Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Jan. 20, 2004

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

By Mr. DURBIN (for himself and Mr. AKAKA):

S. 2007. A bill to provide better protection against bovine spongiform encephalopathy and other prion diseases; to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today I am introducing legislation that would strengthen consumer confidence in the safety of our nation's beef supply while expanding our understanding of the many prion diseases that affect both humans and animals. This bill, known as the BSE and Other Prion Disease Prevention and Public Health Protection Act codifies some of USDA's recent steps, requires more aggressive testing of older cattle and expands surveillance for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in deer and elk and Creutzfedt-Jacob disease (CJD) in people.

Our country has been blessed with the safest and most abundant food supply in the world, but we can do better. The events surrounding the diagnosis of the first Mad Cow case in Washington State demonstrate that improvements are possible. Had the provisions of my bill been in place in early December, the animal would never have been allowed to enter both the human food supply and the consumer product system and contaminate 2.8 million pounds of products.

Currently, only 20,000 out of 35 million cattle presented for processing are tested for BSE. How many cattle in America have BSE? We are hopeful that there was only this one isolated case but the truth is that we don't know because we test so few animals. Answering that question today is similar to trying to estimate the prevalence of HIV infection in people by only testing individuals who have symptoms of AIDS. At the current level of testing, we have no real estimate of the true prevalence rate of BSE in our country.

A similar situation exists with respect to CWD, in deer and elk, or CJD in humans. The bill that I am introducing provides for more testing of all ruminants intended for human consumption as well as expanded surveillance for the human prion diseases.

Better surveillance: The bill requires the use of rapid BSE tests for all cattle and bison over 30 months of age and for all sheep, goats, deer and elk over 12 months of age. Rapid tests can provide results the same day that they are taken instead of the current five to seven days. Although most sampling and testing for BSE will occur through USDA inspectors at slaughterhouses, the bill also provides for on-farm sampling of non-ambulatory animals. In addition, all ruminants of any age exhibiting neurological symptoms would be tested.

All tested animals would be held until the results of the test are known rather than being released into the food supply and consumer product system, as was the case in Washington. An expensive and time-consuming recall of products would be avoided.

The bill also requires the development of a mandatory ruminant identification program to allow for trace back of diseased animals to their farm of origin within 48 hrs after diagnosis. This is significant not only for BSE but for other reportable illnesses such as brucellosis, tuberculosis and foot and mouth disease.

There are also provisions that require expanded coordination of testing for CWD in farm-raised and wild deer and elk. To support expanded ruminant testing for prion diseases, the bill calls for the expansion of the national animal health laboratory network to include state and university veterinary diagnostic laboratories.

Similarly, the bill expands the sampling of suspected cases of human CJD through the National Prion Disease Pathology Research Center at Case Western Reserve University.

Targeting Risk Materials: The bill updates and expands the definition of BSE specified risk materials and bans the use of such materials from cattle over 30 months of age for any use.

Importation of ruminant-based products: The bill expands the list of ruminant derived products that must be labeled for contents and country of origin and bans imported products containing ruminant-derived materials from countries identified as at-risk for BSE transmission.

Feed Ban: The bill closes loopholes in the USDA rules on recycling pet food and poultry litter back into ruminant feed. The legislation requires FDA to develop a database for handlers of livestock, renderers and feed mills and feed blenders.

We currently have only a limited understanding of prions and the diseases that they cause. To understand how these significant and challenging misfolded bits of protein can affect us, we need better data. We need data on which to base sound policy for our public health, for our animal health and for the safety of our food supply.

While we are accumulating that data, we need to take every reasonable step to ensure that we do not introduce infective material through importation or through feeding our ruminant animals contaminated feed. An expanded testing program will demonstrate to our trading partners that they have nothing to fear in buying our meat products.

I urge my colleagues to join me in this effort to strengthen consumer confidence in the safety of our food supply. The BSE and Other Prion Disease Prevention and Public Health Protection Act can provide the public with the confidence that our beef and venison is safe to eat and can assure our trading partners that we are aggressively addressing BSE surveillance in the United States.