02/06/06 Inspector General report on BSE testing

American Rancher February 6, 2006 The USDA's Inspector General says it can't tell if the department's expanded BSE surveillance program is actually achieving its goal of determining the overall prevalence of BSE in the nation's cattle herd. According to the IG part of the problem is the voluntary nature of the program and whether USDA is getting sufficient samples from all parts of the country. The IG wants USDA to fully disclose the limitations of its sampling when discussing the prevalence of BSE in the U.S. Dr. Ron DeHaven, Administrator of USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service agrees and says that recommendation will be implemented. In fact, DeHaven says action has been taken on all the recommendations made in the Inspector General's report, which pertained not only to APHIS but also to the Food Safety and Inspection Service. DeHaven: "It is critical to point out that we have reached management decision on all 22 recommendations. So we very much appreciate their help in identifying areas. We are actually quite pleased that we have reached management agreement, or we have reached agreement on actions necessary to resolve their findings." The IG audit report said its recommendations need to be adopted to ensure the safety of beef for U.S. consumers as USDA scales back from its expanded BSE surveillance program. Of just over 600-thousand cattle tested, only one positive case of BSE has been found. I'm Bob Hoff.