Posted on 03/25/2006 7:45:40 PM PST by Jonas Grumby
Moore says mad cow timing odd Saturday, March 25, 2006 KIM CHANDLER News staff writer
MONTGOMERY - Republican gubernatorial candidate Roy Moore said Friday it was a "strange coincidence" that mad cow disease was found in Alabama just as government officials want to start an animal-identification system.
Moore is opposed to a national tracking system that would give identification numbers to farm animals and to a bill pending in the Alabama Legislature that would authorize Alabama to start its own tracking system.
"It's a strange coincidence that we have a case of mad cow disease at the same time the Senate is debating this bill," Moore said. "I see this as an imposition on freedom and liberty.
"This is not to track disease. The precept is for tracking disease," he said, "but it will cause small farmers to be run out of business, small animal owners."
© 2006 The Birmingham News
http://www.breederville.com/auction/forumtopic.php?topic=18&boardid=1
Two veterinarians face charges for BSE test sample switch
Two slaughterhouse veterinarians in Pietarsaari are on trial for deliberately using the wrong samples for a BSE, or Mad Cow Disease, test. The charges are related to events at the Snellman slaughterhouse in this west coast city.
According to the indictment, the veterinarians, who worked as inspectors for the National Food Agency, had switched damaged samples from animals undergoing tests for ones that had been taken from younger animals and frozen.
It was feared that the National Veterinary and Food Research Institute of Finland (EELA) would have rejected the damaged samples. If this had happened, the carcass that the bad sample was taken from, and three others, might have been destroyed.
One of the two veterinarians admitted to having switched two damaged samples for ones that had been taken from other animals as part of training for laboratory assistants.
The practice samples were then stored in the slaughterhouse’s freezer, and some of them were used when more recent samples were not seen to be good enough.
Three witnesses were heard at the trial in Pietarsaari: an inspector veterinarian who had informed authorities about the sample-switching, a veterinary student, and the laboratory assistant who had taken samples. All three confirmed the practice of sample switching.
The laboratory assistant refused to switch samples, but went on sick leave. The inspector veterinarian reported the practice, and was sacked. The student felt that the practice was wrong, but obeyed the orders.
Finland’s only case of BSE was found on a cattle farm in Kärsämäki in December 2001. Since then all cattle over 30 months of age that are slaughtered for meat have been inspected for BSE.
Each year EELA checks 130,000 samples for signs of the feared disease.
Just WHAT kind of outbreak?
We VACCINATE animals in our country!
Just like children get shots so do animals.
Animals are already tagged, certified, registered, etc.
They are talking about radio frequency tagging animals which each tag costs upwards of 20 bucks each and the readers are 300 and up.
When an eartag costs pennies, why would we need a 20 plus dollar RFID or GPS for a slaughter animal?
By the way, if you don't eat the spinal column or the brain, guess what, no problem, no sponge for a brain.
ping
Actually, used to, when horses went lame and their useful life was over, we could take them to a processing facility that would render them into many uses for our daily lives, not including food. Now we cant because thats seen as 'cruel'.
We also can't get a little law of 'Country of Origin Labeling' implemented either. The big boys have it tied up in court so that you don't know you are getting beef or lamb from another country!! To hard to slap on the labels, they say!! Yeah!! Suuuuuuure!!
MMMMM Paste ! :0
But yet every single freakin apple, orange, banana, etc has that label that is IMPOSSible to get off!
Compared to the billions of pounds of beef, chicken etc that people have consumed, yet people fall for the hype of bird flu and mad cow.
Guess what folks, COOK IT COMPLETELY!!!!!! Duh!
And to think they also want to label EACH AND EVERY EGG AS WELL! You jest never know what mufasah might be able to inject! Grrrrr.
Just a small oversight - like the snafus in the Klintoon administration.
They have seen how they have the sheeple indoctrinated into this corrupt "Two-Party Cartel" vote scam so why not extend it into other arenas.
Am I mistaken?
I think you misread post 22. She didn't say BSE was a virus.
Hey! Can't buy or sell [a cow] without the mark, right? You'll have to admit that's pretty close.
First, when you have mad cow identified...you have two choices...only kill the cattle in direct family path...which might only number ten to fifteen at best...or go kill the farm's 500 cattle...and if you know this cow came from one of five farms...then all of the five farm's cattle. Which would rather do?
Second, the cost of the chip...is around $15 at the most. You can run an entire herd of 500 through the stall and install this in one day if you have a border collie and three people. You don't require the chip reading device itself. You are only buying the chips from a recognized dealer like the local Co-Op...which has preset chips.
Third, if you study the main method of getting mad cow...as was demonstrated in the UK...it was people who were after the bulky cattle and the extra $75 in weight on the cow when they sold it...so they had a special feed. The special feed always includes grounded up bone materal from other cattle...which does a good job of bulking the cow. The Brits stopped that "trick" and if you get caught...its actually jail time now. In this Alabama case, and other cases seen in North America...they haven't yet proven that some farmers were doing this...but most people believe that a special feed did the job.
Fourth...wouldn't you like to stamp out these mad cow episodes quickly? If you find the cow at the slaughter house with no chip method...you can't do nothing about it. You can't track down the herd or the line. Wouldn't you like a pure beef situation...with no issues? And the cost? Just give the guy another tax credit for each chip he buys...its that simple. 400 head of cattle...$6000 to do the job, and probably another $1000 per year for additional cattle.
To do nothing...means you get to a point where the "cheaters" bulk up cattle all over the country...and you reach a point like the Brits....you destroy vast herds of cattle. The beef industry in Britian was almost destroyed by the entire mad cow episode. Do you really want to go that far?
This battle really seems to be between the cattle farmers (those who raise and breed cattle) and the beef producers (those who turn the cattle into meat). Both groups are pressuring the government to use its power to get their way.
You know, I got really annoyed at a local sheep prod. meeting I attended a few months ago. There was a rep. there from an animal health co. and he was really excited because they (FDA) had approved a new sheep wormer for use in America. First one in 9,yes, NINE years! Then he went on to say that in Australia they have ALL KINDS of meds available to them to use, that we can't, yet they import that very same lamb into our country! Go figure!!
Partial list of the animal codings:
Clams = CLM, crawfish = CRA, catfish = CTF, mussels = MSL, oysters = OYS, salmon = SAL, striped bass = SBA, shrimp = SHR, scallops = SLP, tilapia = TIL, trout = TRO, bovine (bison and cattle) = BOV, camelid (alpaca and llama) = CAM, caprine (goats) = CAP, deer = DEE, elk = ELK, equine (horses1) = EQU, ovine (sheep) = OVI, porcine (swine) = POR, chickens = CHI, ducks = DUC, geese = GEE, guineas = GUI, pigeon = PGN, pheasants = PHE, quail = QUA, turkeys = TUR. (Table 10, page 15 of the program standard. And then there is a much larger breakdown of breeds within categories in the technical standards supplement on pages 14-17: http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/about/pdf/NAIS_Technical_Supplement_072605.pdf .)
What the MSM says and post 22 says are two different things.
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