-Caveat Lector- Health regulators investigating cattle quarantined in Texas By PHILIP BRASHER, Associated Press WASHINGTON (January 26, 2001 7:23 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Federal health regulators are investigating 1,000 cattle that were quarantined in Texas after a feed mill disclosed it may have violated rules designed to prevent mad-cow disease. Mad-cow disease - or bovine spongiform encephalopathy - has never been found in any U.S. cattle. However, as a precautionary measure, the government has banned cows and sheep from being given feed made from animal parts. The feed maker notified the Food and Drug Administration that it may have mixed up ingredients, letting some cattle eat bone meal made from other U.S. cattle, FDA spokesman Lawrence Bachorik said Thursday. "No cattle that might have received the feed will enter the food chain unless FDA decides there is no problem," he said. A feed lot has quarantined the cattle while FDA investigators determine if any did eat banned feed, Bachorik said. While he wouldn't identify the feed maker, he stressed any risk is theoretical because U.S. cattle haven't been found carrying BSE. Mad-cow disease has so far been confined to Europe. The feed ban is designed to keep mad cow from spreading through animal feed if the disease does get into the United States. A recent FDA report found that hundreds of feed makers were violating labeling requirements and other rules associated with the ban. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association has organized a private meeting Monday involving representatives of the industry and officials from the FDA and the Agriculture Department to press for better compliance. "We decided that, given the situation in Europe, that we wanted to bring all the key players together to achieve 100 percent compliance with the FDA feed prohibitions," Gary Weber, who oversees regulatory issues for the rancher's group, said Thursday. The disease first appeared in 1984 in a cow in Britain thought to have eaten feed that included offal from sheep that harbored scrapie, a similar illness. The FDA has warned U.S. feed makers that continued violations will prompt seizures of feed, company closures, even prosecution. Some companies have received warning letters, and some feed has been recalled, the agency said. "We're prepared to go to the meeting and let them know we are doing or are willing to do our part to ensure that we don't get BSE into this country," said Tom Cook, president of the National Renderers Association, which represents plants that process animal parts for feed and other products. "We want the FDA to enforce the feed ban and take what resources it needs to make sure it is enforced." Americans are aware of the problem in Europe, but so far they are not overly worried, according to a recent ABC-Washington Post poll. One in five of those surveyed said they were very concerned about the problem, and fewer than half said they were at least somewhat concerned. The U.S. livestock industry in 1996 voluntarily banned sheep and certain other animal parts from U.S. feed, in which they were included as a protein supplement. The following year, FDA formally banned any proteins from cows, sheep, goats, deer or elk - animals that get similar brain-wasting diseases - from feed for cows, sheep or goats. Poultry or pigs can still eat those proteins because they cannot contract the disease, but feed must be labeled "do not feed to cows or other ruminants" and companies must have systems to prevent accidentally mixing up the feeds. ANOMALOUS IMAGES AND UFO FILES http://www.anomalous-images.com <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
