AGRICULTURE REPORT - New Rules to Fight Mad Cow

AGRICULTURE REPORT - New Rules to Fight Mad Cow
By Mario Ritter

Broadcast: Tuesday, January 06, 2004

This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT.

Last week, American Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman announced new rules to protect the nation's food supply from Mad Cow Disease. The rules represent the government's reaction to the first American case of Bovine¹ Spongiform Encephalopathy, or B-S-E. A form of B-S-E, Cruetzfeldt-Jakob Disease, can infect people. An estimated one-hundred-fifty people worldwide died from the disease since nineteen-eighty-six.

The first and most important new rule bans the use of what the cattle industry calls downer cattle. Such animals are too sickly or injured to walk. In the past, over one-hundred-fifty-thousand downer cattle were killed for food each year. About five percent of them were tested for disease. Now, meat from downer cattle will not be permitted in human food.

 
Graphic² Image
In addition, the Department of Agriculture will not mark meat as inspected and passed until tests show that it is without disease. In the past, meat was prepared for market before testing had been completed. This is how meat for the first American case of Mad Cow Disease entered the food supply.

On December ninth, a downer cow was identified in Washington State. Part of the cow's nervous system was tested. The rest of the nervous system was taken for use as something other than human food. The meat was sent to several states and the island of Guam. America's National Veterinary Services Laboratories confirmed the case thirteen days later. The new rules require companies to hold the meat from suspect cattle until tests show that they are without disease.

The Agriculture Department also will ban some parts of cattle from the human food supply. The parts include the eyes, brain, and nervous system material from the back and bottom of the head. This will be required for cattle older than thirty months of age. The small intestine³ of all cattle will be banned from human food.

Two other measures will be put in place. A system used to kill cattle called air-injection stunning⁴ will be banned. The method is believed to spread brain tissue throughout the body of the animal. And, meat that is mechanically removed from bones will no longer be used for human food.

The rules are meant to ease fears of Americans and of beef importers. Currently⁵, more than thirty countries have banned American beef.

This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by Mario Ritter.

1 bovine   

adj.牛的；n.牛

参考例句：

• He threw off his pack and went into the rush-grass andand munching,like some bovine creature.他丢开包袱，爬到灯心草丛里，像牛似的大咬大嚼起来。
• He was a gentle,rather bovine man.他是一位文雅而反应迟钝的人。

2 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。

3 intestine   

adj.内部的；国内的；n.肠

参考例句：

• This vitamin is absorbed through the walls of the small intestine.这种维生素通过小肠壁被吸收。
• The service productivity is the function,including external efficiency,intestine efficiency and capacity efficiency.服务业的生产率是一个包含有外部效率、内部效率和能力效率的函数。

4 stunning   

adj.极好的；使人晕倒的

参考例句：

• His plays are distinguished only by their stunning mediocrity.他的戏剧与众不同之处就是平凡得出奇。
• The finished effect was absolutely stunning.完工后的效果非常美。

5 currently   

adv.通常地，普遍地，当前

参考例句：

• Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
• Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。