Reuters
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
 WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - A few thousand cattle may have been fed the ground-up
remains of other cattle by mistake, but no people will be at risk
of mad cow disease as a result, U.S. government regulators said
on Tuesday.
And some imported
German candy that may have been made with gelatin from at-risk
cattle probably also poses no threat, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(news - web sites) (FDA) said.
Nonetheless,
the agency said it was keeping a sharp eye out for any more such
incidents and was checking to make sure rules aimed at keeping
mad cow disease out of the United States were working as they
should.
Liam Killeen,
President and CEO of Storck U.S.A., the candy's importer, said
that as of Feb. 1 Storck would replace the beef gelatin in the
candy with vegetable starch. He said however that ingredients
used in production of the beef gelatin contained in the candy
did not carry the mad cow agent and had been certified as safe
by Germany and the European Commission (news - web sites).
"We stand
behind the safety of our product. There is absolutely no need
for concern,'' Killeen said in a statement.
The FDA said
1,200 Texas cattle at a single feedlot had been fed banned material
but said Purina Mills Inc., which supplied the feed, was buying
the cows to remove them from the human food supply. Purina did
not immediately say where the cattle would be used.
"The
probability of this feed being infected is extremely small because
it was American feed and it was made from relatively young cows,''
Murray Lumpkin, senior medical adviser in the FDA commissioner's
office, said in an interview.
Feed Domestic
In Origin
"FDA
has determined that each animal could have consumed, at most and
in total, five-and-one-half grams -- approximately a quarter ounce
-- of prohibited material,'' the agency added in a statement.
"These
animals weigh approximately 600 pounds (300 kg). It is important
to note that the prohibited material was domestic in origin (therefore
not likely to contain infected material because there is no evidence
of BSE (news - web sites) in U.S. cattle), fed at a very low level
and fed only once.''
Scientists
say bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as
mad cow disease, spread in British herds after they were fed the
processed remains of sheep infected with scrapie, a closely related
brain-wasting disease.
The disease,
caused by a mutated protein known as a prion, can be spread to
people when they eat infected beef products. The human version
is known as new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web
sites) (vCJD) to distinguish it from a form of CJD that occurs
naturally in about one in a million people.
More than
80 people have died of vCJD in Britain and three in France, and
experts still do not know how extensively the disease will spread
because it can take years or even decades to show symptoms.
BSE has started
showing up in herds in other European countries and officials
are worried.
 FDA
and U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) (USDA) officials
met late on Monday with livestock industry representatives to
discuss whether more needs to be done to protect the United States.
After the meeting, industry officials said they believed existing
U.S. regulations were strong enough, and promised not to feed
their cattle the remains of livestock.
Cattle Prices
Take Hit
But on Tuesday
cattle prices took a big hit in Chicago markets on fears. Cattle
futures at Chicago Mercantile Exchange fell to a two-week low,
with some contracts briefly falling the maximum daily limit of
1.50 cents per pound.
The FDA said
it was checking out reports that New York stores were selling
a German-made candy recalled in Poland eight days ago for fear
it contained a beef-based gelatin from cattle infected with BSE.
That was apparently the same candy produced by Storck Co. and
imported by Storck U.S.A.
"We are
contacting the firm to determine ... where they get the gelatin
and how they process it,'' an FDA spokeswoman said.
But she said
if the gelatin was processed correctly, the risk was very low
that the candy was infectious, even if it did come from BSE-infected
cattle.
The FDA praised
Purina for its quick decision to buy the cattle in the feedlot
incident.
"This
episode indicates that the multi-layered safeguard system put
into place is essential for protecting the food supply and that
continued vigilance needs to be taken, by all concerned, to ensure
these rules are followed routinely,'' it said.
The European
Union (news - web sites) (EU) is also working to try to ensure
a safe food supply. It has banned meat-and-bone meal (MBM) in
animal feed for six months until June 30.
EU Farm Commissioner
Franz Fischler told EU farm ministers the costs of containing
the crisis were escalating as plunging meat sales threatened to
cause new mountains of unwanted beef, stored at EU expense.
And in an
ironic twist, Britain's food safety watchdog said it would step
up inspections of beef from Germany after a consignment of imported
meat was found to contain spinal cord, banned amid concerns it
may be a source of BSE contamination.
Kuwait on
Tuesday announced a ban on the import of ruminants -- grazing
animals such as cattle and sheep -- from all EU states.
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