Cattle that act normally on the farm or ranch may go "bonkers" during transit or in the packing plant due to a genetic predisposition that prompts them to "take flight" during stressful situations. For some of these critters, it doesn't take much to "light their fire, "according to Temple Grandin, a livestock-handling consultant of Ft. Collins, Colo.
European-U.S. crossbred animals are more likely to express the "crazy cattle" syndrome, and heifers tend to be worse than steers. Grandin often refers to these malcontents as "heifers from hell." She told a group of midwestern cattlemen recently, "I have seen cattle so wild they will panic like horses. They will beat their brains out, tear their hooves off in a gate and cause chaos during unloading or in pre-slaughter facilities."
The problem of flighty market cattle has accelerated in the past two years. The bottom line? These animals tend to produce dark-cutting meat. That's bad for packers and beef merchandisers. In addition to genetics and poor handling techniques, implants can exacerbate the problem, one that costs the top packers millions of dollars per year. "Docking producers is the only way to stop the problem," she concluded.
Downer beef cows are another problem. Grandin reported that 1% of beef cows are downers. In fact, 50% of all downer cows now are beef, not dairy, as has been the case traditionally. "Most cow killers will not touch a downer," she commented.
BRITISH BEEFEATERS ARE BACKING OFF THEIR STEAK AND KIDNEY PIES.
NOW AMERICANS SHOULD THINK TWICE BEFORE THROWING BURGERS ON THE GRILL.
British officials finally realized they could no longer ignore the opinions of leading scientists and the increasing number of cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), an affliction similar to BSE, which humans may contract if they eat cattle with mad cow disease. British doctors diagnosed 55 new cases of CJD in 1994 - 13 more than the year before and double the rate of a decade ago.
BSE and CJD are hideous diseases. They eat away the nervous system, destroying the brain, essentially turning it into a sponge. Victims suffer dementia, confusion, loss of speech, sight and hearing, convulsions, coma and death. Spongiform encephalopathies are always fatal and there is no treatment.
British beefeaters who have not yet lost their minds are backing off their steak and kidney pies in droves. McDonald's chains in Britain have announced they will not sell hamburgers until a non-British source of beef can be found. More than 2,000 schools have removed beef from their menus. France and Belgium have suspended the importation of British beef and Germany is pushing for a Europe-wide ban. A panicked Britain is even considering killing its entire national herd - more than 11 million cattle - and starting over from scratch.
Trouble is, much of this damage control may be too late. CJD has an incubation period of 10 to 40 years. Many falling victim to the disease today may have contracted it a decade ago when the BSE epidemic began.
Americans, too, should think twice before throwing burgers on the grill. Why? Because BSE may already be here, even though the U.S. has not imported beef or cattle from the British since 1989.
In 1985, 7,000 minks in Stetsonville, Wis., died of transmissible mink encephalopathy after being fed a consistent diet of so-called ``downer'' cows - cattle who collapse on the arduous journey from feedlot to slaughterhouse. Scientists believe that some downer cows suffer from mad cow disease. It's hard to tell, because it can take up to eight years from the time of infection for symptoms to show - and most U.S. cattle are dead before their fifth birthdays.These animals are never tested for BSE. They are ground up and fed to somebody - humans, dogs, cats, minks and other cattle.
Since the BSE outbreak in England was traced to protein supplements that included scrapie-infected sheep - scrapie is the sheep version of mad cow disease - Britain has banned the use of ruminant parts in animal feed. No such ban is in effect here. Cows and sheep are still being fed to cows. BSE could be a sleeping dinosaur.
Physicians and scientists already know that some Americans with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease were incorrectly diagnosed with Alzheimer's, a disease with similar symptoms. Did the CJD originate in the cattle served up for supper?
It is grossly unnatural to feed other animals to cattle, who are natural vegetarians. But the demands made upon cows by today's ``factory'' farms aren't natural either. Animals crammed into warehouses and feedlots must be shipped off to slaughter quickly, before the hellish conditions kill them. Consequently they are forced to grow ever bigger, ever faster, through the use of growth hormones, antibiotics and high-protein feeds. As Rutgers University biology professor Dr. David Ehrenfeld recently wrote: ``Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease . . . has not been listed as a side effect of factory farming. . . . Maybe it should be.''
A. It's true. Experts are quick to point out, however, that there have been no cases of mad cow disease in this country, so the practice of feeding cows to cows is safe. Others disagree, saying the practice is unsound. Mad cow disease is believed to have originated in sheep, which it afflicts in a form known as scrapie. Britain banned animal protein from rendered sheep as an additive to cattle feed in 1989. The United States has forbidden beef imports from Britain since 1989.
Q. So, what's the beef? A. Simply stated, the beef is that on March 20, 1996, British scientists linked a deadly new form of brain disease in humans with mad cow disease. The disease agent is believed to be a prion protein - a lot harder to deal with than bacteria or virus. If the people got the disease from something they ate, and the cattle got the disease from something they ate, it would stand to reason that what cattle eat is a matter of some importance.
Q. A few weeks ago, WCCO-TV did a story on sick cows in Minnesota. They looked very much like the sick cows in Britain we've seen on TV. Is our government trying to hide something?
A. The sick Minnesota cows shown on television supposedly suffered from bovine viral diarrhea, a scourge unique to cattle and not transferable to other species, says Jackie Renner, spokeswoman for the Minnesota Agriculture Department. The outbreak of ``mad cow disease'' in the United Kingdom involves a disease called bovine spongiform encephalopathy, which may be linked to a brain disease in humans. The U.S. government, which banned meat imports from the United Kingdom in 1989, is not trying to hide something, but it is trying to keep mad cow disease from reaching our shores.
Marsh said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should ban animal protein from cows and sheep from being put into feed that's then fed to cows. Meat and bone meal from other species, perhaps pigs, should be used for the protein supplement in cattle feed, he said.
Dairy animals are at more risk of getting mad cow disease because they live longer, Marsh said. It takes the disease five to six years to incubate, he said. The only way to diagnose the infection is to take out an animal's brain and examine it, he said. ``We should look for it in our oldest animals that have been fed animal protein for the longest time,'' Marsh said.
Jan. 1 surveys indicated there were 3.8 million cattle in Wisconsin, including 1.47 million milk cows, said Laura Mason, a dairy statistician for the Wisconsin Agricultural Statistics Service within USDA in Madison. Throughout the United States, there were 103.8 million cattle, including 9.41 million milk cows, she said.
The Washington, D.C.,-based International Center for Technology Assessment said Wednesday that it had filed petitions with FDA and the U.S. Agriculture Department threatening legal action unless the agencies immediately banned the feeding of protein-derived animal feed supplements from rendered mammals, including cattle and sheep, back to cattle and other animals.
But Perry Clark, a professor of animal science at UW-River Falls, said such a ban was unnecessary and premature, given there was no evidence of any infected cattle in the United States. A ban would unnecessarily reduce the profitability of dairy farmers who use the feed supplement to get their cows to produce more milk, he said. ``If you want to live in a perfectly risk-free world you ban it. But that is not my idea,'' he said. ``I don't think (Marsh) speaks for the majority of animal scientists in the country.''
Clark estimated that no more than one-third of the dairy cows in Wisconsin are fed animal byproduct protein supplements, mainly the higher producing herds that generally tend to be the larger herds, he said. The protein supplements are labeled as meat and bone meal but the species used isn't identified, Clark said.The supplement is rarely used in beef cows, he said.
Dave Atwell, a dairy nutritionist for Cenex Land O'Lakes in St. Paul, Minn., an agricultural cooperative that sells feed and other goods to Upper Midwest farmers, said generally hogs and cattle are used to make byproduct protein supplements, which are sold by the ton to many farmers. ``I don't believe anybody in the feed industry is using rendered material from sheep,'' he said.
DALLAS - U.S. cattle raisers are hoping Britain's mad cow disease will lead European countries to relax restrictions on American beef imports, but they're also concerned the scare could send domestic consumers to the chicken counter.
Britain's $6 billion beef industry has been in crisis since Wednesday when the British government acknowledged that Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better known as BSE or mad cow disease, may be the most likely source of a similar brain disease in humans.
Thad Lively, director for analysis and evaluation for the Chicago-based U.S. Meat Export Federation, said Monday there is no danger to the U.S. beef supply because of stringent controls on domestic cattle and imports. He said American consumers should not be afraid.
``We want to highlight that we've never had a report of BSE in this country. We have controls in place,'' Lively said. Mad cow disease broke out in Britain's herds 10 years ago. In the past decade, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has examined more than 2,660 specimens from 43 states and detected no evidence of the disease.
The USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service said there has been no imported processed beef or cattle from the United Kingdom since 1989, and stringent restrictions have been in place for imports from other countries where the disease exists.
But the possibility of Americans turning away from beef could further hurt a cattle industry that has already watched wholesale beef prices drop 35 percent from a peak of $1.03 a pound in 1993 to 68 cents a pound at the end of 1995, according to the National Cattlemen's Association in Colorado.
The decline was caused by a glut of meat on the market. More ranchers are selling their cattle because an ongoing drought has raised the price of corn feed and, at the same time, the devaluation of the peso has prompted Mexican ranchers to sell off their herds. Now, U.S. cattle raisers will have to contend with the beef scare in Britain.
``Any time you have a question about the meat supply, be it pork, beef or chicken, it causes concern,'' said Murray Edwards of Abilene Cattle Feeders, one of the largest cattle feed lots in Texas. If U.S. consumers get scared, cattle prices could weaken even more, Edwards said.
Still some industry insiders hope to find good news in the bad reports. Although U.S. beef can't be exported to Britain or the European Union because of a ban on hormone additives, there is a possibility that there will be a second look at the restrictions.
``There's no reason that the hormone ban continues. If it was eliminated, we could ship beef there,'' said Gary Weber, a specialist in cattle health and beef safety with the National Cattleman's Association in Washington.
Still Lively, of the Meat Export Federation, remains nervous. ``In no way is this good news to anyone in the business,'' Lively said. ``It's asking a lot of consumers to say `British beef is bad, but American beef is OK.' ''
The price and supply of beef in Kentucky won't be affected -- at least in the short-term -- by the mad cow disease scare in Great Britain. That's largely because the European Community in 1989 banned U.S. beef imports containing growth hormones, said Lee Meyer, a livestock market specialist and agricultural economics professor at the University of Kentucky.
Several European countries have banned British beef recently because of the disease. That could have been an opportunity for two local beef producers to start an international market -- but they weren't interested. Kentucky Homegrown Beef L.L.C., based in Georgetown, and Laura's Lean Beef Co. in Lexington are part of a handful of beef producers nationwide that don't put growth hormones into their cattle.
That makes them exempt from the EC's ban and attractive to eager European beef distributors. Laura's owner Laura Freeman said she's received calls from European distributors interested in buying her beef. ''The domestic market has been so good for us that we really don't need it,'' said Freeman, whose company distributes beef nationwide.
Homegrown owner John Sharpe said his company, which is only about 8 years old, is too small for an international market. The situation in Europe could have an effect on all of Kentucky's 40,000 beef producers if the ban is lifted because of a beef shortage, Meyer said. Meyer said the ban also protects U.S. herds and consumers from the degenerative disease.
Only 499 British cattle were imported by the United States between 1981 and 1989, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Of those, 116 are alive and 34 are unaccounted for. The imported cattle are used for breeding stock only.
The British Ministry of Health reported March 20 that bovine spongiform encephalopathy could cause a fatal disease in humans called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which sparked a panic in Europe. No cases of the disease have been detected in the United States. Nonetheless, Meyer expects consumer fears of the disease locally and nationwide to become a long-term liability for U.S. beef producers.
Cobleskill, NY -- In the words of John Huntley, farmers such as John and Pat Adams are ``doing one for the flag.'' By giving up their two rare Scottish Highlander cows even though there is only a slim chance the cattle have mad cow disease, Huntley, the state's official veterinarian, said the couple may help save this country's beef industry from earning a tarnished reputation.
Huntley confirmed Tuesday that all three farmers in the state who own cattle of British origin have agreed to allow them to be destroyed, which will happen starting today. The state Department of Agriculture and Markets and the U.S. Department of Agriculture will compensate the farmers at a total cost of about $90,000.
There are more than 100 head of cattle in the nation targeted for destruction because of the mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, scare. The cattle are of 13 different breeds and are located in many states, but all are condemned because they were imported from Britain between 1983 and 1989.
While they were in Britain, the animals could have been fed sheep or cattle offal. Eating the offal of a diseased animal is the only confirmed way for the disease to be spread either to other animals or to humans. The other New York cattle, coincidentally of the same breed, are located in Stormville, near Poughkeepsie, and Holcomb, near Rochester. The state Agriculture Department is not releasing the names of the farmers who own them.
John and Pat Adams said they regard their two condemned cows as pets, not just investments. The couple has owned the cows for about three years and hoped to raise the rare breed of cattle. They recently acquired a bull for the purpose who is safe because he was not imported. John Adams points out that his cattle, who have been in this country since 1985, have not shown any signs of the disease, even though the disease only has a maximum incubation period of about 8 years.
But Huntley confirmed that the Adams' had little choice but to give up their cattle. ``We were encouraged to come up with the price,'' Pat Adams said. ``I think they would have taken them whether we negotiated a price or not.''
Britain's beef industry has suffered miserably since the disputed linkage between mad cow disease and a human brain disease was established recently, Huntley said. The United States, which has a much larger, multibillion dollar beef industry, cannot afford consumers to harbor discomfort, either stateside or in the huge export market.
Before the scare broke in Europe several weeks ago, the USDA was content to monitor and quarantine the cattle, Huntley said. But now that the world is banning British beef exports, the Agriculture Department is taking the surest precaution possible. Holly Cheever, a Guilderland veterinarian and animal rights activist, questioned why the quarantine could not continue, at least for the cattle kept as pets.
Even cattle kept for milk production or breeding are almost always sent to a slaughterhouse once they have passed their prime, she said. She acknowledged there is little point in opposing the more humane death the department has planned. But she questioned killing pets who might never be slaughtered for meat and therefore never endanger the food supply.
Bruce Krug, a farmer near Utica and state coordinator for the National Farmers Union, called Tuesday for further precautions against the potential spread of mad cow disease. He noted that feeding tallow to other cattle is common in the United States and he noted that there is evidence that cows can pass the disease to their calves in utero. Some British breeding stock, he said, may have been imported into the U.S. in embryonic form.
But Huntley said the U.S. does not have the same flawed rendering process for producing tallow that is fed to cattle. This country also does not have the occurrence of the sheep disease that translates into mad cow disease in cattle.
He added that there is only a little mention of in-utero transfer of the disease and that the research may be flawed because the calves and cows studied ate the same potentially tainted feed.