January 5, 2006

 

US seeks more Canadian beef imports

 

 

The US plans to increase cattle and beef imports from Canada despite concerns about Canadian safeguards against mad cow disease.

 

The US closed its borders to Canadian cattle and beef after the latter found its first case of mad cow disease in May 2003. Later that year, an imported Canadian cow in Washington state became the first US case of mad cow disease.

 

Canadian imports of beef resumed swiftly, but a court battle with a Western ranchers' group kept the border from reopening to live cattle until July 2005.

 

Beef and cattle imports from Canada have still been restricted to animals younger than 30 months of age as older animals carry a higher risk of having BSE.

 

The USDA has now proposed to allow over 30-month cattle and beef into the US from Canada. 

 

The proposal would continue to protect against BSE in the US while taking the next step forward in their efforts to implement science-based trade relations with countries that have appropriate safeguards in place to prevent BSE, said USDA agriculture secretary Mike Johanns.

 

He said US officials conducted a risk assessment and determined that the older cattle would be safe for consumers.

 

The department waited to relax the trade rules while investigators tried to solve the mystery of the cow that was infected years after Canada put its safeguards in place.

 

The safeguards bar the use of cattle remains in cattle feed. This is the primary firewall against the disease because the only known way for cattle to get infected is by eating feed containing diseased cattle tissue.

 

The practice was largely outlawed in Canada and the US in 1997. But the infected cow was born in 2002.

 

Canadian officials blamed the infection on cross-contamination, either when the feed was mixed or when it was transported because cattle remains have been allowed in food for other livestock and pets. Canada announced last year it would ban cattle tissues known to carry the disease from feed for all livestock and pets.

 

Meanwhile, R-CALF USA, a cattle rancher advocacy group has termed the USDA proposal premature and wants the Congress to intervene. The magnitude of Canada's mad cow epidemic was still unfolding, said Bill Bullard, the group's chief executive.