Harvard Study Shows Very Low Risk Of BSE In U.S.
WASHINGTON. D.C. The
USDA released a landmark
study by Harvard University that
shows die risk of Bovine Spongi
form Encephalopathy (BSE) oc
curring in die United States is ex
tremely low.
The report showed that early
protection systems put into place
by the USDA and Department of
Health and Human Services
(HHS) have been largely respon
sible for keeping BSE out of the
U.S. and would prevent it from
spreading if it ever did enter the
country. Even so, officials out
lined a series of actions to be
taken that would continue
strengthening programs to re
duce that risk even further.
The risk assessment was com
missioned by USDA and con
ducted by the Harvard Center for
Risk Analysis. It evaluates the
ways BSE could spread if it were
to ever enter the United States.
The report’s purpose is to give
agencies a scientific analysis to
evaluate preventative measures
already in place and identify ad
ditional actions that should be
taken to minimize the risk of
BSE.
“The study clearly shows that
the years of early actions taken
by the federal government to
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safeguard consumers have helped
keep BSE from entering the
United States,” said Agriculture
Secretary Ann M. Veneman.
“Even if BSE were to ever be in
troduced, it would be contained
according to the study. However,
we cannot let down our guard or
reduce our vigilance. We must
continue to strengthen these crit
ical programs and today we are
announcing a series of actions to
bolster our protection systems.”
“Based on three years of thor
ough study, we are firmly confi
dent that BSE will not become an
animal or public health problem
in America,” said Dr. George
Gray, deputy director of the Har
vard Center for Risk Analysis
and director of the project.
In response to the report, Ve
neman announced a series of ac
tions the USDA would take, in
cooperation with HHS, to
strengthen its BSE prevention
programs and maintain the gov
ernment’s vigilance against the
disease.
First, USDA will have the risk
assessment peer reviewed by a
team of outside experts to ensure
its scientific integrity.
Second, the USDA will more
than double the number of BSE
s
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tests it will conduct this fiscal
year, with over 12,500 cattle sam
ples targeted in 2002—up from
5,000 during 2001.
Third, USDA will publish a
policy options paper outlining
additional regulatory actions that
may be taken to reduce the po
tential risk of exposure and en
sure potential infectious materi
als remain out of the U.S food
supply. To ensure its decisions
are science-based, options will be
tested using the computer model
developed through the risk as
sessment to determine the poten
tial impact they would have on
animal and public health.
The options to be considered
will include: prohibiting the use
DEP Secretary Appoints
New Northwest Regional Director
HARRISBURG (Dauphin
Co.) DEP Secretary David E.
Hess has announced the appoint
ment of Kelly Burch to serve as
the director of DEP’s Northwest
Regional Office.
The northwest region encom
passes Butler, Clarion, Crawford,
Elk, Erie, Forest, Jefferson, Law
rence, McKean, Mercer, Venango
and Warren counties.
“Kelly has skillfully repre
sented Pennsylvania at a national
and international level in his
work on Great Lakes issues,”
Hess said. “I believe that experi
ence plus his prior work with the
department makes him an excel
lent choice for the post of region
al director.”
As regional director, Burch
will manage more than 200 DEP
employees in the 12 counties of
northwestern Pennsylvania.
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of brain and spinal cord from
specified categories of animals in
human food; prohibiting the use
of central nervous system tissue
in boneless beef products, includ
ing meat from advanced meat re
covery (AMR) systems; and pro
hibiting the use of vertebral
column from certain categories of
cattle, including downed animals,
in the production of meat from
advanced meat recovery systems.
USDA will invite public com
ment on the options and then
proceed with appropriate regula
tory actions.
Fourth, USDA will issue a pro
posed rule to prohibit the use of
certain stunning devices used to
immobilize cattle during slaugh
ter.
Since 1995, Burch has been
chief of the Office of the Great
Lakes, managing Pennsylvania’s
involvement in Great Lakes pro
grams. His responsibilities in
cluded representing the Com
monwealth on the International
Joint Commission’s (IJC) Great
Lakes Water Quality Board, the
Binational Executive Committee,
and the Lake Erie Lakewide
Management Plan.
On the state level, he served as
the remedial action plan coordi
nator to the Presque Isle Bay
Public Advisory Committee that
is developing a strategy to ad
dress environmental concerns in
the bay identified by IJC as an
Area of Concern in the Great
Lakes. In addition, he repre
sented the Commonwealth at
meetings of the Council of Great
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 29,2001-A29
Fifth, USDA will publish an
Advance Notice of Proposed Rul
emaking (ANPR) to consider ad
ditional regulatory options for
the disposal of dead stock on
farms and ranches. Such cattle
are considered an important po
tential pathway for the spread of
BSE in the animal chain.
“We found that even if BSE
were ever introduced, it would
not become established,” said
Gray. “With the government pro
grams already in place, even ac
counting for imperfect compli
ance, the disease in the cattle
herd would quickly die out, and
the potential for people to be ex
posed to infected cattle parts that
could transmit the disease is very
low.”
Lakes Governors and the Great
Lakes Protection Fund.
Prior to his appointment to the
Office of the Great Lakes, Burch
served three years as DEP Great
Lakes coordinator and since 1986
was a geologist at the DEP
Northwest Regional Office in
Meadville in the Oil and Gas
Management Program.
Burch replaces Steven Beck
man, who accepted a job as an
attorney in private practice in
August, and James Rozakis, as
sistant regional director, who
filled in as regional director on an
interim basis.
Burch holds a bachelor’s de
gree in geology from Edinboro
University. He resides in Erie
County with his wife and two
children.