Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy
Senate Agriculture Committee Hearing
On Mad Cow Disease
January 27, 2004
I would like to
thank Secretary Veneman and Deputy Commissioner Crawford for coming
to the Committee today for this very important hearing on the
Department’s response to the finding of a BSE positive cow in
Washington State one month ago. At the outset I would like to
recognize the Department of Agriculture’s actions in responding to
what has been a difficult time for American agriculture and American
consumers.
On December 25,
2003, a case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), more
commonly known as AMad
Cow Disease,@
was diagnosed in a single nonambulatory dairy cow that had been
slaughtered in Washington State. This cow belonged to a herd of 81
dairy cows that was imported from Alberta, Canada. Thankfully,
there is no evidence that public health has been affected. However,
U.S. cattle producers immediately faced a significant drop in market
prices across the country, and a tremendous loss in the export
market (hundreds of millions of dollars have already been lost from
this approximately $3 billion per year market). The potential for a
much greater loss still looms – it has been estimated that the May,
2003, BSE outbreak in Alberta cost Canada's beef exporters more than
$1.9 billion. .
For more than a
decade, the United States has had in place a surveillance program
for BSE. However, it is now clear that we must move beyond
surveillance and toward prevention in order to protect not only the
public health, but the financial health of our domestic industry.
Early this year USDA appropriately instituted several well reasoned
first steps that begin to institute a system to prevent BSE in our
country. In particular I applaud the Department’s decision to ban
nonambulatory animals, or downers from the human food supply. Both
the infected Holstein in Washington State and the Canadian BSE
discovery earlier this year were downers. For years I have joined
with Senator Akaka in attempting to restrict downers from the human
food supply, thus I am pleased the Department reversed course and
will now implement the Downed Animal Protection Act that was
contained in the 2002 Farm Bill for cattle.
It is clear to me that the Department, in
conjunction with the Food and Drug Administration, must now take
additional steps to protect American animal agriculture, food
safety, public health, and economic health. I applaud the Food and
Drug Administration’s announcement yesterday to implement stricter
regulations on the feed we give our cows. I believe both
Departments must now solidify their regulatory actions. Some have
already begun to attack the interim final rules, but it is critical
that we protect public health by permanently banning downers from
the food supply.
In addition, the
BSE discovery has demonstrated the need for a national individual
animal identification system in this country. While the positive
cow in Washington State had an old-fashioned ear tag which helped to
determine the animal’s origin, at present there is no mandated
national system of tracking animal movements. Unfortunately, over
one month after the discovery of BSE only 27 of the 81 cattle that
came from Canada have been located.
Since 1998 I have been proud to work with
the Department and the Holstein Association in Brattleboro, Vermont
in creating a candidate national animal identification program. The
Holstein Association’s pilot program, partially funded with
assistance from USDA, is a precursor to a national animal
identification program that will electronically identify individual
animals and track their movements from birth to slaughter within 48
hours. To date Holstein’s pilot program has proven its electronic
animal tracking capabilities with close to a million bovines
enrolled from over 7000 farms in 42 states.
The Department has
laid the groundwork of a national system with the work of the
National Institute for Animal Agriculture and through their work
with the Holstein Association. However I am concerned about the
timeline for action. The Department’s only public plan to begin a
national animal identification system states that it will not be off
the ground until mid 2006, a timeframe that I believe must be
expedited. That is why I, along with Senator Specter, introduced S.
2008, the National Farm Animal Identification and Records Act which
is based on the Holstein Associations pilot project. This
legislation would establish a uniform
national electronic animal identification program to trace animals
from birth to slaughter, within 48 hours, in order to combat animal
disease outbreaks.
Additionally USDA’s
BSE testing program must be examined. The Department’s announcement
to approximately double the number of animals tested is welcome. I
believe the Department must also examine their existing authority to
begin testing animals on the farm (as recommended in the Harvard
Center for Risk Analysis 2001 study), especially since approximately
1 million bovine die on farms and therefore never present as
downers. Many have called for 100% testing, or at least for a
substantial increase to ensure a higher statistical confidence level
than the Department’s current targeted surveillance program. I look
forward to hearing more form the Secretary on this issue and hope in
the future the Committee will seek outside testimony from experts in
the testing field.
Madam Secretary I
thank you for joining us today and again I would like to commend you
and your Department for the leadership on this issue. While we may
not agree on
every point, I look forward to working with you to ensure the United
States continues to develop a BSE protection program to ensure to
protect American producers, food safety, and public health.
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