TEXAS COW STAGGERS

Sends USDA Testing Program Reeling

A single cow at a San Angelo, TX, slaughter plant showing signs of what may or may not have been central nervous system disease (CNS), didn't make it to BSE testing last week, and while the animal was condemned and kept out of the human food chain, the lapse in USDA's hold-and-test program renewed criticism by that USDA's BSE surveillance system is off the track.

Rumors circulated throughout the first part of last week that a BSE cow had been found in Texas, sending markets downward, and eliciting a clarification from the Texas Animal Health Commission, that the cow was not a BSE suspect.

USDA acknowledged this week the animal should have been tested, and pledged a full investigation of the incident, adding that disciplinary action would be taken if mistakes were made in surveillance and testing procedures.

The renderer who received the condemned carcass is now faced with disposing of nearly 200,000 pounds of material which FDA says can only be sold for swine feed, even though current regulations say such material should also be legal for use in poultry feed. A Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) official said the restriction was placed on use of the material which included the brain and spinal cord of the suspect animal -- to ensure no meat and bone meal from the animal was fed to poultry so as to prevent refeeding of the ruminant material through poultry litter feeding. He said the one-time action in no way signaled an agency move to ban meat and bone meal in poultry feeds.

The renderer was also told to flush the processing system with the same amount of material, rendering nearly 400,000 pounds of material unusable except as swine feed. There is no significant swine industry near the San Angelo plant in west Texas.