This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT.
Last week, American Secretary of Agriculture Ann Venemanannounced new rules to protect the nation’s food supply from Mad CowDisease. The rules represent the government’s reaction to the firstAmerican case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or B-S-E. A formof B-S-E, Cruetzfeldt-Jakob Disease, can infect people. An estimatedone-hundred-fifty people worldwide died from the disease sincenineteen-eighty-six.
The first and most important new rule bans the use of what thecattle industry calls downer cattle. Such animals are too sickly orinjured to walk. In the past, over one-hundred-fifty-thousand downercattle were killed for food each year. About five percent of themwere tested for disease. Now, meat from downer cattle will not bepermitted in human food.
In addition, the Department ofAgriculture will not mark meat as inspected and passed until testsshow that it is without disease. In the past, meat was prepared formarket before testing had been completed. This is how meat for thefirst American case of Mad Cow Disease entered the food supply.
On December ninth, a downer cow was identified in WashingtonState. Part of the cow’s nervous system was tested. The rest of thenervous system was taken for use as something other than human food.The meat was sent to several states and the island of Guam.America’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories confirmed thecase thirteen days later. The new rules require companies to holdthe meat from suspect cattle until tests show that they are withoutdisease.
The Agriculture Department also will ban some parts of cattlefrom the human food supply. The parts include the eyes, brain, andnervous system material from the back and bottom of the head. Thiswill be required for cattle older than thirty months of age. Thesmall intestine of all cattle will be banned from human food.
Two other measures will be put in place. A system used to killcattle called air-injection stunning will be banned. The method isbelieved to spread brain tissue throughout the body of the animal.And, meat that is mechanically removed from bones will no longer beused for human food.
The rules are meant to ease fears of Americans and of beefimporters. Currently, more than thirty countries have bannedAmerican beef.
This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by MarioRitter.