March 13, 2007

 

US milk producers oppose older Canadian cattle imports

 

 

The US National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) opposes the resumption of cattle exports from Canada for breeding or herd replacement purposes, according to a release from the organisation over the weekend.

 

The USDA is currently considering reopening the US border to animals born after March 1999 for any use, including as breeding stock.

 

The release quoted comments the group made Friday (Mar 9) to the US Department of Agriculture concerning the proposal. By opposing the rule, the NMPF joins groups such as R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America, which is working to get the USDA to cancel its plans to open the border.

 

The border was closed in 2003 when the country reported its first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. Since then, the US has begun allowing imports of cattle younger than 30 months of age for feeding or direct slaughter by the time they reach 30 months of age because they are thought to be less likely to be diagnosed with the disease.

 

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association supports the move to allow the older cattle imports as long as they are marked before crossing the border.

 

Because of ongoing concerns about the effectiveness in Canada of the 10 year-old ban on feeding mammalian tissues to cows--the key firewall intended to prevent the spread of BSE--NMPF told the USDA it would be imprudent to allow live animal traffic to resume, the release said.

 

The NMPF pointed out that six of the last seven Canadian cases of BSE were in cattle born after 1997. Four of the last six BSE cases were in animals born after March 1, 1999, which USDA pegs as the date of the Canadian cattle industry's full compliance with the feed ban.

 

The first case of BSE in the US was a dairy animal, born in Canada, and exported to a Washington state dairy farm. It was discovered to have BSE in December 2003.

 

In its comments, the NMPF expressed concern that Canada's implementation of the 1997 feed ban was not as effective as the government had originally thought. USDA estimates the prevalence of BSE in Canada at 6.8 animals per every 10 million adult cattle, which is more than seven times the BSE prevalence in the US.

 

"Detection of a single positive BSE animal within a US commercial or breeding herd subjects that entire herd (all herdmates and offspring of the positively confirmed animal) to potential quarantine, testing and further tracing to the herd or herds of origin," the NMPF wrote. "This rigorous follow-up regulatory action results in a great deal of adverse publicity for the entire cattle industry, and greatly jeopardises export sales and markets for beef, and potentially dairy products if the associated animal is a dairy cow."

 

The NMPF said the USDA has not done an economic impact analysis on the potential financial losses to dairy farmers from the resumption of Canadian dairy heifer imports, the release said. Such an action is "crucial to examining the overall changes to our market that will result from moving forward with a completely open border".