Canada and traceback

[rancher]

Have they found the 2nd calf of the BSE cow yet?

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

I haven't heard. All the news yesterday was about the 72 miners trapped in a potash mine. All got out safely after about 24 hours.

Trace back thru CCIA doesn't mean you have to keep records as to which cow every calf was born to. The tags show where every animal was born or Herd of origin. They will track cattle more thru the system.
Could someone pick a calf that was born 2 years ago and have you tell which cow it came from? Or could you tell us where every calf you raised is today? That's not the mandate of the ID system or would it be workable in ranch situations. Thats what we want to avoid by haveing our program Industry Driven. and not forced by the government.

 

[William Kanitz]

I appreciate the opportunity to discuss packing plant operations and issues in public acceptance of beef products or animals with traceback records. I realize that this acceptance is based primarily on quality and price factors for the final product, with currently only a limited minority interest in source verification - especially for specialty areas, such as natural raised, organic and hormone-free product ,breed specific, age or birth date, gender specific, animal welfare, and feed type plus others. Given that situation, I can understand that taking any action to maintain source verification from farm,ranch,feedlot, through your plant, from receiving to the final product such as case ready meats could change your bottum line.

ScoringAg has been approached by many in developed countries to consider how source verification can be implemented from farm to packing plants and provide marketing and productivity benefits, while complying with product identification requirements, now in quite a few country's .
In one such instance (at the Mercosul packing plant in Bage, RGdS, Brasil), ScoringAg has been able to complete an installation and demonstration of such a product ID system, some details of which were presented to their government officals and were approved for performing a complete traceability. In summary, the things learned from this demonstration concluded that: (1) Connecting the live animal ID and history to the carcass / side in the cooler was practical and achievable using scanned / read ear tags ,RFID label tags and or barcode labels on the carcass / side after slaughter; (2) ID of animal by-products and maintaining that ID and history through the deboning / fabrication area of production was more difficult, but still possible for case ready meats and grinds when the correct protocol was observed.

We have a more complete solution in the deboning / fabrication areas of packing plants, enabling efficient processing of quarters-to-primals, primals-to-subprimals, and the production of final cuts while carrying along the ID and history of the live animal and all previous processing steps and experiences. We know that this effort will yield long-term benefits in establishing product traceback to prevent a number of possible production situations: isolating potentially unfit animals or product from entering the food chain; tracking contact with unfit or sick workers/operators or other conditions in the plant; use as a marketing tool in improving production (quality, productivity), etc.; and filling niche markets that are more in tune with where their meat actually comes from with field to fork records.
In many instances, packing plants have found that keeping tight qualification standards on live animals and suppliers as a group, or maintaining tight health and safety monitoring on in-plant conditions and personnel, is sufficient at the present time unless you are moving to the next level of marketing. In the future where mandatory traceability is required this may not continue to be the case. When that time comes, depending on the country, ScoringAg and its packing plant solutions will be ready to offer a better alternative while operating at the speed of commerence.

In closing, thanks again for your time and the opportunity to check out this most important topic for the global meat industry with traceback / traceability at ScoringAg.

 

[Anonymous]

Have they found the 2nd calf of the BSE cow yet?

No other BSE cases found; officials say system works


Angela Anderson
Wednesday February 01, 2006

Cochrane Times — The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) tested 24 cattle born on the same farm as the animal found with mad cow disease last week, and as experts had hoped the results came back negative.
“They’ve never found a second case in the same herd, so I expected it,” said Erik Butters, vice chair of Alberta Beef Producers.
On Jan. 23, a test confirmed a six-year-old cow from an Alberta farm had bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the disease that plagued the Canadian cattle industry for three years.
While not unexpected, officials vowed to test all animals born on that farm the year before and the year after for the disease.
While test results were confirmed to be negative, the CFIA promised to trace the whereabouts of the other herd mates to ensure the disease was not contracted to any other animals.
“The trace-out of an additional 67 animals from the birth cohort has now been completed,” said a release by the CFIA. “One of these 67 animals had previously tested negative for BSE under the National BSE Surveillance Program. Any birth cohorts found to be alive will be humanely euthanized and tested.”
The affected animal also had two recently born offspring. According to the CFIA, a calf born in 2005 tested negative for BSE earlier this week and the trace-out of the 2004 calf is ongoing.
While the case was slightly disappointing to cattle producers, experts agree that it is a good sign the extensive surveillance system is working.
“This latest diagnosis is proof that Canada’s surveillance system is working,” says Darcy Davis, chairman of Alberta Beef Producers.
“This situation is a good example of how producers are working cooperatively with authorities to deal with the presence of BSE in Canada.”
When this latest case of BSE was confirmed last week, it was also confirmed it is not in any way a threat to human health.
“No part of the animal entered either the human food or animal feed chain,” said Doug Horner, minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development.
The latest case of BSE was the fourth since May 2003.
Because this case was somewhat expected because of the surveillance system in Canada, it did not affect any of the export markets.

 

[Tam]

There have been TWO recent cases of same herd BSE I believe, perhaps the second one hasn't been verified yet but I don't know why people always say this when it is no longer true.

Reader think about it if everyone actually believed it never happens that there might be two in one herd then why do we take the whole herd of origin and humanely euthanize and test them? We do it so if there is the chance of a second cow in the same herd she is found. No body has said it will never happen, only that in doesn't happen very often as the testing has proven.

 

[William Kanitz]

Animal products with traceback records. I realize that this acceptance is based primarily on quality and price factors for the final product, with currently only a limited minority interest in source verification - especially for specialty areas, such as natural raised, organic and hormone-free product ,breed specific, age or birth date, gender specific, animal welfare, and feed type plus others.We have found that a database with traceback engineering will produce labels tied only to that one animal and its product be it a cut of meat .This can be seen at this link;

https://www.scoringag.com/Public/traceback_labels_and_sign.pdf

 

[PORKER]

https://www.scoringag.com/Public/traceback_labels_and_sign.pdf WOW,this is great,Better than South Dakota's branded program a hunderd times.You can do Micro Branding from the cattleman right to the sales counter .Just need to change it to BEEF

 

[PORKER]

Say Bill, can a person in the US holding a animal from Canada access the Canadian databank to check on a animal ?

 

[PORKER]

Can Someone provide the above Question from Canada?????????????

 

[Manitoba_Rancher]

Say Bill, can a person in the US holding a animal from Canada access the Canadian databank to check on a animal ?

Porker,


I believe the info in the data bank is confidential unless the data is needed for birthdate info or incase of disease.

Im not 100% pos on this but maybe someone else from Canada can help on this one.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

The birthdate can be accessed but not who owned the animal unless a federal vet went thru the CFIA in case of disease.

 

[Bill]

The birthdate can be accessed but not who owned the animal unless a federal vet went thru the CFIA in case of disease.

Thanks BMR I missed Porkers question but you are right, in the situation Porker suggests, the data can be accessed for age verification but not previous ownership.