Mad cow cost beef industry billions in '04

WICHITA, Kan. -- The discovery of mad cow disease in the United States cost the beef industry between $3.2 billion and $4.7 billion in losses last year, according to an economic impact study.

The report, commissioned by the Kansas Department of Agriculture, also concluded that voluntary testing for the disease would have provided an economic gain to the beef industry despite the added testing costs.

"When we look at the slow progress in terms of [reopening trade] with Japan and South Korea, it may well be the end of 2005 until we see movement -- and so those numbers enlarge significantly," said Adrian Polansky, Kansas' agriculture secretary.

The 65-page report, released last week, looks at regulator costs, losses and consumer reactions after the December 2003 discovery of a mad cow case in Washington state. It concludes that profits from overseas markets would have more than paid for testing for mad cow disease.

People who eat beef tainted by the aberrant protein believed to cause mad cow can contract a rare but fatal disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

The U.S. Agriculture Department has been adamantly opposed to voluntary testing, saying such tests would not identify mad cow in younger cattle and are not needed.

USDA spokeswoman Suzan Holl said the agency could not comment because it had not yet had enough time to review the study, done by Kansas State University.

Kansas State researchers estimated it would have cost $640 million to test all cattle slaughtered in the United States last year, not counting the investment needed to equip processing plants for the testing.

Days after the discovery of the first U.S. mad cow case, 53 countries banned U.S. beef imports.

While Mexico and Canada partially resumed beef imports last year, U.S. beef exports in 2004 were 82 percent below 2003 levels.