Mad-cow dairyman’s tale on Web

YAKIMA – The Mabton dairyman at the center of the mad cow case last December has allowed the story of his ordeal to be posted on the Web site for a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Bill Wavrin, a large-animal veterinarian as well as a dairyman, has consistently declined news media requests for an interview.

The agency wanted to use his story as a real-life example to reach out to dairies and cattle producers that might find themselves at the center of another mad cow storm, said Andrea McNally, a USDA spokeswoman.

The Agriculture Department announced last December that a dairy cow in Mabton had tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, a brain-wasting illness.

In the story posted on the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service Web site, Wavrin recalls his anxious feelings when he first learned the mad cow was a Holstein from his herd.

A top USDA official and the state veterinarian arrived at his Sunny Dene Ranch on the evening of Dec. 23, the day the agency announced the news, he said.

“The excruciating part was not knowing how it was going to go,” he said.

Wavrin’s biggest worries were how many cows he would lose and the cost to his business, but federal officials assuaged his fears, he said.

“When it was over, though, Wavrin had not only been indemnified for his losses but also had only positive things to say about the way he had been treated,” said the public relations firm of Donya Malenson of Merrimac, Mass., which contracts with USDA.

Wavrin had previously told his story to the Washington Farm Bureau.

Federal officials culled 129 cows from the Sunny Dene herd that was then estimated at 4,000. The dairy now has 3,200 cows, according to the story.

The federal government embarked on a new surveillance program in June to establish the prevalence of the disease in the nation’s herds. The goal is to test 268,000 cows in the next year or so, and USDA has cautioned that they expect to uncover additional cases of mad cow disease.

But the new testing program has been criticized. Last month, the USDA inspector general said in a draft report that the program is poorly designed and improperly relies on voluntary cooperation from farmers and ranchers.

Telling Wavrin’s story on the Web site is one way to increase participation in the program, McNally said.

“This site is geared toward being easy to use and kind of friendly to cattle producers that might be looking for some information about the BSE testing program,” she told the Yakima Herald-Republic for a story Friday.

Diane Farsetta, senior researcher for the Center for Media and Democracy, said the agency is using an interesting public relations tactic.

“In light of the criticism USDA has been taking for the inadequacy of the testing program, this seems to be a way of putting a human face on it to sell the idea to farmers,” Farsetta said.

The Center for Media and Democracy uses investigative reporting to uncover what it calls propaganda by government and corporations. Its founder is John Stauber, author of the 1997 book: “Mad Cow U.S.A.: Could the Nightmare Happen Here?”