June 17, 2004

BSE Requires A Global Response
 
The establishment of a world-class food-safety and animal-health system would be invaluable to consumers and would go a long way in rebuilding confidence in the global meat industry, delegates attending the World Meat Congress meeting were told Tuesday.
 
Bob Speller, Canada's Minister of Agriculture and Food, said during panel discussion that the discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease, has impacted the entire food chain.
 
He said BSE is a global challenge and demands a global response.
 
"Canada has already implemented a variety of direct measures to help the domestic sector through this crisis and has been working hard to build a stronger response system should the need arise to react to a similar incident in the future," Speller said, stressing that the reality of the situation is that no single country is completely without BSE risk.
 
A strong scientific approach is required to deal with these kinds of diseases and was instrumental in keeping consumer confidence in Canadian beef strong, Speller said. "It is no exaggeration the tremendous support Canadian consumers have placed in domestic beef products despite the BSE outbreak a year ago."
 
Included in the scientific approach was increased funding for identification, tracking and surveillance.
 
World markets are becoming increasingly integrated and interconnected, Speller said, noting that international standards for preventing and controlling BSE were essential to protecting human and animal health.
 
He also said that common accepted benchmarks at the scientific level will also deter countries from arbitrarily imposing measures and trade barriers.
 
Canada, the U.S. and Mexico were citied as examples of how countries can work together in this manner.
 
By working together, Speller said it was hoped the three North American Free Trade Agreement partners would send a clear message to the global community that advanced science was the basis for international trade.
 
He said to some extent the international community has accepted this, especially with the World Organization for Animal Health, or OIE, recently clarifying standards on a broad range of meat products.