Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Interview With John Stauber

Aired December 26, 2003 - 08:11   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.


DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, mad cow disease has indeed appeared in the United States. We've all heard that now. Confirmation came from Britain that a sick cow in Washington State was infected with the disease. The question everyone's asking, could this have been avoided in some way and what is the government doing to try and stop this disease from spreading?
John Stauber is the author of "Mad Cow USA." The question that book asks, could the nightmare happen here?

He joins us from Madison, Wisconsin.

Good morning, sir.

JOHN STAUBER, AUTHOR, "MAD COW USA": Good morning.

I'm happy to be on the program.

GUPTA: Listen, one of the things that you have said is that this is probably the tip of the iceberg. And that scares a lot of people.

Do you think that's a little bit dramatic?

STAUBER: No, I don't think it's dramatic at all. I think top experts like Dr. Stanley Prusiner would tend to agree with that. In Britain, for instance, in 1985, when this disease first appeared, it was in one or two cattle. Five years later, it was in hundreds of thousands. The Food and Drug Administration said in 1997 that when we saw our first case of mad cow disease in the U.S., even if we put in a strict European type feed ban, which we still have not, in 11 years we would have 299,000 more cases because of what's in the pipeline.

This is a very invisible disease.

GUPTA: And you mentioned Britain and you mentioned their standards, as well. You've suggested in an earlier interview that the secretary of agriculture, Veneman, actually go to Britain and come back armed with those regulations.

Do you think that that -- that, first of all, those regulations are better and that they would help here?

STAUBER: Their regulations are proven to work. They're scientifically based and they're absolutely what we need to have here. Britain has been to hell and back on this issue. They've overcome it by doing two things -- an absolute and complete ban on feeding slaughterhouse waste to livestock. We still feed blood to cattle, for instance. And testing virtually every animal. Those are the only two things that we can do to stop this epidemic in the U.S. And the cattle industry and the government still refuse to accept that.

GUPTA: And this is obviously a contentious area of debate here.

Regarding the feeding, because this is an important point I think a lot of people don't understand, the meat itself may be safe, but you're talking about the rest of a particular cattle might actually go into the feed, potentially contaminating other cattle. That's supposedly illegal in this country.

Do you think that it actually still happens?

STAUBER: Well, it's supposedly illegal, but it's not illegal. Our book, "Mad Cow USA," shows that the 1997 feed bans were completely inadequate. We also know they've been ignored. It's legal in the United States to feed calves cattle blood protein and it's widely done. We know that in other countries, milk formula fed to calves has spread the disease. I suspect that's what's happening here.

When the FDA says a ban was put in place, it's important that people know the ban was inadequate.

GUPTA: John Stauber, author of "Mad Cow USA," thanks for getting up with us this morning.

Interesting story.

We're certainly going to keep an eye on it.

Thank you.

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 26, 2003 - 08:11   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, mad cow disease has indeed appeared in the United States. We've all heard that now. Confirmation came from Britain that a sick cow in Washington State was infected with the disease. The question everyone's asking, could this have been avoided in some way and what is the government doing to try and stop this disease from spreading?
John Stauber is the author of "Mad Cow USA." The question that book asks, could the nightmare happen here?

He joins us from Madison, Wisconsin.

Good morning, sir.

JOHN STAUBER, AUTHOR, "MAD COW USA": Good morning.

I'm happy to be on the program.

GUPTA: Listen, one of the things that you have said is that this is probably the tip of the iceberg. And that scares a lot of people.

Do you think that's a little bit dramatic?

STAUBER: No, I don't think it's dramatic at all. I think top experts like Dr. Stanley Prusiner would tend to agree with that. In Britain, for instance, in 1985, when this disease first appeared, it was in one or two cattle. Five years later, it was in hundreds of thousands. The Food and Drug Administration said in 1997 that when we saw our first case of mad cow disease in the U.S., even if we put in a strict European type feed ban, which we still have not, in 11 years we would have 299,000 more cases because of what's in the pipeline.

This is a very invisible disease.

GUPTA: And you mentioned Britain and you mentioned their standards, as well. You've suggested in an earlier interview that the secretary of agriculture, Veneman, actually go to Britain and come back armed with those regulations.

Do you think that that -- that, first of all, those regulations are better and that they would help here?

STAUBER: Their regulations are proven to work. They're scientifically based and they're absolutely what we need to have here. Britain has been to hell and back on this issue. They've overcome it by doing two things -- an absolute and complete ban on feeding slaughterhouse waste to livestock. We still feed blood to cattle, for instance. And testing virtually every animal. Those are the only two things that we can do to stop this epidemic in the U.S. And the cattle industry and the government still refuse to accept that.

GUPTA: And this is obviously a contentious area of debate here.

Regarding the feeding, because this is an important point I think a lot of people don't understand, the meat itself may be safe, but you're talking about the rest of a particular cattle might actually go into the feed, potentially contaminating other cattle. That's supposedly illegal in this country.

Do you think that it actually still happens?

STAUBER: Well, it's supposedly illegal, but it's not illegal. Our book, "Mad Cow USA," shows that the 1997 feed bans were completely inadequate. We also know they've been ignored. It's legal in the United States to feed calves cattle blood protein and it's widely done. We know that in other countries, milk formula fed to calves has spread the disease. I suspect that's what's happening here.

When the FDA says a ban was put in place, it's important that people know the ban was inadequate.

GUPTA: John Stauber, author of "Mad Cow USA," thanks for getting up with us this morning.

Interesting story.

We're certainly going to keep an eye on it.

Thank you.

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