Feds investigating Texas mad cow breach

WASHINGTON, May 19 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Inspector General has launched an investigation into allegations an agency supervisor in Texas violated federal policy and ordered that a suspect cow not be tested for mad cow disease, United Press International has learned.

"There was enough information that we decided we needed to independently investigate," David Gray, special counsel to the USDA's Office of Inspector General, told UPI.

"Media accounts reported that USDA procedures were not followed and USDA officials directed the testing not occur, so we want to learn the facts," Gray added.

USDA policy is to test all cows with signs of a brain disorder or central nervous system problems for mad cow disease, because this can be an indication the animal is infected. However, the policy was breached on April 27 by USDA inspectors at Lone Star Beef Processors in San Angelo, Texas, when an animal displaying CNS signs was not tested.

The meatingplace.com, a Web site that covers the meat industry, reported earlier this month that unnamed government and industry sources, who claimed to have firsthand knowledge of the Texas incident, said a USDA employee in Austin -- more than 200 miles from Lone Star Beef -- overruled the agency inspectors at the plant and made the decision not to test the cow.

As UPI previously reported, the Inspector General launched a review into the Texas incident because of the anonymous allegations. Although the preliminary results indicate there is enough to merit a full-scale investigation, Gray said it is too early to determine whether the USDA personnel involved intentionally committed wrongdoing or if the breakdown was merely due to an inadvertent error.

"It could be all of the above," Gray said. "You really don't know where it may take you, if anywhere, and this is really too early to characterize."

The investigation will involve talking to USDA personnel as well as Lone Star Beef employees, Gray said.

There is no timeline governing when the investigation will be completed, but it has been put on a "fast track," Gray said. "Health and safety issues are very high priorities for us because they're such important concerns," he added.

Humans can contract an incurable, fatal brain disorder called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease from eating meat infected with the mad cow pathogen. The Texas cow, even if it was infected, however, poses little if any risk to consumers, because it was not passed for human consumption and was sent to a rendering facility instead, where it either will be incorporated into pig feed or destroyed.

Jim Rogers, spokesman for USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service -- the division that oversees the agency's mad cow surveillance plan -- said of the OIG investigation, "I had not heard that but don't have anything to add."

USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service has launched and completed its own investigation into the Texas incident. Agency spokesman Ed Loyd said the conclusions of FSIS's investigation had been shared with the OIG, but declined two separate requests from UPI to divulge the findings of the probe.

FSIS spokesman Steven Cohen did not respond to a request from UPI to comment.

Lone Star spokeswoman Rosemary Mucklow, who also represents the National Meat Association, told UPI the OIG investigation was appropriate to help "resolve any reports they have from within the two agencies (FSIS and APHIS) and make sure such a mistake doesn't happen again."

Mucklow said she was not aware that any Lone Star officials had been contacted by OIG.

Lone Star's account of the events on April 27 is the cow in question was initially passed by the USDA veterinarian on duty at the slaughterhouse, Mucklow said. On a second inspection, the veterinarian condemned the cow because it exhibited signs of a possible CNS disorder, which made it unfit for human consumption. At that time, the livestock handler noted it had large bruises around its eyes and nose.

The USDA veterinarians discussed whether to take a sample of its brain for mad cow testing -- as required by USDA policy -- but they chose not to do so, Mucklow said. She added that she did not know whether the decision was made by FSIS or APHIS officials.

"The company was informed by USDA officials that they should dispose of the carcass in a routine manner," and it was removed from the premises and sent to rendering, she said.

Gray declined to comment on the penalties that might stem from a finding of wrongdoing on the part of USDA personnel. "I really don't want to speculate to the outcome and ramifications" until the investigation is completed, he said.

If the OIG determines a crime occurred, officials would send a copy of their report to the appropriate U.S. attorney's office, Gray said. If it is deemed an administrative violation, then the report would go to the appropriate USDA officials, he said.

--

Steve Mitchell is UPI's Medical Correspondent. E-mail sciencemail@upi.com