OldDog/NewTricks
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BEEF NEWS
Canada confirms BSE case in 50-month old animal; U.S. worried
by Pete Hisey on 7/14/2006 for Meatingplace.com
Canadian authorities have BSE in a 50-month old beef cow from Alberta, and the discovery has U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns worried.
"The diagnosis of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in an animal born roughly four and a half years after the implementation of the 1997 ruminant-to-ruminant feed ban does raise questions that must be answered," Johanns said in a statement late Thursday afternoon. "We need a thorough understanding of all the circumstances involved in this case to assure our consumers that Canada's regulatory system is effectively providing the utmost protections to consumers and livestock."
The issue is even more worrisome because the U.S. feed ban is not as restrictive as Canada's, and the find may cause overseas markets to question the effectiveness of North America's preventive strategies, even though the U.S. does not allow live animals of that age to enter the country.
The animal is the youngest BSE case discovered in Canada, as Ranchers-Cattlemen's Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America points out. This indicates a higher level of infectivity than assumed by both Canadian and U.S. authorities, says Chuck Kiker, R-CALF president, and refutes a key USDA assumption in reopening the border to the import of Canadian cattle.
"USDA believed the BSE incubation period in Canada was longer than the BSE incubation period in countries like the U.K., where the average was estimated to be 4.2 years," Kiker said in a statement. "USDA assumed Canadian BSE cases would be detected only in older Canadian cattle born prior to Canada's 1997 feed ban."
The new case, Canada's ninth overall counting an imported British animal and another born in Canada but discovered in Washington state, suggests that a higher-than-believed level of infectivity is still present in Canada's herd.
Johanns said that USDA will send experts to Canada to investigate the find "particularly as it relates to how this animal may have been exposed to BSE-infected material."
Canadian authorities have surmised that the animal may have been infected by feed processed with machinery that had not been thoroughly cleaned after the feed ban was instituted in 1997. That would assume that infected matter could have remained in the feed system for at least four years after the ban's implementation.
R-CALF suggests that the Canadian feed ban, which outlaws protein from cattle in feed meant for cattle, may not have been effectively enforced, or that Canadian cattle are in some way at greater risk than U.S. cattle.
Canada confirms BSE case in 50-month old animal; U.S. worried
by Pete Hisey on 7/14/2006 for Meatingplace.com
Canadian authorities have BSE in a 50-month old beef cow from Alberta, and the discovery has U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns worried.
"The diagnosis of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in an animal born roughly four and a half years after the implementation of the 1997 ruminant-to-ruminant feed ban does raise questions that must be answered," Johanns said in a statement late Thursday afternoon. "We need a thorough understanding of all the circumstances involved in this case to assure our consumers that Canada's regulatory system is effectively providing the utmost protections to consumers and livestock."
The issue is even more worrisome because the U.S. feed ban is not as restrictive as Canada's, and the find may cause overseas markets to question the effectiveness of North America's preventive strategies, even though the U.S. does not allow live animals of that age to enter the country.
The animal is the youngest BSE case discovered in Canada, as Ranchers-Cattlemen's Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America points out. This indicates a higher level of infectivity than assumed by both Canadian and U.S. authorities, says Chuck Kiker, R-CALF president, and refutes a key USDA assumption in reopening the border to the import of Canadian cattle.
"USDA believed the BSE incubation period in Canada was longer than the BSE incubation period in countries like the U.K., where the average was estimated to be 4.2 years," Kiker said in a statement. "USDA assumed Canadian BSE cases would be detected only in older Canadian cattle born prior to Canada's 1997 feed ban."
The new case, Canada's ninth overall counting an imported British animal and another born in Canada but discovered in Washington state, suggests that a higher-than-believed level of infectivity is still present in Canada's herd.
Johanns said that USDA will send experts to Canada to investigate the find "particularly as it relates to how this animal may have been exposed to BSE-infected material."
Canadian authorities have surmised that the animal may have been infected by feed processed with machinery that had not been thoroughly cleaned after the feed ban was instituted in 1997. That would assume that infected matter could have remained in the feed system for at least four years after the ban's implementation.
R-CALF suggests that the Canadian feed ban, which outlaws protein from cattle in feed meant for cattle, may not have been effectively enforced, or that Canadian cattle are in some way at greater risk than U.S. cattle.
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