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Monday, November 14, 2005

FDA Mad Cow Testing Not Good Enough

...but there's bad news on the other hand. GAO released last week a report dated October 11 faulting FDA for weaknesses in its program for testing what gets feed to the cattle. From the abstract:

• Specifically, under the program guidance, FDA did not require districts to document their follow-up reviews or the basis for their final determinations on samples that the laboratories identified as potentially containing banned protein products. Although the districts may have conducted rigorous follow-up and exercised sound judgment, the basis for their decisions cannot be reviewed and confirmed.

• For nearly half the 989 samples, FDA took longer than 30 days from the date the sample was collected until the date the laboratory completed its analysis -- including 21 samples that took longer than 100 days. This extended period does not include the time FDA's districts would have spent following up on samples that indicated potential violations. FDA and industry agree that cattle feed is consumed very quickly. By the time FDA conducted its follow up to determine whether a violation had occurred, the feed may have been consumed.

• FDA managers in headquarters did not adequately oversee the feed testing program. Specifically, FDA managers did not receive periodic reports or have other oversight controls in place to assure that the program was implemented correctly.