May 23, 2007

 

OIE ruling on US, Canada cattle and beef draws mixed reaction

 

 

Industry reaction to the World Organization for Animal Health's (OIE) grant of "controlled risk" status for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, was mixed Tuesday (May 22).

 

However, most industry associations and traders agreed that the ruling made by the OIE during meetings in Paris had the potential to increase beef exports. It was reacting to requests from the two countries to designate them controlled risk, which means their BSE-mitigation measures are adequate to control the disease's risk to humans and livestock.

 

Since BSE was first detected in the US in December 2003, US cattle producers have faced excessive trade barriers, with US$4.8 billion in US beef and beef product exports banned from international export markets, said the National Cattlemen's Beef Association in a release. The NCBA quoted US Department of Agriculture figures that said 86 countries are either fully or partially opened to US beef. Eighteen countries still have a ban in place.

 

Of the 86 currently open markets, 53 accept bone-in products, and 30 accept product from animals over 30 months of age, the NCBA said.

 

The American Meat Institute said in a statement it was "gratified" by the OIE's adoption of a recommendation to classify the US as a controlled risk country for BSE and hopes that this classification will restore US beef exports to pre-2004 levels.

 

USDA Secretary Mike Johanns said after the OIE announcement that the US would notify its trading partners and attempt to get them to commit to a timetable that would expand access to their beef markets.

 

"This classification is a clear recognition of the US beef industry's proactive efforts to prevent, detect and control BSE," said AMI President Patrick Boyle. He said no other nation took so many aggressive measures to build firewalls to the disease before it was ever diagnosed within its borders.

 

"US cattle producers are pleased the OIE has voted to classify the US as a 'controlled risk' country for BSE," said NCBA Chief Veterinarian Elizabeth Parker, who is in Paris for the meetings. "We have taken progressive steps to eradicate BSE for almost two decades, and our extensive testing proves these steps have worked. In addition, our concrete system of science-based firewalls ensures the BSE agent does not enter the food or animal feed supply."

 

NCBA will continue to urge the US government to demand free, fair and reliable trading practices and a full re-opening of other countries' borders to US products, the release said.

 

But some traders expressed reservations about Canada being granted the same controlled risk status as the US. One trader said he was concerned about the number of Canadian cases that have cropped up in cattle that are much younger than the Canadian ban on feeding rendered ruminant by-products back to cattle.

 

"It shows there was something wrong with feed ban compliance in the early years" of the ban, the trader said.

 

In essence, the trader was echoing the concerns of R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America, which said it was it was disappointed to learn that the USDA did not aggressively seek an even more favourable disease risk classification for the US cattle industry from the OIE.

 

"According to media reports, (the) USDA is well satisfied with OIE's decision to lump the US and Canada into the same risk category for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, classifying both countries as a 'controlled' risk for the disease," R-CALF USA said in its statement.

 

"The question of whether the US at least meets OIE's controlled risk category for BSE has never been disputed," said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard. "The real question is why didn't USDA seek the more favourable category of a BSE 'negligible' risk country?

 

"Under a negligible risk, the most favourable designation of the OIE, a country cannot have had a BSE case born in the previous 11 years," he said. "The younger of the two BSE cases detected in the US was determined to be 10 years old, and this was more than a year ago. Therefore, as of today, the youngest case detected in the US was born more than 11 years ago, meeting the standard for a BSE negligible risk country."

 

"The problem with lumping the US into the same category as Canada is that the rest of the world knows that Canada has an inherently higher risk for BSE than the US, so the US has basically sold itself short," Bullard said.

 

"Canada has had six cases of BSE born after its feed ban, the youngest being born in 2002," he noted. "This suggests that Canada's feed ban has not been effective in halting the spread of the disease. There is no evidence--despite the US having tested hundreds of thousands more cattle than has Canada--to suggest that the US feed ban was not effective in preventing the spread of the disease here in the US."