D26—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 19,1984
False health records spawn much tragedy
WASHINGTON, D.C. - “False
disease records can have tragic ef
fects for personal lives, people’s
businesses and for entire in
dustries,” explains Bert W.
Hawkins, administrator of the
Animal and Plant Health Inspec
tion Service of the U.S. Depart
ment of Agriculture.
“These tragedies surprise some
people who forge government
forms to save themselves time and
trouble, they think that no one but
a few bureaucrats are affected.
That is far from the truth.
“A recent case in point involves
multiple violations by Ernest
Mendel and his family’s business,
Albert Mendel and Sons, Inc., of
Patterson, N.Y. They were in
dicted on 52 counts of misrepresen
ting the health status of cows and
making false statements regar
ding blood samples taken from
these rows. Stipulated expert ■
testimony established that blood
samples used in tests for
brucellosis were taken from two
healthy bulls - not from Mendel’s
cows,” Hawkins said.
Brucellosis causes aborted
calves, breeding problems, and
lower milk yields. Annual
economic losses to the beef and
dairy industries are estimated at
more than $32 million. The disease
can be spread to humans, where it
is called undulant fever.
Undulant fever
Several cases of cattle infected
Market line
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The “MDA
Market Line” news service went
into service again on Monday for
its second season of providing five
day-a-week reports on crops,
weather, prices and availability of
fresh fruits and vegetables.
Here’s the weekly lineup of
reports: Monday- Crop and
Weather summary information;
Tuesday- farm prices, inventory,
planting intentions, etc.; Wed
nesday- Highlights of the weekly
supermarket price survey;
Thursday- excerpts from the
“Maryland Feed and Grain
Report”; and Friday- updated
information on fruit and vegetable
crop and supply conditions in
Maryland.
Information carried in the
reports is from the Maryland-
Delaware Crop Reporting Service
YBEAN WOA
ALLEN SUMMERS
RDI
Nottingham, Pa. 19362
215-932-4761 .
with brucellosis, as well as one
case of undulant fever, were trac
ed to cows shipped by Mendel. The
human disease is almost unknown
in New York today, although it was
fairly common before stringent
health measures went into effect.
Dr. Alfred E. Brewer of
Lakeville, N.Y., was surprised
when he saw the symptoms in one
of his farmer-patients in 1979. The
man reported feeling strangely
weak and feverish, and the symp
toms reminded Dr. Brewer of
symptoms that he hadn’t seen
since he first started practicing
medicine in 1940. Undulant fever!
he thought. Tests confirmed his
diagnosis.
“I had purchased some cattle
two or three weeks earlier,” the
farmer, Ted Upson of Lakeville,
was quoted in press reports at the
time. “But I didn’t know there was
a problem.
Indeed there was a problem.
Besides the damage to his own
health, Upson’s entire dairy herd
had to be killed because of the
disease. “The mental strain of
starting over is more than people
realize,” Upson said.
Brucellosis broke out in several
New York locations in 1977 and
continued through January 1981.
New York previously had been
brucellosis-free for many years,
and officials of the state’s depart
ment of agriculture believe that
back in Md.
and the Maryland Department of
Agriculture, Marketing Services
Section.
Reports consist of a three
minute taped program which can
be accessed by calling (301) 841-
5763 and are put on line at 4 p.m.
each day. The fruit and vegetable
report is left on the line through the
weekend to enable consumers to
plan their buying and picking trips.
According to Bradley H. Powers,
Chief of the Marketing Services
Section of the Maryland Depart
ment of Agriculture, “we initiated
the service in 1983 and found that it
proved helpful to many consumers
and farmers and served as an
economical means of getting
timely information out so that
people could make use of it in their
planning.”
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Mendel was responsible in part for
the recurrence. A costly program
succeeded in again eradicating
brucellosis from New York.
Herds slaughtered
Entire herds had to be
slaughtered, not only in New York
but also in other nearby and far-off
locations, including Massachusetts
and Puerto Rico. Sick cattle also
were exported as far as Mexico
and Iran.
Because of the widespread
damage caused by Mendel’s
falsifications, severe actions were
taken. First, Mendel and his firm
lost their state license to trade cat
tle in New York for two years, star
ting in 1979, and they were fined
$500,000 by the state.
Also in 1979, Dr. Charles
Frumerie, a private veterinarian
practicing in Pawling, N.Y., lost
his federal accreditation to per
form official testing of livestock
for one year because of his involve
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ment in the Mendel case. Mendel’s
falsifications were made on blank
state and federal health cer
tificates presigned illegally by Dr.
Frumerie.
Finally, federal court action
began with a grand-jury indict
ment in February of 1983. Mendel
was found guilty on 23 counts of
falsified documentation. On March
6, 1984, Federal District Judge
Whitman Knapp of New York,
N.Y., sentenced Mendel to a year
and a day in prison plus three
years of probation and a fine of
$50,000. The family firm was fined
an additional $lOO,OOO. The federal
court decision is being appealed.
“These penalties are more than
justified, in my opinion,” said
APHIS’s Bert Hawkins. “I have
been in the cattle business for
many years, and I know that most
people cooperate the best they can
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Large fines
with regulations, which are meant
to stop disease. Whenever possible,
we try to enforce animal health
laws by educating people to their
responsibilities. But we intend to
prosecute those who intentionally
break the law.
“At the moment, I am encourag
ed by the progress we have made
in controlling and wiping out cattle
brucellosis. Fifteen states and
parts of two others and the Virgin
Islands are classified brucellosis
free, meaning that there have been
no known infected herds for a year
or longer. Twenty other states
have herd infection rates of a
quarter of one percent or less. The
remaining states have made con
siderable recent progress. It peo
ple understand the rules and obey
them, brucellosis will be
eradicated from all the states, and
tragedies like the ones caused by
the Mendel’s will not recur.”