July 14, 2006

US group wants USDA to ban Canadian cattle, beef

R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America Thursday (Jul 13) called on the US Department of Agriculture to rescind its rule allowing Canadian cattle and beef to be imported into the US.

The call came in the wake of an announcement by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) confirming bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, in a 50-month-old dairy cow.

The latest case was the fourth BSE case for Canada this year and was the youngest Canadian animal yet. The cow was born well after 1997 when Canada implemented its ban on feeding ruminant-derived meat and bone meal back to ruminants.

The cow also came from Alberta, where a large percentage of the cattle and beef products imported into the US originate, a release from R-CALF USA said.

"USDA must now acknowledge that the principal assumptions used to support its Final Rule (allowing those imports) are no longer valid and that much more needs to be done to mitigate the heightened BSE risks presented by Canadian beef and cattle," said R-CALF USA President Chuck Kiker.

The reaction from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) was more muted.

"Our position would be that we share the CFIA's desire to get a full accounting about how this cow might have been exposed to BSE, and we will be following the results of that investigation closely," said Joe Schuele, director of trade media for the NCBA.

"We were pleased to see that they invited US officials to participate in their investigation," Schuele said.

Asked about news reports that the USDA is working on a rule that would allow beef product imports from cattle older than 30 months from countries regardless of the number of cases of BSE, Schuele said current NCBA policy only supports the current range of products. This policy approves cattle and products from cattle 30 months old and younger.