January 19, 2004

 

 

North America Agriculture Officials Fail To Agree On Beef Trade Restart

 

Top agriculture officials from the U.S., Canada and Mexico met Friday to discuss mad cow disease in North America, but failed to reach agreement on re-opening their borders to beef products and live cattle.

 

The U.S. has been pressing Mexico, a large market for U.S. beef, to lift its total ban on U.S. beef and cattle that was imposed last month after scientists diagnosed a Holstein in Washington with mad cow disease.

 

Meanwhile, five more cows from a herd of Canadian cattle that entered the country with the infected Holstein have been traced to a site in Connell, Wash., Agriculture Department officials said Friday. The finding brings to 19 the number of cows located from the Canadian herd of 81 cattle that entered the country in 2001.

 

In addition, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it has found prohibited animal tissue in feed from six Canadian animal feed companies since the mad cow discovery last month. The discovery is significant because it may help investigators trace the source of infection. Feed tainted with tissue of an infected animal is the most likely means of spreading mad cow disease, a fatal brain-wasting illness.

 

Mad cow is a concern because humans can get a related illness, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, from eating contaminated meat. That concern is what prompted countries to close their borders to U.S. beef last month.

 

Canada wants both the United States, its biggest trading partner in cattle and beef, and Mexico to lift restrictions that took effect after the Canadian mad cow case in May. 

 

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said no decisions were made about resuming trade. "The issue of trade obviously is one that's very complex, and that's one of the reasons we're having these discussions," Veneman said.

 

The U.S. for now has put off allowing Canada to ship across the border young cattle - considered less likely to have the brain-wasting disease because of its long incubation period.

 

Mexican Agriculture Secretary Javier Usabiaga said his country would re- open its borders once Mexican officials and consumers were confident that beef from the north was safe.

 

The issue is especially sticky for Canada and the U.S. as they try to persuade nations around the world that their beef products are safe.

 

As part of that effort, high-ranking U.S. agriculture and FDA officials will travel to Japan and South Korea next week to push for the resumption of U.S. beef imports. Japan is the leading importer of U.S. beef.

 

Meanwhile, the FDA said the feed containing prohibited animal tissue came from these Canadian companies: Agricore United, Bunge Foods, Louis Dreyfus Canada Ltd., Macleod Feed Mill, New Life Feeds and Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.

 

Since 1997, the U.S. and Canada have banned animal feeds that contain tissues of cattle, goats or sheep to keep out the illness.

 

The FDA is considering changes to animal feed regulations that would tighten restrictions on feeding animal protein to other animals. Companies already must test all feed shipments bound for the U.S.