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CNN Live Saturday

Infected Cow Came From Canada

Aired December 27, 2003 - 12:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


FREDERICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with a significant development on the confirmed Mad Cow case in the U.S. A USDA veterinarian says Canadian records show the infected cow was imported from Alberta, Canada. That has the embattled U.S. beef industry facing potentially multi-billion dollars in losses. CNN's Holly Firfer is following the developments.
And, you were just on the teleconference -- the update from the USDA. What do they say?

HOLLY FIRFER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in their daily briefing, Dr. Ron DeHaven, who's the chief veterinarian officer for the USDA, confirms that at midnight last night, he was told the infected cow, that was on that Washington State farm, did come from Alberta, Canada. It entered the United States as part of a 74 dairy herd at East Port, Idaho. And, in October 2001, all 74 of those cows went to a dairy operation in Mattawa, Washington. They are now looking for where those other 73 cows may be. Dr. DeHaven did, however, tell us that it is not -- they do not fear that any of those cows may be infected. He said it may be a very small chance that any of the other cows have BSE or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. But nonetheless, as a precautionary measure, they are trying to track those other 73 cows.

They also say they were able to make this match with an ear tag that was removed from the animal at slaughter, to records in Canada. They're not sure however, if the herd she came into this country with was her birth herd -- the herd she was born with. Dr. Dehaven did applaud the Canadian officials, they've been helping the USDA officials with this investigation, and actually one of the Canadian officials who examined that Canadian BSC incident last year, was also assisting in this information -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Now, this is the kind of information that U.S. officials said that they really needed to know. What now might this tell us about the Holstein specifically?

FIRFER: Well, what we found out exactly is that the cow is older than we thought. The USDA thought that this cow was four-and-a-half years old, but now it turns out she's six-and-a-half years old, she was born in April, 1997. There are DNA tests underway to positively identify that this was the Holstein they're looking at. It could take about a week for those test results to come back in. And, the reason this is significant is because they know that you can transfer this disease from animal feed. What happens is the infected part of the cow, the brain and the central nervous system is then rendered into animal feed, does not go into the human food chain in this country, but it's fed to other cows and that is how this disease can be transmitted. In 1997, the USDA banned that practice of using animal parts in other animal feed. So therefore, this cow may have been infected in Canada and not in the U.S., as originally thought.

WHITFIELD: OK, you mentioned, and made it very clear, that this Holstein was slaughtered. Where did the meat products go? We know four states?

FIRFER: We know four states. Interstate Meat is one distributor, they sold those products to Washington State in Oregon, Willamette Valley Meat, the other distributors sold beef to Washington, Oregon, California, and Nevada. Now, the USDA does say that that beef is being returned. That the people who have bought that beef have been notified and there are investigators at each location overseeing the return of that beef and its destroying.

WHITFIELD: All right, Holly Firfer, thanks for that update and its significant development in the case of the first confirmed case of Mad Cow disease in this country.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired December 27, 2003 - 12:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDERICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with a significant development on the confirmed Mad Cow case in the U.S. A USDA veterinarian says Canadian records show the infected cow was imported from Alberta, Canada. That has the embattled U.S. beef industry facing potentially multi-billion dollars in losses. CNN's Holly Firfer is following the developments.
And, you were just on the teleconference -- the update from the USDA. What do they say?

HOLLY FIRFER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in their daily briefing, Dr. Ron DeHaven, who's the chief veterinarian officer for the USDA, confirms that at midnight last night, he was told the infected cow, that was on that Washington State farm, did come from Alberta, Canada. It entered the United States as part of a 74 dairy herd at East Port, Idaho. And, in October 2001, all 74 of those cows went to a dairy operation in Mattawa, Washington. They are now looking for where those other 73 cows may be. Dr. DeHaven did, however, tell us that it is not -- they do not fear that any of those cows may be infected. He said it may be a very small chance that any of the other cows have BSE or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. But nonetheless, as a precautionary measure, they are trying to track those other 73 cows.

They also say they were able to make this match with an ear tag that was removed from the animal at slaughter, to records in Canada. They're not sure however, if the herd she came into this country with was her birth herd -- the herd she was born with. Dr. Dehaven did applaud the Canadian officials, they've been helping the USDA officials with this investigation, and actually one of the Canadian officials who examined that Canadian BSC incident last year, was also assisting in this information -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Now, this is the kind of information that U.S. officials said that they really needed to know. What now might this tell us about the Holstein specifically?

FIRFER: Well, what we found out exactly is that the cow is older than we thought. The USDA thought that this cow was four-and-a-half years old, but now it turns out she's six-and-a-half years old, she was born in April, 1997. There are DNA tests underway to positively identify that this was the Holstein they're looking at. It could take about a week for those test results to come back in. And, the reason this is significant is because they know that you can transfer this disease from animal feed. What happens is the infected part of the cow, the brain and the central nervous system is then rendered into animal feed, does not go into the human food chain in this country, but it's fed to other cows and that is how this disease can be transmitted. In 1997, the USDA banned that practice of using animal parts in other animal feed. So therefore, this cow may have been infected in Canada and not in the U.S., as originally thought.

WHITFIELD: OK, you mentioned, and made it very clear, that this Holstein was slaughtered. Where did the meat products go? We know four states?

FIRFER: We know four states. Interstate Meat is one distributor, they sold those products to Washington State in Oregon, Willamette Valley Meat, the other distributors sold beef to Washington, Oregon, California, and Nevada. Now, the USDA does say that that beef is being returned. That the people who have bought that beef have been notified and there are investigators at each location overseeing the return of that beef and its destroying.

WHITFIELD: All right, Holly Firfer, thanks for that update and its significant development in the case of the first confirmed case of Mad Cow disease in this country.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com