INTERNATIONAL LONGSHOREMEN'S AND WAREHOUSEMEN'S UNION, DEAR SENATOR: Our council is on record in support of your Senate bill 3176 and have notified the Oregon delegation of our desire for compulsory Federal inspection of poultry and poultry products. The AFL Butchers Union sent us a copy of your excellent speech on this bill in the Senate, February 10, 1956. We could use to good advantage 25 copies of this reprint if you can send them to us. Respectfully, J. K. STRANAHAN, Secretary. MAY 23, 1956. Hon. STUART SYMINGTON, United States Senate, Washington, D. C. DEAR SENATOR SYMINGTON: The Division of Health of Missouri is in favor of Senate bill 3176. The enclosed statements from my director of the Bureau of Food and Drugs gives reasons for our support of the bill. Any assistance which you lend in passage of Senate bill 3176 will be greatly appreciated. DEAR SENATOR SYMINGTON: I have had an opportunity to read Senate bill 3176 and have also read a copy of the testimony by John L. Harvey, of the FDA, concerning the views of FDA on Senate bill 3176. We agree with Mr. Harvey that there is a definite need for this type of control of the production, handling, and distribution of poultry. We regret that the Food and Drug Administration does not feel that it is capable of administering this law at the present time. For the past 10 years we have had an opportunity to work very closely with the United States Public Health Service, and the Food and Drug Administration, as well as the Bureau of Meat Inspection, USDA, in the enforcement of the State and Federal laws relating to water, sewage, meat, foods, drugs, and other public health matters. All of these agencies have been very cooperative in the past and we have found that from the top level all the way down to the local personnel stationed in Missouri have been adequately trained and carry out their duties in a forthright, conscientious, and efficient manner. We, therefore, felt that Senate bill 3176 as written would be properly administered and it was felt that the sanitary standards used in these poultry plants would be based upon the new poultry ordinance as recommended by the United States Public Health Service in their publication No. 444, April 1955. This publication was developed after several years of intensive work on the part of the poultry industry, equipment manufacturers, USPHS, Food and Drug, and local, State, and city health agencies. We feel that the United States Public Health Service and the Food and Drug Administration have the same criteria and goal which the State and local health departments have; namely, to protect the consumer by preventing disease outbreaks or stopping the spread of contagious diseases. In the case of poultry the primary function would be to eliminate diseased birds from the food supply and to permit only those plants who are operating under acceptable sanitary conditions to continue to operate. The USDA Poultry Inspection Branch, like the State department of agriculture, has as its primary aim or purpose to assist economically the producer and processor of agricultural products. With this basic concept regulatory activities of the Department of Agriculture tend to be lenient and have less regard for the consumer than they do for the producer and processor of such goods. We have failed to receive the same type of cooperation from the present Poultry Inspection Branch of the USAD as we have received from the above-mentioned agencies. In fact they appear to take the attitude that once poultry has passed their inspection it must be satisfactory from then on, regardless of the condition in which it reaches the public. We have also observed that while they do a fairly good job of ante mortem and post mortem inspection of plants under their voluntary inspection, in many cases they have apparently disregarded the unsanitary conditions which exist in the plant. On some occasions they have attempted to defend the plant when in actuality their products were unfit for human consumption. Due to this past history, we do not feel that the proposed poultry-inspection bill should be given to this agency. I believe that if this law were administered by the Bureau of Meat Inspection, USDA, that it probably would be administered in a fair and impartial manner. We have also had an opportunity to read Senate bill 3588. Since this bill contains a number of undesirable features which would be too lengthly to enumerate in this letter, we strongly favor Senate bill 3176. By direction of James R. Amos, M. D., director, division of health. JOHN H. MCCUTCHEN, Director. [From the Detroit Free Press, November 18, 1950] 5,000 BAD TURKEYS HUNTED IN DETROIT MARKETS ALERTED AFTER DISEASED BIRDS ARE SOLD BY FARM The State agriculture department moved swiftly to avert disastrous consequences from the distribution of 5,000 diseased turkeys to Detroit markets. The State authorities acted after discovery of a fowl cholera epidemic at the Gold Crest turkey farm, Ten Mile and Inkster Roads. Stores which purchased turkeys from the farm were urged to call the State agriculure department, WO 2-6680, at once. Housewives preparing turkeys for the Thanksgiving table were warned by Dr. John D. Groves, assistant State veterinarian, to cook the birds thoroughly. Thorough cooking will destroy cholera germs, Dr. Groves said. He advised this precaution at all times in preparing turkeys as a matter of policy. Agriculture department investigators testified before Municipal Judge John J. Schulte, Jr., of Farmington, at the hearing of Kenneth Wein, of Exeter, Ontario, owner of the Gold Crest farm. Wein was not present at the hearing but pleaded guilty, through his attorney, to charges of maintaining an unsanitary slaughterhouse. Judge Schulte postponed sentence a week and asked the Oakland County prosecutor's office to prepare another warrant charging Wein with selling food unfit to eat. He took this action when he was told that Wein had sold 143 birds after State authorities had quarantined the flock and impounded 2,000 dressed turkeys. Dr. Groves warned that failure to cook the birds properly might result in severe diarrhea, and might even prove fatal. Mrs. Arthur Goers, of 2240 Cora, Farmington, an employee at the farm, testified that 5,000 turkeys have been shipped to Detroit markets since other workers packing the birds had complained they were diseased. Meanwhile, State investigators are making every effort to trace the diseased. turkeys sold in Detroit. They said it would be impossible to distinguish them from healthy fowl, once they are removed from the packing cases. Eight persons employed at the farm who became ill after handling the turkeys have been stripped of their food handlers' licenses. They will be examined to determine if their infection resulted from handling the diseased birds. CITY MARKETS GET BIRDS MOSTLY FROM NORTHERN AREAS Alfred Sagert, Midwest Poultry Co. owner and a member of the Detroit Butchers' Association, said 90 percent of the turkeys sold in Detroit are shipped. in from northern Michigan and Minnesota. He said all the shipments, including those to eastern and western markets outlets, are subject to strict supverision by the Detroit Board of Health. He blamed fly-by-night merchants for the Farmington shipment here. "They did not make their purchases through regular business channels," he said. Detroit retailers and top chains have a reputation for selling quality birds, he added. [From the Detroit Free Press, November 17, 1950] QUARANTINED BY STATE-DISEASED TURKEYS FOUND IN OAKLAND An Oakland County turkey farmer was charged by State officials with keeping a filthy and insanitary slaughterhouse. Kenneth Wein, who operates the Gold Crest Turkey Farm, Ten Mile and Inkster, was arraigned before Farmington Municipal Judge John J. Schulte, Jr. Fred Rowlader, manager of the Detroit branch of the foods and standards division of the State agriculture department, said turkeys on the farm were found to be diseased. Rowlader said three girls employed at the farm slaughterhouse had become infected through handling the turkeys. Agriculture Department quarantined 10,000 fowls still at the farm. At the same time they seized 2,000 killed and dressed turkeys from the farm at a Walled Lake cold-storage plant. Specimens of both the live and dressed turkeys were taken to Agriculture Department laboratories in Lansing for examination. Wein, who pleaded innocent, will be given a hearing in Farmington Friday. The alleged violations were discovered by two investigators for the Agriculture Department, Carl Williams and Clyde Cottom. [From the Detroit Free Press, December 8, 1950] THREE HUNDRED TURKEYS FOUND DEAD NEAR ROMULUS A canvass of several turkey farms near Romulus failed to reveal who dumped an estimated 300 dead birds, valued at about $2,000, in a field near Wick Road, sanitation officials said. "Although diseased, the turkeys died of no ailment which could spread to humans," Morton S. Hilbert, of the Wayne County Sanitation Department, said. The check, he said, uncovered nothing to indicate that the find might be part of the several thousand diseased turkeys still believed missing from the Gold Crest Turkey Farm, Farmington, quarantined just before Thanksgiving Day. [From the Detroit Free Press, November 19, 1950] REASSURE BUYERS OF TURKEYS-MOST STORES SELLING CERTIFIED BIRDS An around-the-clock search by State agriculture department investigators reduced to about 3,000 the turkeys believed to have been sold from the choleraridden Gold Crest Turkey Farm flock, Assistant Oakland County Prosecutor George Taylor announced. "We have no way of telling how many of those may be buried at the farm," he added. * * * * * About 2,000 have been seized, some in a cold-storage plant at Walled Lake and about 500 were confiscated at the farm, Taylor said. Dr. Joseph G. Molner, Detroit health commissioner, said he believed no turkeys from the Gold Crest Farm had come to the Detroit market. "I'm sure none were marketed in Detroit through legitimate channels, because our inspectors said if turkeys could have reached Detroit consumers would be through bootlegging," Molner said. Meanwhile Kroger, Wrigley, and A. & P. stores declared that none of their turkeys is purchased locally. The A. & P. supply comes exclusively from Missouri and Iowa. Kroger turkeys come from Iowa and the West, mostly. Some turkeys are purchased in northern Michigan. Wrigley turkeys are purchased outside the State. The cholera epidemic is confined exclusively to the Gold Crest Farm, it was pointed out. Dr. John D. Groves, assistant State veterinarian, said that even infected birds could be safely eaten if they were thoroughly cooked. Taylor disclosed that medicine is being given to surviving birds in the estimated flock of 10,000. "This can all be cleaned up in about 30 days," Taylor said. "Birds from this farm should be healthy and perfectly edible in time for the Christmas trade." The missing fowls are somewhere in the Detroit area, Taylor said, although there is no way of determining if any are in markets within the Detroit city limits. INDIANAPOLIS, IND., May 10, 1956. Senator JAMES E. MURRAY, Chairman, Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee, The officers of the International Association of Milk and Food Sanitarians, Inc., representing membership of some 4,000, subscribe to the premise that the inspection of poultry for wholesomeness should be done as a public health measure rather than as a marketing activity. We add our support to Senate Bill 3176 and thank you for your support of it. HAROLD S. ADAMS, President. (Thereupon, at 12:15 p. m., the hearing was adjourned subject to the call of the Chair.) |