Statement by Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer on South Korea Reopening Market to U.S. Beef and Beef Products in Line with International Standards

Friday, April 18, 2008 Statement by Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer on South Korea Reopening Market to U.S. Beef and Beef Products in Line with International Standards

Link: http://www.usda.gov/2008/04/0106.xml


Release No. 0106.08 Contact: Keith Williams (202) 720-4623

Statement by Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer on South Korea Reopening Market to U.S. Beef and Beef Products in Line with International Standards

April 18, 2008

"Today's announcement that South Korea has fully complied with international trade standards regarding beef and beef products is great news for America's ranchers and beef industry. By allowing complete market access for U.S. beef and beef products from cattle of all ages, South Korea has made a decision that is based on science and in line with international guidelines. As a result of a constructive and steady dialogue, Korean consumers will again have access to safe, affordable, high-quality beef at a time when global commodity prices are tightening.

"In May 2007, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) formally classified the United States as a controlled risk country for BSE. This status confirmed that U.S. BSE regulatory controls are effective and that U.S. beef and beef products of all ages can be safely traded. Before the Korean market was closed to U.S. beef and beef products in December 2003, following the detection of a case of BSE in the state of Washington, Korea was the third largest export market for U.S. beef and beef products, with annual sales more than $815 million. Since that time, Korea's economy has grown and more of its population enjoys increased incomes and a better way of life. That is why Congress's immediate consideration of the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) is important. Once the KORUS FTA is ratified and implemented, and the current 40 percent tariffs on U.S. beef are fully lifted, the FTA is expected to generate tariff savings of approximately $500 million a year for U.S beef exporters. The International Trade Commission estimates that under the FTA, U.S. beef exports to South Korea could increase by $600 million to $1.8 billion.

"South Korea has raised the bar for other Asian nations, such as Japan, Taiwan and China, and the United States will continue to press for full market access throughout the rest of the Pacific Rim so that unreasonable restrictions on U.S. beef and beef products are fully removed."

# USDA News oc.news@usda.gov 202 720-4623 ================

February 18, 2004

Preeminent Scientists Protest Bush Administration's Misuse of Science Nobel Laureates, National Medal of Science Recipients, and Other Leading Researchers Call for End to Scientific Abuses

Call (2MB mp3) Washington, D.C.—Today, more than 60 leading scientists—including Nobel laureates, leading medical experts, former federal agency directors and university chairs and presidents—issued a statement calling for regulatory and legislative action to restore scientific integrity to federal policymaking. According to the scientists, the Bush administration has, among other abuses, suppressed and distorted scientific analysis from federal agencies, and taken actions that have undermined the quality of scientific advisory panels. “Across a broad range of issues, the administration has undermined the quality of the scientific advisory system and the morale of the government’s outstanding scientific personnel,” said Dr. Kurt Gottfried, emeritus professor of physics at Cornell University and Chairman of the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Whether the issue is lead paint, clean air or climate change, this behavior has serious consequences for all Americans.”

“Science, to quote President Bush's father, the former president, relies on freedom of inquiry and objectivity,” said Russell Train, head of the Environmental Protection Agency under Nixon and Ford, who joined the scientists in calling for action. “But this administration has obstructed that freedom and distorted that objectivity in ways that were unheard of in any previous administration.”

The statement notes that while scientific input to the government is rarely the only factor in public policy decisions, this input should be weighed from an objective and impartial perspective. However, the administration of George W. Bush has disregarded this principle.

“The Earth system follows laws which scientists strive to understand,” said Dr. F. Sherwood Rowland a Nobel laureate in chemistry. “The public deserves rational decisionmaking based on the best scientific advice about what is likely to happen, not what political entities might wish to happen.”

“We are not simply raising warning flags about an academic subject of interest only to scientists and doctors,” said Dr. Neal Lane, a former director of the National Science Foundation and a former Presidential Science Advisor. “In case after case, scientific input to policymaking is being censored and distorted. This will have serious consequences for public health.”

In conjunction with the statement, the Union of Concerned Scientists today released a report Scientific Integrity in Policymaking that investigates numerous allegations in the scientists’ statement involving censorship and political interference with independent scientific inquiry at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Departments of Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Interior and Defense.

One example cited in the statement and report involves the suppression of an EPA study that found the bipartisan Senate Clear Air bill would do more to reduce mercury contamination in fish and prevent more deaths than the administration's proposed Clear Skies Act. “This is akin to the White House directing the National Weather Service to alter a hurricane forecast because they want everyone to think we have clear skies ahead,” said Kevin Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists “The hurricane is still coming, but without factual information no one will be ready for it.”

Comparing President Bush with his father, George H.W. Bush and former president Richard M. Nixon, the statement warned that had these former presidents similarly dismissed science in favor of political ends, over 200,000 deaths and millions of respiratory and cardiovascular disease cases would not have been prevented with the signing of the original Clean Air Act and the 1990 amendments to that Act.

The statement demands that the Bush administration’s “distortion of scientific knowledge for partisan political ends must cease” and calls for Congressional oversight hearings, guaranteed public access to government scientific studies and other measures to prevent such abuses in the future. The statement further calls on the scientific, engineering and medical communities to work together to reestablish scientific integrity in the policymaking process.

# # # Among the statement signers are:

Philip W. Anderson*† David Baltimore*† Paul Berg*† Lewis Branscomb Thomas Eisner* Jerome Friedman† Richard Garwin* Walter Kohn*† Neal Lane Leon Lederman*† Mario Molina† W.H.K. Panofsky* F. Sherwood Rowland† J. Robert Schrieffer*† Richard Smalley† Harold E. Varmus† Steven Weinberg*† E.O Wilson*

* National Medal of Science † Nobel laureate

http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/preeminent-scientists-protest-bush-administrations-misuse-of-science.html


BSE; MRR; IMPORTATION OF LIVE BOVINES AND PRODUCTS DERIVED FROM BOVINES [Docket No. APHIS-2006-0041] RIN 0579-AC01

[Federal Register: January 9, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 5)] [Proposed Rules] [Page 1101-1129] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr09ja07-21]

http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocumentDetail&o=09000064801f8152


BSE; MRR; IMPORTATION OF LIVE BOVINES AND PRODUCTS DERIVED FROM BOVINES [Docket No. APHIS-2006-0041] RIN 0579-AC01 Date: January 9, 2007 at 9:08 am PST

http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocumentDetail&o=09000064801f3412


Thursday, April 17, 2008

GAO REPORT ON HUMANE METHODS OF HANDLING AND SLAUGHTER I.E. DOWNER COW SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM

http://downercattle.blogspot.com/2008/04/gao-report-on-humane-methods-of.html


SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM FROM DOWNER CATTLE UPDATE

http://downercattle.blogspot.com/


Thursday, April 17, 2008 Use of Materials Derived From Cattle in Human Food and Cosmetics [Docket No. 2004N-0081] RIN 0910-AF47

http://cjdmadcowbaseoct2007.blogspot.com/2008/04/use-of-materials-derived-from-cattle-in.html


Wednesday, April 16, 2008 REPORT ON THE INVESTIGATION OF THE ELEVENTH CASE OF BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY (BSE) IN CANADA 'ATYPICAL'

http://madcowtesting.blogspot.com/2008/04/report-on-investigation-of-eleventh.html


Wednesday, April 16, 2008 MBM, greaves, meat offal, live cattle, imports from UK to USA vs Canada "Three of four possible manufacturers supplying a protein supplement likely fed to the animal could have included meat and bone meal (MBM) as an ingredient in its formulation. One of these manufacturers was able to confirm usage of meat and bone meal in supplements and confirm a source of MBM to be one common to previous BSE investigations."

USA AND CANADA IMPORTS OF UK CATTLE BETWEEN 1981 - 1989

USA = 496

CANADA = 198

*add 14 to 198 as last UK import to Canada, 14 in 1990

SNIP...SEE FULL TEXT ;

http://madcowtesting.blogspot.com/2008/04/mbm-greaves-meat-offal-live-cattle.html


BSE BASE MAD COW TESTING TEXAS, USA, AND CANADA

http://madcowtesting.blogspot.com/


*** MAD COW DISEASE terminology UK c-BSE (typical), atypical BSE H or L, and or Italian L-BASE ***

(2 cases atypical BSE documented in the USA and 2 cases atypical BSE documented in Canada, to date, and IF the bogus theory going around now is good for the goose, it should be good for the gander, i.e. atypical BSE is nothing more than typical BSE in older cattle ??? if that is the case, then all sporadic CJD is, is nvCJD in old people, just my opinion. AND, the spontaneous theory does not hold water either, especially in 85%+ of all cjd victims. ...TSS)

http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2008/03/mad-cow-disease-terminology-uk-c-bse.html


Saturday, April 12, 2008

The sheep industry's scrapie eradication efforts. American Sheep Nor98-Like Scrapie Found in the United States SCRAPIE: ERADICATE IT

http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2008/04/sheep-industrys-scrapie-eradication.html


NOR-98 ATYPICAL SCRAPIE 5 CASES DOCUMENTED USA IN 2007

http://nor-98.blogspot.com/


Friday, April 11, 2008

SEAC SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY ADVISORY COMMITTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2007

http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2008/04/seac-spongiform-encephalopathy-advisory.html


Preliminary Results for Research on Live Chronic Wasting Disease Test for Elk in Rocky Mountain National Park

Date: April 10, 2008 Contact: Kyle Patterson, 970-586-1363

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2008/04/11-percent-sub-clinical-cwd-infection.html


Chronic Wasting Disease

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/


SRM MAD COW RECALL 406 THOUSAND POUNDS CATTLE HEADS WITH TONSILS KANSAS

http://cjdmadcowbaseoct2007.blogspot.com/2008/04/srm-mad-cow-recall-406-thousand-pounds.html


SPECIFIED RISK MATERIALS

http://madcowspontaneousnot.blogspot.com/2008/02/specified-risk-materials-srm.html


Alzheimer's and CJD

http://betaamyloidcjd.blogspot.com/


Friday, March 21, 2008

Association between Deposition of Beta-Amyloid and Pathological Prion Protein in Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Original Paper

http://betaamyloidcjd.blogspot.com/2008/03/association-between-deposition-of-beta.html


CJD USA

*Acquired in UK ** Acquired in Saudi Arabia *** Includes 17 inconclusive and 9 pending (1 from 2006, 8 from 2007. **** Includes 17 non-vCJD type unknown (2 from 1996, 2 from 1997, 1 from 2001, 1 from 2003, 4 from 2004, 3 from 2005, 4 from 2006) and 36 type pending (2 from 2005, 8 from 2006, 26 from 2007).

Notes:

-- Cases are listed based on the year of death when available. If the year of death is not available, the year of sample receipt is used.

-- Referrals: Cases with possible or probable prion disease from which brain tissue or blood in the case of familial disease were submitted.

-- Inconclusive: Cases in which the samples were not sufficient to make a diagnosis.

-- Non-vCJD type unknown are cases in which the tissue submitted was adequate to establish the presence but not the type; in all cases, vCJD could be excluded.

-- Communicated by: Terry S. Singeltary Sr.

[In submitting these data, Terry S. Singeltary Sr. draws attention to the steady increase in the "type unknown" category, which, according to their definition, comprises cases in which vCJD could be excluded. The total of 26 cases for the current year (2007) is disturbing, possibly symptomatic of the circulation of novel agents. Characterization of these agents should be given a high priority. - Mod.CP]

http://www.promedmail.org/pls/askus/f?p=2400:1001:6833194127530602005::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1010,39963


There is a growing number of human CJD cases, and they were presented last week in San Francisco by Luigi Gambatti(?) from his CJD surveillance collection.

He estimates that it may be up to 14 or 15 persons which display selectively SPRPSC and practically no detected RPRPSC proteins.

http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/06/transcripts/1006-4240t1.htm


http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/06/transcripts/2006-4240t1.pdf


CJD QUESTIONNAIRE

http://cjdquestionnaire.blogspot.com/


JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY

MARCH 26, 2003

RE-Monitoring the occurrence of emerging forms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob

disease in the United States

Email Terry S. Singeltary:

flounder@wt.net

I lost my mother to hvCJD (Heidenhain Variant CJD). I would like to

comment on the CDC's attempts to monitor the occurrence of emerging

forms of CJD. Asante, Collinge et al [1] have reported that BSE

transmission to the 129-methionine genotype can lead to an alternate

phenotype that is indistinguishable from type 2 PrPSc, the commonest

sporadic CJD. However, CJD and all human TSEs are not reportable

nationally. CJD and all human TSEs must be made reportable in every

state and internationally. I hope that the CDC does not continue to

expect us to still believe that the 85%+ of all CJD cases which are

sporadic are all spontaneous, without route/source. We have many TSEs in

the USA in both animal and man. CWD in deer/elk is spreading rapidly and

CWD does transmit to mink, ferret, cattle, and squirrel monkey by

intracerebral inoculation. With the known incubation periods in other

TSEs, oral transmission studies of CWD may take much longer. Every

victim/family of CJD/TSEs should be asked about route and source of this

agent. To prolong this will only spread the agent and needlessly expose

others. In light of the findings of Asante and Collinge et al, there

should be drastic measures to safeguard the medical and surgical arena

from sporadic CJDs and all human TSEs. I only ponder how many sporadic

CJDs in the USA are type 2 PrPSc?

http://www.neurology.org/cgi/eletters/60/2/176#535


THE PATHOLOGICAL PROTEIN

Hardcover, 304 pages plus photos and illustrations. ISBN 0-387-95508-9

June 2003

BY Philip Yam

CHAPTER 14 LAYING ODDS

Answering critics like Terry Singeltary, who feels that the U.S. under- counts CJD, Schonberger conceded that the current surveillance system has errors but stated that most of the errors will be confined to the older population.

http://www.thepathologicalprotein.com/


doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(03)00715-1 Copyright © 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Newsdesk

Tracking spongiform encephalopathies in North America

Xavier Bosch

Available online 29 July 2003. Volume 3, Issue 8, August 2003, Page 463

"My name is Terry S Singeltary Sr, and I live in Bacliff, Texas. I lost my mom to hvCJD (Heidenhain variant CJD) and have been searching for answers ever since. What I have found is that we have not been told the truth. CWD in deer and elk is a small portion of a much bigger problem." ...

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473309903007151/fulltext


http://download.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/1473-3099/PIIS1473309903007151.pdf


Diagnosis and Reporting of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Singeltary, Sr et al. JAMA.2001; 285: 733-734.

Vol. 285 No. 6, February 14, 2001 JAMA

Diagnosis and Reporting of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: In their Research Letter, Dr Gibbons and colleagues1 reported that the annual US death rate due to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) has been stable since 1985. These estimates, however, are based only on reported cases, and do not include misdiagnosed or preclinical cases. It seems to me that misdiagnosis alone would drastically change these figures. An unknown number of persons with a diagnosis of Alzheimer disease in fact may have CJD, although only a small number of these patients receive the postmortem examination necessary to make this diagnosis. Furthermore, only a few states have made CJD reportable. Human and animal transmissible spongiform encephalopathies should be reportable nationwide and internationally.

Terry S. Singeltary, Sr Bacliff, Tex

1. Gibbons RV, Holman RC, Belay ED, Schonberger LB. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the United States: 1979-1998. JAMA. 2000;284:2322-2323. FREE FULL TEXT

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/285/6/733?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=singeltary&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT


http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/285/6/733?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=singeltary&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT


2 January 2000

British Medical Journal

U.S. Scientist should be concerned with a CJD epidemic in the U.S., as well

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/320/7226/8/b#6117


15 November 1999

British Medical Journal

vCJD in the USA * BSE in U.S.

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/319/7220/1312/b#5406


APHIS-2006-0041-0006 TSE advisory committee for the meeting December 15, 2006

http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/ContentViewer?objectId=09000064801f3413&disposition=attachment&contentType=msw8


Subject: [Docket No. FSIS-2006-0011] FSIS Harvard Risk Assessment of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/Comments/2006-0011/2006-0011-1.pdf


[Docket No. 03-025IFA] FSIS Prohibition of the Use of Specified Risk Materials for Human Food and Requirement for the Disposition of Non-Ambulatory Disabled Cattle

9/13/2005

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/Comments/03-025IFA/03-025IFA-2.pdf


ALL animals for human/animal consumption must be tested for TSE.

ALL human TSEs must be made reportable Nationally and Internationally, OF ALL AGES. ...


Terry S. Singeltary Sr.

P.O. Box 42

Bacliff, Texas USA 77518