- (Excerpted from longer article)
-
- "...the government came under criticism on two fronts.
John Stauber, the author of "Mad Cow U.S.A.," said the U.S. hasn't
done enough to keep BSE out of the country.
-
- Cattle get sick by eating feed that contains tissue from
the brain and spine of infected animals. The United States has banned such
feed since 1997.
-
- "Here's the problem, the feed ban has been grossly
violated by feed mills," Stauber said in a telephone interview from
his home in Madison, Wis.
-
- In one such case, X-Cel Feeds Inc., of Tacoma, Wash.,
admitted in a consent decree in July that it violated FDA regulations designed
to prevent the possible spread of the disease.
-
- Agriculture officials said that only two out of some
1,800 firms are not in compliance with the ban, a significant improvement
since 1997.
-
- Stauber also said he believes the ban is ineffective
because it exempts blood from cattle, which Stauber said could transmit
mad-cow type diseases. Government officials and industry executives have
said there is no evidence that animals can be infected from the blood of
other animals.
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