Why not test Canadian OTM beef?

[Sandhusker]

R-CALF says your meat is diseased, you say it isn't. Why not test it and settle it?

[SASH]

Everytime we tried to test everything, the US told us not to because we are supposedly an integrated North American beef industry and you don't want to test.

[Sandhusker]

[SASH]

You would be surprised what the US does to us when they are p****d off. You know, challenge our wheat board, put tariffs on our softwood lumber, close the border to our beef. You know, that kind of stuff.

[Sandhusker]

[PORKER]

I can't wait till LIVE BSE testing is here!!!

[frenchie]

[Manitoba_Rancher]

Wouldnt it be interesting if both countries were testing everything, wonder who would find the most BSE cases?

[Broke Cowboy]

Canucks

test everything - stop implants

you get Japan and European markets

what are you waiting for?

BC

[~SH~]

Sandhusker,

Where is the BSE test for UTM animals that is a reliable depiction of BSE before the animal shows clinical signs of the disease?

What Creekstone was offering was to test cattle with a test that wouldn't reveal anything anyway.

Are you offering the same deception?

Before you can test UTM cattle don't you have to have a reliable test for UTM cattle???

Just parroting the lines again huh?



~SH~

[rkaiser]

I guarantee that if BSE testing for export markets went to a vote among producers of Canada, the result would be a resounding yes.

Too bad none of this issue involves anything as common sense as that.

[Mike]

Where is the BSE test for UTM animals that is a reliable depiction of BSE before the animal shows clinical signs of the disease?

What Creekstone was offering was to test cattle with a test that wouldn't reveal anything anyway.

Are you offering the same deception?

Before you can test UTM cattle don't you have to have a reliable test for UTM cattle???
~SH~[/quote]

Prionics Check Western/Elisa test would meet the criteria you specify. Can and has detected prions in subclinical animals. It's the one Japan and Europe has found UTM positives with. Instead of the IHC, the USDA is now using these for confirmation of "inconclusives" (by the way, there is no such thing as "inconclusive", it's either positive or negative using rapid tests) the IHC is only as good as the interpretation of the technician(s). Not so "Gold Standard" anymore since new technology and Prionics developed and discovered prion antibodies.
Bio-Rad, the first rapid test approved by the USDA in 2004, was notorious for false positives and was the only one Creekstone could have gotten at the time due to approval by the USDA. EU and UK approved the Prionics test in 2000-2001. They were light years ahead of the USDA in testing methods simply because of the number of cases.
Check Western is being used in all 24 month and older animals in France, Belgium, and other EU countries at this time with complete reliability.
BSE testing and food safety has never been an issue with the USDA and has said so publicly on many occasions. Japan, UK, and EU test not only for food safety reasons but animal health as well. If that's what the consumer and scientists are demanding there is no other choice.