Food safety director to step down
Garry McKee, administrator of the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service, will step down from the post he has held since July 2003. He will move to the agency's Technical Service Center in Omaha, Neb., where he will serve as an adviser to the center's director.
Prior to his appointment as FSIS administrator, McKee was the director of the Wyoming Department of Health.
McKee's departure comes as the Agriculture Department is grappling with a number of serious food and animal safety issues, including the discoveries of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in a Holstein cow in Washington State in December, and a highly pathogenic form of avian influenza in a chicken flock in Texas earlier this week.
Agriculture officials say there is no indication that BSE poses a threat to human health in the United States, and the strain of avian influenza discovered in Texas is not known to be transmissible to humans. Nonetheless, the diseases could have devastating economic consequences for the beef and poultry industries.
Dr. Barbara Masters, a public health veterinarian and a senior official in the agency's field operations office, will become acting FSIS administrator, according to agency sources. FSIS officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday evening.
COMMENTS
- It is really interesting to see that no FSIS employee is shielded from poor treatment by the Service/USDA- not even the FSIS Director who is being dispatched to serve as a "special assistant" in Nebraska. And Dr. McKee's great crime- he was at the agency helm when one sick cow was found and a break out of Avian flu occurred. Actually, chickens do come home to roost- pardon my pun. Dr. McKee did ignore the harsh treatment of USDA food inspectors by his agency and continued poor relationship between FSIS employees and management. I wish the next Director luck because the systemic problems in FSIS are not related to the program- they are related to the workforce culture and lack of leadership at this agency. Former FSIS employee GovExec.com reader Posted February 26, 2004 8:10 AM
