Sandhusker said:
What about the different strains?
I find it interesting that the different strains were found in hot/arid climates. Its not unheard of, or even uncommon, for a variety of viruses or bacteria to mutate when subjected to conditions unlike their 'native' habitat. One thing is certain and that is that both strains, somewhere along the line, had the same parents and there was a mutation at one point in time. Whether that mutation occured in North America, or it occured overseas, I have no idea. But to suggest that Canada was the cause of it is ludicrous since our environment is so completely different than Alabama/Texas, and the Alabama cow was definitely older.
As far as the US not finding the same strain as Europe and Canada, I'd say its a virtual certainty that its been missed. This is why I find both Canada and US's testing lacking. We're talking rates of infection along the lines of .0000000001 (or something like that. I don't have my calculator handy). Unless every single animal is tested, statistically (since the USDA/CFIA love them stats), the chances of missing one (or a few) are fairly high.
And that brings me full circle and why I think that we ranchers should not be fighting with one another. I certainly understand the point R-Calf is trying to make about closing your own feedban holes before opening up trade, however I heartily disagree with the premise that we have different strains or more of it up here. Ranchers on both sides of the border should be fighting for 100% over 20 month testing, a FULL ban on MBM, and making war on Australia and Venezuela (I think thats the country. One o' them South American countries anyway). We have superior beef, and we can raise it for damned near as cheap. We just need the support of our government agencies to do so. Why should Australia be handed the $9 kg meat market and leave us North Americans with the $4 market?
And OT, if we had infection rates of hundreds or thousands, we'd have seen far more postives than we have. We're sitting 1 or 2 per year for crying out loud. What the CFIA meant, and what almost every single rancher understood, was that we are going to find a FEW more BSE cows. There can be no doubt about it. At least we're not backing down from testing, and are rather INCREASING our test numbers in an attempt to find any infected animals.
And just so you don't think I'm trying to open the border for my own financial good, I actually came out of BSE times better than I was going in. I sold calves during high spots, and high end calves never took a large hit, plus I was able to pick up some prime breeding stock for a song.
Rod