News Update
June 21, 2011

Important Announcement from the American Angus Association Board of Directors

On June 20, the American Angus Association published the names and registration numbers of a sire (Vermilion X Factor, Reg. 15535998) and dam (S R S Nellie 0475P, Reg. 14962497) determined to be carriers of a double-muscling mutation. A registered bull calf produced by this mating was also determined to be an affected double-muscled calf, and his registration has been canceled.

The publication of these two carriers and the removal of a single bull calf from the registry follow an investigation by the Association that was triggered by a report received from the owner of the dam and affected calf. Following protocol, the Association involved David Steffen, a veterinary pathologist at the University of Nebraska, with whom the Association has worked on defect matters for approximately 20 years.

As a part of the investigation, the affected calf was parent-verified to the bull and dam at issue. The breeders of the affected animals have cooperated fully with the Association and, to date, there have been no further reports received of the presence of a double-muscled animal.

In his determination, Steffen reached several conclusions that are worth noting here.

1) First, Steffen discussed the fact that a currently available DNA test developed for testing on other breeds provides a basis for determining whether an animal is or is not a carrier of this particular strain of double muscling.

2) Second, the dam of the affected calf was a heterozygote, and the distribution of the gene in this case is consistent with that of a simple recessive.

That test played a role in this case. As a part of his own response to the calf, the owner of the dam and calf submitted DNA on the sire, dam and affected calf to a testing lab to determine whether those animals had the nt821 deletion in the myostatin genotype. That deletion in the myostatin gene has been known to cause muscular hypertrophy (double muscling) in other breeds of cattle. In this situation, the test results on the sire, dam and calf indicated the presence of a simple recessive, giving rise to Steffen’s belief that the test could be of value in the Angus breed. His belief was affirmed by communications he had with scientists at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC), Clay Center, Neb., who had been involved in research relating to that specific deletion.

Finally, Steffen urged that the Association monitor the breed for this mutation, which he believed could have a low frequency based on the relative absence of dystocia (difficulty in calving) found in Angus cattle. That observation may explain why, other than the affected calf in this case, the Association has not received any reports of double-muscled animals in years.

This notice will, of course, raise questions for some breeders and, in anticipation of that, the Board of Directors provides the following guidance to the membership as it works promptly toward establishing an approach to deal with this strain of double muscling:

1. The Association is moving as quickly as possible to reach agreement to begin testing and processing the results of the nt821 deletion tests in an orderly fashion.

2. Steffen’s determination that the sire and dam are carriers was based on his observation of pictures of the affected calf and the fact that parentage was verified. As such, the marking of the pedigrees of current and future progeny would normally proceed under Rule 306.c.

3. However, in that regard, the Board intends to either amend Rule 306.c. as it relates to the registration status of progeny of carrier parents or to adopt a specific policy to deal with this strain of double muscling.

The Board is monitoring this matter closely and will update the website (www.angus.org) as soon as it has additional information. In the meantime, please feel free to contact the Association staff at 816-383-5100 if you have any questions.

— June 20, 2011, statement by American Angus Association Board of Directors.

View The Angus Report

The June 17 edition of The Angus Report, available at http://bit.ly/mfaDC2, provides an update on CAB sales, a preview of a fitting clinic to be presented at the National Junior Angus Show and a segment about how to choose a feedyard. The American Angus Association’s online news program covers a variety of topics in a traditional television news format. Watch www.angus.org for reports posted each Friday.

— Release by American Angus Association.

Peterson Introduces Biodiesel Legislation

U.S. House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) today joined Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) to introduce the Biodiesel Tax Incentive Reform and Extension Act (H.R. 2238). The legislation would extend the $1-per-gallon biodiesel tax credit to 2014 and change the tax incentive to a production excise tax credit.

— Release by House Committee on Agriculture Democrats.

TAHC to Discontinue Brucellosis Testing at Markets

The Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) announced that effective Aug. 1, 2011, government-subsidized brucellosis (Bang’s disease) testing at all Texas livestock markets will be discontinued due to a lack of funding available to pay for future testing. The TAHC will no longer enforce the requirement that all test-eligible (adult) cattle be brucellosis-tested for a change of ownership within Texas.

After diligently working to eradicate brucellosis from cattle for almost 50 years, on Feb. 1, 2008, the USDA declared Texas brucellosis free.

“The discontinuation of brucellosis testing will not affect Texas’ Brucellosis-free state status,” State Veterinarian Dee Ellis said. “We remind Texas producers, marketers and veterinarians however, that maintaining a brucellosis-free Texas requires constant awareness and vigilance. Although the TAHC will no longer enforce the requirement for brucellosis testing of adult cattle, cattle producers are encouraged to discuss the issue with their veterinary practitioner prior to purchasing replacement cattle,” Ellis said.

Brucellosis is a bacterial disease of cattle that can cause abortions, weak calves and low milk production. Humans can also catch brucellosis (undulant fever) most commonly by consuming unpasteurized milk products or by handling contaminated birthing material when assisting with difficult calving situations in infected cows.

For questions or concerns regarding the termination of brucellosis testing at livestock markets, please contact your local region office. Contact information for regional TAHC offices can be found at www.tahc.state.tx.us.

FDA Unveils Global Strategy to Ensure Safety and Quality of Imported Products

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) June 20 unveiled a strategy to meet the challenges posed by rapidly rising imports of FDA-regulated products and a complex global supply chain in a report called the “Pathway to Global Product Safety and Quality.”

“Global production of FDA-regulated goods has exploded over the past 10 years. In addition to an increase in imported finished products, manufacturers increasingly use imported materials and ingredients in their U.S. production facilities, making the distinction between domestic and imported products obsolete,” said Commissioner of Food and Drugs Margaret Hamburg. “There has been a perfect storm — more products, more manufacturers, more countries and more access. A dramatic change in strategy must be implemented.”

The FDA report calls for the agency to transform the way it conducts business and to act globally in order to promote and protect the health of U.S. consumers. Highlights of the report include four key elements needed to make the change:

• The FDA will partner with its counterparts worldwide to create global coalitions of regulators focused on ensuring and improving global product safety and quality.
• The coalitions of regulators will develop international data information systems and networks and increase the regular and proactive sharing of data and regulatory resources across world markets.
• The FDA will build in additional information gathering and analysis capabilities with an increased focus on risk analytics and information technology.
• The FDA increasingly will leverage the efforts of public and private third parties and industry and allocate FDA resources based on risk.

“FDA-regulated imports have quadrupled since 2000,” Hamburg said. “The FDA and our global regulatory partners recognize this new reality and realize we must work proactively and collaboratively to address the challenges we face. The FDA must further collaborate and leverage in order to close the gap between our import levels and our regulatory resources. This report is an important step in ensuring we are able to fulfill our critical public health mission.”

The change in strategy will address trends expected to be seen worldwide in upcoming years:

• Western economies will increase their productivity to compete with emerging markets and economies, leading to more imports and increased pressure to reinvent manufacturing processes.
• Money, goods, data and people will increasingly and more quickly cross borders. Today, a typical U.S. manufacturing company relies on more than 35 different contract manufacturers around the world.
• Growing demand, constrained supply, and increased regulatory and social scrutiny will determine what resources are used, how they are used and the cost. Manufacturers will adopt new manufacturing processes and emerging technologies in response.
• Governments worldwide will increasingly be called upon to mitigate the sometimes negative impacts of globalization on their citizens, making the operating environment for companies more complex.

The new strategy also builds on changes already set in motion by the FDA. The FDA increased the number of foreign drug manufacturing inspections by 27% between 2007 and 2009 and has opened a series of international offices in key locations. FDA has also collaborated with its counterparts in the European Union and Australia on drug inspections, worked to harmonize certain aspects of drug regulation via the International Conference on Harmonization, and joined the Pharmaceutical Inspection Cooperation/Scheme (PIC/S), which is an organization of the drug manufacturing inspectorates from 39 countries. The FDA and other global leaders are also creating an expanded global regulators forum for medical devices.

The FDA is also broadening its food safety efforts under the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). This new law creates a new foods safety system, in which FDA has a legislative mandate to require comprehensive preventive controls across the food supply chain and has new tools to hold players in the supply chain responsible. There are also new inspection mandates, including a mandate leading to the inspection of more than 19,000 foreign food facilities in the year 2016.

The FSMA recognizes the importance of partnerships in the success of this new food safety system, particularly in the area of imports. For example, importers now have an affirmative obligation to verify the safety of the food they bring into the United States. In addition, the FDA will establish a program for qualified third parties to certify that foreign food facilities are in compliance with U.S. requirements and can require certification as a condition of entry into the United States. And, FSMA explicitly encourages arrangements with foreign governments to leverage resources.

“In order to cope with the fundamental global shifts on the horizon, the FDA will have to substantially and fundamentally revise our approach to global product safety. We can no longer rely on historical tools, activities and approaches,” said Acting Principal Deputy Commissioner of Food and Drugs John Taylor. “Implementing this strategy is vital to the public health.”

FDA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protects the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products for human use, and medical devices. The agency also is responsible for the safety and security of our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, products that give off electronic radiation, and for regulating tobacco products.

— Release by FDA.

Beef Board Budget Dips More Than 20% Percent in Five Years

The Beef Promotion Operating Committee has recommended a $42 million Cattlemen’s Beef Board budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2012, reflecting a 2.1% decrease from the FY 2011 budget and down more than 20% from 2007.

The 2012 budget recommendation still must be approved by the full Beef Board, which administers the national checkoff program, and by USDA. As recommended by the Operating Committee on June 15, the budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, 2011, includes:

• $17.8 million for promotion, including advertising, foodservice, retail and veal promotion, and new-product development.
• $5.8 million for research programs, including beef safety, product enhancement, nutrition research, and market research.
• $4.4 million for consumer information programs, which includes consumer public relations and information, outreach to nutrition influencers, and the “Telling the Beef Story” initiative.
• $3.1 million for industry information programs, including beef and veal quality assurance and issues management.
• $6.4 million for foreign marketing, including promotion and public-relations programs around the globe.
• $1.8 million for producer communications, including trade advertising, media relations, and direct communications to producers about the results of their checkoff investments.
• $225,000 for evaluation of checkoff programs.
• $180,000 for program development.
• $250,000 for USDA oversight.
• $2 million for administration, which includes costs for Board meetings, legal fees, travel costs, office rental, supplies, equipment and administrative staff compensation. 

“Once again, we’re looking at doing more with less next year,” said Beef Board Chairman Tom Jones, a producer from Arkansas who also chairs the Operating Committee. “We really depend on our evaluation process to help us make some decisions about which programs are most effective and which may be less so. But we’re to the point where we are being forced to make some tough decisions about which effective programs to trim back yet again.”

The budget recommendation from the Operating Committee, which includes 10 members of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and 10 directors from the Federation of State Beef Councils, matches that of the Joint Budget Committee, which reviewed Beef Board revenue estimates for next year and mapped out the accompanying budget recommendation on June 15.

“There are a number of outstanding checkoff programs that we would like to expand, especially with rising prices and increased competition in the marketplace,” said Arkansas producer and Beef Board Secretary-Treasurer Weldon Wynn. “But we are absolutely required to balance the budget. To make this happen, the producer volunteers who administer our checkoff help evaluate every program up close, balancing results against the global economic environment and consumer attitudes, then placing our investments where we think they’ll do the most good to help our fellow producers and importers here in the United States in the coming year.”

Chairman Jones said he believes the Budget and Operating committees did the best job possible of laying out a budget strategy for fiscal year 2012, given the constraints they faced.

“We sure don’t like to cut back budgets when there’s so much more that we could be doing out there,” Jones said. “But we sure feel blessed to have this national self-help program in place to help us promote beef, in general, at a volume and reach that none of us would be able to accomplish as individual producers.

“We look forward to seeing all of the specific program proposals from contractors for the checkoff,” Jones continued. “We’ll get a good look at those and vote on exactly what to fund in each budget category at our meeting coming up in September.”

The CBB Executive Committee also ratified the Operating Committee’s budget recommendation during its meeting June 16. In the coming stages of the FY 2012 budgeting process, the full Beef Board will be asked to approve the budget at its meeting in Orlando in August. Joint industry advisory committees and subcommittees also will meet in Orlando to prepare recommendations for specific program proposals to be funded with that budget. Those proposals then will be considered by the Operating Committee on Sept. 20 and must finally be approved by USDA before any checkoff dollars may be spent.

Funds from the Beef Board for national checkoff programs in Fiscal 2012 will be augmented by about $7 million in voluntary contributions from state beef councils to their national Federation of State Beef Councils.

— Release by Cattlemen’s Beef Board.

— Compiled by Shauna Rose Hermel, editor, Angus Productions Inc.