Questions linger about USDA's handling of mad cow issue

When the House Government Reform and Agriculture committees hold a joint hearing Wednesday on the Agriculture Department's response to the dangers of mad cow disease, they will do so amid continuing criticism of the USDA's handling of the issue.

That criticism is directed not only at USDA's delays in issuing regulations to expand its program to test cattle for the disease, but also at apparent leaks of critical information when tests on animals raised questions about whether they might have the disease.

Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman is scheduled to testify at the hearing, along with Agriculture Department Inspector General Phyllis Fong, who is conducting several investigations into the handling of the issue. Industry officials and a representative of the group Public Citizen will join them.

As part of an effort to increase its surveillance of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, USDA expanded its testing program June 1 to as many as 200,000 animals over the next 18 months. Twice in June, it announced animals had tested positive for mad cow in preliminary tests.

Although conclusive tests later determined neither cow was infected, the announcements of the preliminary tests caused some dramatic volatility in the cattle futures markets.

And although USDA refused to release details about the location, age or breed of either animal, those details soon surfaced in the livestock trade press.

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association supported USDA's decision to release the "inconclusive" results on the two animals while offering no further information unless a positive test result was confirmed.

But NCBA Washington lobbyist Chandler Keys said recently if USDA "has employees that are putting information to the media and it is not signed off on and if it is not pertinent they should be found out and disciplined."

Leo McDonnell, president of the Ranchers and Cattlemen's Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America, said USDA should have anticipated those problems.

"Obviously, USDA's refusal to give information has led to a series of rumors and unofficial reports. This leaked information is attributed to the agency, and that puts USDA in a position of contradicting the very policies it said it would adhere to," he said.

"Why is a public announcement of an 'inconclusive' test appropriate, but the release of essential information regarding the age, breed, location and country of origin of the tested animal unsuitable for the public to know? The public has a right to know this basic information," added McDonnell, who sued USDA to force the department to follow its own legal procedures in plans to broaden imports from Canada to other beef products.

In another criticized action, the Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration announced plans in January to tighten regulations for animal feed. But the announcement was delayed until last Friday. Then they issued only a notice of "proposed" rulemaking, rather than making the new rules effective immediately.

"Six months have passed since USDA said it would require safer cattle feed," McDonnell said in a news release issued Friday.