International Brotherhood of Teamsters' Dairy Conference Director Fred Gegare has petitioned the United States Secretaries of Agriculture and Health & Human Services to immediately ban the distribution of milk associated with the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease) outbreak in the Pacific Northwest.
"While immediate steps have been taken to protect consumers from potential dangers associated with beef linked to diseased cows, relatively little has been done to allay fears about dairy products coming from the same cows," said Gegare in his letter to Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson.
In Great Britain, where more than 140 deaths were blamed on BSE-related disease, the distribution of milk from any cows linked to the outbreak was banned.
Westfarm Foods/Darigold, an employer of Teamster workers throughout the western United States, has reported on its web site that the farm where the BSE outbreak was first detected is one of the company's suppliers.
