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BEEF NEWS
Expert: Canadian authorities blew it on BSE issue
by Pete Hisey on 7/14/2005 for Meatingplace.com
Canadian governmental authorities followed U.S. procedures in regard to bovine spongiform encephalopathy without understanding that Canada's risk profile was completely different from that of the United States, said William Leiss of the University of Ottawa and former president of the Royal Society of Canada.
The United States exports only about 10 percent of its beef, while Canada before the discovery of BSE in its herd exported nearly 75 percent, Leiss said, leading to the brutal loss of some $8 billion (Canadian) in just two years.
"In food issues, we are cursed with the political attitude that we've just got to be onside with the U.S. and nothing else matters," Leiss told the Canadian Press. He also charged that like the United States, Canada's feed ban is "half-hearted" and "full of holes."
Canadian authorities replied that their mandate was to judge risk in solely disease-related terms, not economic ones.
Expert: Canadian authorities blew it on BSE issue
by Pete Hisey on 7/14/2005 for Meatingplace.com
Canadian governmental authorities followed U.S. procedures in regard to bovine spongiform encephalopathy without understanding that Canada's risk profile was completely different from that of the United States, said William Leiss of the University of Ottawa and former president of the Royal Society of Canada.
The United States exports only about 10 percent of its beef, while Canada before the discovery of BSE in its herd exported nearly 75 percent, Leiss said, leading to the brutal loss of some $8 billion (Canadian) in just two years.
"In food issues, we are cursed with the political attitude that we've just got to be onside with the U.S. and nothing else matters," Leiss told the Canadian Press. He also charged that like the United States, Canada's feed ban is "half-hearted" and "full of holes."
Canadian authorities replied that their mandate was to judge risk in solely disease-related terms, not economic ones.