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Alisa Harrison (202) 720-4623
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ADMINISTRATION CONTINUES TO STRENGTHEN BSE PROTECTION SYSTEMS

Announces Status Report of Actions, Including Doubling of Testing for BSE in Cattle, Following the Harvard BSE Risk Assessment

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 2002—The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services today reported the status of action steps designed to further prevent bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in U.S. cattle, including doubling the number of BSE tests it will conduct this fiscal year compared to the previous year. The USDA, HHS, as well as other federal and state agencies, are working together to continue strengthening protection systems to prevent BSE from entering the country.

USDA and HHS are reporting the status of the action steps first outlined Nov. 30, 2001 following the release of the landmark risk analysis on BSE conducted by Harvard University. The report showed that the risk of BSE occurring in the United States is extremely low. The report showed that early protection systems put into place by the USDA and HHS have been largely responsible for keeping BSE out of the U.S. and would prevent it from spreading if it ever did enter the country.

Even so, USDA Secretary Ann M. Veneman and HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson last year outlined a series of actions to continue strengthening programs to reduce the risk even further.

"We will remain vigilant and are committed to taking the appropriate steps to keep BSE out of the United States," said Veneman. "In addition to being on track to double our testing this year, we are moving forward on a series of action items to strengthen our prevention programs."

HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson added, "We continue to take strong actions and keep our vigilance high to prevent this disease from entering this country. If we ever did face a situation, we want to ensure that strong systems are in place to prevent its potential spread to the animal or human food chain."

The three-year Harvard study is the most comprehensive study of BSE and its potential risk factors done in the United States. It is the second comprehensive independent analysis conducted in recent years examining prevention measures being taken in the U.S. related to BSE.

The series of recent actions by federal agencies include:

—As stated above, USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is on track to double testing for BSE in cattle this year. The target for FY 2002 is 12,500 compared to approximately 5,200 sampled in FY 2001. The increase includes testing deceased cattle from farms.

—The FY 2003 USDA budget includes record-level funding for pest and disease prevention and food safety programs, including $8 million for increased BSE surveillance and laboratory activities by APHIS, with $3 million going directly to the states to help collect an increased number of samples. An additional $2 million is requested for USDA's Agricultural Research Service to further study BSE.

—USDA is on track to increase the number of inspectors at ports of entry with its FY 2003 budget, proposing to bring staffing levels to more than 4000, up from 2500 personnel at the beginning of FY 2001.

—The Defense Appropriations Supplemental Act, approved by the President in January, provides $328 million for increased homeland security protections. These resources will strengthen the coordination and planning of federal programs by increasing overseas inspection capabilities, provide funding to integrate computer technologies among federal agencies, fund critical laboratory renovations to improve testing capabilities and invest in new detection systems, such as x-ray equipment, among other priorities.

—USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) published for comment a current thinking paper in the Jan. 17, 2002 Federal Register outlining additional regulatory actions it may take to further reduce the potential risk of BSE and to ensure that potentially infectious materials does not enter the U.S. food supply.

—USDA is currently drafting a proposed rule to prohibit the use of certain stunning devices used to immobilize cattle during slaughter. As well, USDA is currently drafting an advance notice of proposed rulemaking, which will consider additional regulatory options for the disposal of dead stock from farms and ranches.

—Last year, HHS outlined new steps to improve the scientific understanding of BSE in a detailed action plan that incorporates a comprehensive approach to further strengthen prevention, increase research resources and expand existing inspection efforts.

—The HHS Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has significantly improved the database it uses to track inspection reports and monitor compliance with the animal feed rule that helps protect the U.S. against BSE. This improved database, expected to be fully operational in April, will allow FDA to record inspection results and track compliance more effectively.

—FDA has been appropriated an additional $15 million for BSE efforts in the current fiscal year, bringing the total to $19 million. This year, FDA is hiring an additional 115 people to help protect the U.S. against BSE.

FDA's inspections show a continued high rate of compliance with the feed rule. As of mid-December, initial inspections of all renderers, protein blenders and commercial feed mills had been completed. All but four percent of these entities were in compliance with feed rules, though the status of six percent of these firms is unknown because of incomplete inspection results.

BSE has never been detected in U.S. cattle, nor has there been a case of the human form of the disease, variant CreutzfeldtJakob Disease, detected in the United States. Since 1989, USDA has taken a series of preventive actions to protect against this animal disease. This includes banning the import of live ruminants, such as cattle, sheep and goats, and most ruminant products from the United Kingdom and other countries having BSE. The ban was extended to Europe in 1997. To stop the way the disease is thought to spread, in 1997, FDA prohibited the use of most mammalian protein in the manufacture of animal feed intended for cows and other ruminants.

BSE is a chronic, degenerative neurological disorder of cattle. It belongs to a family of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. Also included in that family of illnesses is vCJD, which is believed to be caused by eating neural tissue, such as brain and spinal cord, from BSEaffected cattle.

The latest information on BSE, copies of the Harvard Risk Assessment and related policy papers are available on USDA's website at: http://www.aphis.usda.gov and on the HHS website at http://www.fda.gov.