Recycled Animal Waste
(CPG 7126.34)
[57] FDCH Political Transcripts December 23, 2003
[58] Unconventional viruses and the origin and disappearance of kuru.
13 December 1976.
http://www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1976/gajdusek-lecture.html
[59] NBC Dateline 14 March 1997.
[60] Pearce, Fred. "BSE May Lurk in Pigs and Chickens." New Scientist
6 April 1996: 5.
[61] United States General Accounting Office. GAO Report to
Congressional Requesters. January 2002 MAD COW DISEASE: Improvements
in the Animal Feed Ban and Other Regulatory Areas Would Strengthen
U.S. Prevention Efforts. GAO-02-183.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02183.pdf
[62] Chicago Tribune 21 May 21 2003.
[63] "Ministers Hostile to Advice on BSE." New Scientist 30 March 1996: 4.

Michael Greger, MD, is a graduate of the Cornell University School of
Agriculture and the Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Greger
has been speaking publicly about mad cow disease since 1993. He
debated National Cattlemen's Beef Association Director Gary Weber
before the FDA and was invited as an expert witness at the Oprah
Winfrey infamous "meat defamation" trial. He has contributed to many
books and articles on the subject, continues to lecture extensively
and currently coordinates the mad cow disease website for the Organic
Consumers Association. Dr. Greger can be reached for media inquiries
at (617) 524-8064 or mhg1@cornell.edu.

--
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mhg1@cornell.edu
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