ntl Decision On BSE Standards Seen Helping US Trade Case
Today 5/24/2006 5:48:00 PM
Intl Decision On BSE Standards Seen Helping US Trade Case
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. will now have a much stronger case to make that there is virtually no mad-cow disease risk here thanks to a decision Wednesday by the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health to relax country standard requirements. Previously, a country had to wait seven years after its discovery of mad-cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, before it could be considered in the "negligible risk" category -- the category for countries with the least BSE risk.
That has now been changed and countries must wait until 11 years after birth date of the last native-born cow discovered with the disease. The U.S. reported finding its latest BSE case in March, but U.S. Department of Agriculture officials say the infected cow was more than 10 years old when it died.
Under the previous guidelines of the World Organization for Animal Health, known commonly as OIE, the U.S. would have had to wait until 2013 before it could be recognized as a "negligible risk" country. Under the new guidelines, approved Wednesday by unanimous vote, there will be little or no waiting. "For the U.S., this is much better," said Alex Thiermann, an OIE chairman.
He also called the new age-based guideline more "realistic." Ron DeHaven, head of USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, called the new guidelines "a significant change," in a telephone interview with Dow Jones Newswires, prior to the OIE vote. DeHaven who is currently in Paris for the OIE annual meeting, said, "When we found the (BSE) case is not nearly as relevant as when that animal was born."
Michael David, head of USDA's National Center for Import and Export, agreed and explained that an infected cow's age can point to when there was a spread of the disease. There are three OIE risk categories: "negligible," "controlled" and "undetermined." The U.S. would prefer to be considered "negligible" because it provides negotiators with a stronger case for countries to reopen borders to U.S. beef. A "negligible" standing also carries with it fewer costly safety restrictions than the other categories.
The U.S. has reported finding three cases of BSE in cattle -- one in December 2003, a second in June 2005 and a third in March 2006. However, USDA officials said only the two latest cases count under the new OIE guidelines. The first BSE case, officials said, was in an animal about 6 years old, but that animal was born and infected in Canada before being sent to the U.S. David said that first BSE discovery "was an imported case and it really doesn't matter because we can show that it came from Canada.
The two that mattered to us are two native cases and one was born 12 years ago ... and the second one is at least 10 years old." Despite the infected animal's origin, the December 2003 BSE discovery was and still is very important to many beef-importing nations. Most importing countries, including Japan, South Korea and China, shut their borders to U.S. beef in December 2003.
Japan has since eased its ban and then reinstated it, but even when the country resumes importing again it will maintain restrictions on U.S. beef that are far stricter than OIE guidelines. The USDA's David said Japan registered an official objection with the OIE on the BSE standard changes approved Wednesday, but the country did not vote against them.
China and the U.S. are in negotiations now to resume beef trade, but China's refusal to accept USDA claims that it is a "negligible risk" country complicated talks held in mid-May. USDA officials now have a much stronger argument that U.S. beef products are among the least risky for BSE in the world, but an official OIE confirmation of "negligible" status for the U.S. could be as much as two years away, David said. The process is long and complex, requiring well detailed explanations of such things as a country's BSE surveillance program.
-By Bill Tomson; Dow Jones Newswires; 202-646-0088;
[email protected]