Mad cow restrictions prudent

Cattle producers are crying foul over the U.S. Department of Agriculture's ban on the sale of "downer" cattle in wake of the nation's first case of mad cow disease.

The ban will have economic impacts on the beef industry, which had been enjoying a strong market after the ban of Canadian beef imports (also because of mad cow cases) and a resurgence in beef consumption attributed to the popularity of high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets. Some estimates say a mad cow outbreak — or fear of one — could cost producers some $2 billion a year in exports and trigger a rolling economic disaster.

Although the risk of humans consuming infected beef is very slight, cattle producers need to understand that the government's ban on the sale of downed cattle was instituted to restore confidence in the nation's meat supply and encourage foreign governments to resume beef imports. In other words, the long-term health of this industry will depend on the measures taken to instill confidence in the beef supply.

It doesn't help matters that the USDA has had a double standard with respect to "downed" beef — cattle that cannot walk either from injury or disease. Downer beef has been prohibited in federal school lunch program, but until this past week it could be processed and sold to the general public. The USDA needed to apply an equal degree of concern to general consumers.

While it's easy to impugn the agency, the fact remains that the issue of downer animals has been before Congress on several occasions. The measures have been blocked by the powerful meat lobby.

But the cattle industry surely recognizes that the USDA is operating under a different scenario. With the specter of mad cow disease looming, it is not acceptable to consumers that an estimated 190,000 sick or injured cattle are shipped to slaughterhouses and only about 5 percent of them are tested for serious illnesses such as mad cow.

No one is suggesting that the downed cattle ban won't impact the beef industry financially. Yet, the long-term viability of the industry depends on cattlemen rising to the occasion with respect to this ban. We hope this measure, coupled with the use of enhanced cattle tracking technology, will enable cattle producers to weather the storm.