00                      HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 35                                                                     
01 Relating to mad cow disease and country-of-origin labeling for meat products.                                           
02 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
03       WHEREAS the first cow in the United States infected with bovine spongiform                                      
04 encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow disease, was identified in December, 2003;                                    
05 and                                                                                                                     
06       WHEREAS bovine spongiform encephalopathy is a neurological disease in cattle                                    
07 caused by an aberrant protein called a prion, most commonly found in specified risk materials                           
08 such as the skull, brain, trigeminal ganglia, eyes, vertebral column, spinal cord, and dorsal                           
09 root ganglia; and                                                                                                       
10       WHEREAS humans can develop variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease from eating                                        
11 contaminated beef products; and                                                                                         
12       WHEREAS cattle most commonly contract bovine spongiform encephalopathy from                                     
13 feed contaminated by infectious prions; and                                                                             
14       WHEREAS, in 1997, the United States Food and Drug Administration prohibited the                                 
15 use of most mammalian protein in the manufacture of animal feed intended for cattle; and                                
16       WHEREAS the United States Department of Agriculture has taken steps to identify                                 

01 and destroy cattle that are from the same herd as the infected cow and other animals that may                           
02 have been exposed to that cow; and                                                                                      
03       WHEREAS, among those steps, the United States Department of Agriculture has                                     
04 banned all nonambulatory disabled cattle from the food chain, prohibited the use of specified                           
05 risk materials in human food consumption, and prohibited slaughter practices that may cause                             
06 the dislocation of brain material and its inclusion with other tissue; and                                              
07       WHEREAS the cow infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy was imported                                     
08 from outside the United States; and                                                                                     
09       WHEREAS country-of-origin labeling for meat products has been postponed for two                                 
10 years by the United States Congress; and                                                                                
11       WHEREAS Americans deserve to know what is in their food and where it comes                                      
12 from; and                                                                                                               
13       WHEREAS Americans deserve to have a safe food supply;                                                           
14       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature supports efforts by the United                                 
15 States Department of Agriculture to control and eradicate bovine spongiform encephalopathy                              
16 in United States cattle; and be it                                                                                      
17       FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature supports any efforts by                                      
18 the Alaska congressional delegation to implement country-of-origin labeling for meat                                    
19 products sooner than the current implementation date.                                                                   
20       COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Ann Veneman, United                                    
21 States Secretary of Agriculture; and to the Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Lisa                                
22 Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of                                  
23 the Alaska delegation in Congress.