Meat & Poultry -- December 2013 - 17

work for the benefit of the public."

worked on a USDA BSE Response Plan that was con-

Even more remarkable, DeHaven says, was that many

stantly updated because the science of BSE was constantly

APHIS employees had given up their holidays and Christ-

evolving," Acord says. "Federal, state and industry offi-

mas the year before in a year-long effort (which ended Oct.

cials all participated in the plan's development. We met

1) to eradicate Newcastle's Disease in poultry in southern

often to share any new information and to make sure we

California. "Now, we were calling on the same workforce

understood each other's role. The communication plan

to do the same thing again," he says.

had segments for the consuming public, producers and

One of those employees was APHIS's area veterinar-

trading partners. Our domestic success was due in large

ian in charge in Washington State. Dr. Gary Brickler, an

measure to having such a plan and having it skillfully im-

Army reservist, had just returned from a tour in Afghan-

plemented by all partners."

istan and was looking forward to spending the holidays
with his family.

In addition, Canada's first home-grown BSE case on
May 20 that year helped USDA know exactly what to do.

"To his great credit, he immediately jumped into the fray

"The Canadian case was almost like having our own case

and spent night and day for the next several weeks trying

so we went through the whole drill with them," Veneman

to trace the Washington cow and her cohorts," Acord says.

says. "We helped our Canadian counterparts a lot dur-

DeHaven recalls getting a phone call from Brickler at

ing their case so we were pretty prepared for our own."

midnight on Christmas Eve to tell him the cow had been

Another reason for the lack of impact was the choice of

traced back to a Canadian dairy herd. "I remember think-

DeHaven as USDA's spokesman, Acord says. "He quickly

ing this would allow us to wrap up the case fairly quickly.

earned credibility as an authoritative and credible source

Of course, it didn't turn out that way," he says.
Another senior USDA official preparing for Christmas
was Undersecretary for Food Safety Elsa Murano. "I had
taken vacation and was getting ready to go see my mother in Cumming, Ga. I was packing Christmas presents
in the trunk of my car that I had just bought, when I got
a call from USDA's Undersecretary for the Agriculture
Marketing Service, Bill Hawks. Bill advised me to come
to [USDA's] Whitten Building as soon as possible, that
Secretary Veneman was on her way there herself to discuss next steps in the response."
Murano recalls that many months before the case, at one
of USDA's weekly subcabinet meetings, Hawks brought
with him a stuffed cow that, if someone pressed one of her
hooves, began to laugh hysterically. The stuffed cow was
supposed to be a funny depiction of a "mad cow," she says.
"Many of us got a chuckle over the toy, except for Secretary Veneman, who did not find it at all amusing," she

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adds. "So, when Mr. Hawks calls me to let me know of
the first-ever case, I naturally thought he was joking, just
as he had before. That's when he said, 'Listen, I learned
my lesson. I would not joke about a thing like this with
the secretary.'"

Preparation pays off

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The fact that USDA was so well prepared minimized the
impact of the case in the US. "For several years we had
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