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Interesting- part of a post that I picked off AgriVille by the attorney thats leading the class action suit for farmers/ranchers against the Canadian government/etal over BSE....

Some interesting info- and interesting allegations- some of which I had never seen before...

posted Feb 11, 2010 13:19
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Tough to provide a synopsis of more that ten years of ongoing screwups (alleged), but here goes.

1986 - BSE is first described by George Wells at the Central Veterinary Laboratory in Weybridge, England. Dr. Wells calls it bovine spongiform encephalopathy (spongiform because it creates holes in the brain, encephaopathy because it is a neurological disorder with no swelling involved - unlike encephalitis). When asked by the British government what causes BSE, Dr. Wells says he doesn't know, but John Wilesmith is just the man to ask that very important question.

1987 - In December Dr. Wilesmith completes his report to the British government and tells them that BSE is caused by feeding ruminant meat and bonemeal (MBM) from BSE infected carcassses to healthy animals. The incubation period between initial infection and symptoms is about 5.5 years, and calves appear to be particularly susceptible to infection (about 20 times more vulnerable than adult animals). Calf starter incorporating MBM (to boost the protein content) is identified as the most obvious means of transmission.

1988 - On July 18 the British government bans the feeding of ruminant MBM to ruminants. Dr. Wilesmith has advised that the number of diagnosed cases of BSE in the UK will continue to rise for some time because of the long incubation period.

1989 - The US, Australia and others ban the importation of British cattle for fear they may spread BSE. Australia institutes a monitoring program for all British cattle imported since 1981 over concerns that they may be harbouring BSE. The Australian government pays farmers for the British animals when they have outlived their usefulness and destroys the carcasses. Farmers are advised that if any of these British imports enter the human or animal food chain they will be charged. The Australian monitoring program works; none of the 131 imported British cattle enter the human or animal food chain. Australia is BSE-free today.

1990 - Canada passes a regulation to the Feeds Act permitting the feding of MBM to cattle and calves. Canada bans the importation of British cattle. Canada puts all 196 British cattle imported since 1982 into a monitoring program 'amid growing concerns about the spread of BSE through exported cattle'

1993 - The first case of BSE is diagnosed in North America, confirmed on December 7, 1993 in a Salers cow from Alberta. The cow is one of eight birth cohort animals imported as a group that had been hand fed the same calf starter in Britain. When the records are examined it is found that 80 (eighty) of the British cattle in the monitoring program had been allowed to go to routine slaughter (68 ) or had entered the rendering vats whole as deadstock (12). The British cattle that have entered the animal feed system in Canada include two of the birth cohort animals. Some monitoring program. The balance of the British animals remaining in Canada are ordered exported or destroyed.
In a memorandum to the Minister of Agriculture dated December 7, 1993 outlining the situation, the Department of Agriculture failed to inform the Minister of four points:
1. BSE is spread by healthy animals, particularly calves, eating feed rations containing MBM from infected animals;
2. The only universally recognized means of containment of BSE is a ruminant feed ban;
3. 80 British animals entered the human and animal feed system in the last four years (oops); and
4. In holding up Denmark as an example of a country that had one infected British import but were able to maintain their BSE free status by disinfecting the farm in question, they failed to mention that Denmark had a ruminant feed ban in place as the cornerstone of their BSE control policy.
Subsequent memos to the Minister providing him with updates on the situation referred back to this one as providing the necessary background information.

1994 - In May the government completes an internal risk assessment that finds that there is a 100% statistical probability that one or more of the 80 British animals that entered the Canadian animal feed system had BSE. This report identifies the risk that 'further cases of BSE would likely prompt a trade embargo against Canadian exports of cattle, beef and dairy products for an indefinite period of time by some or all of importing countries.' The report is buried. Canadian cattle producers are not warned that there is a ticking economic time bomb in the Canadian herd.
Three cattle producers whose British animals have been ordered destroyed take the fight to the federal court. In ordering the last of these animals destroyed, the Federal Court of Appeal finds in July that:
"The Act requires the Minister to exercise considerable expertise with regards to the health of Canadian livestock and the risks imposed by potential parasites, and directs him to act on the basis of mere suspicion. It is obvious that there were aspects of the factual and scientific evidence placed before the Minister that could support, especially if looked at with the utmost prudence, a suspicion reaching any cattle imported into Canada from the United Kingdom between 1982 and 1990 regardless of their age or history."
The government responds by continuing to do nothing to diminish the risk of the spread of BSE that their negligence (alleged) has created.

1996 - On April 3 the World Health Organization recommends that all countries ban the use of ruminant tissues in ruminant feed. Australia responds, and by May 26 there is a ruminant feed ban in place in Australia. Various organizations in the US push for a ruminant feed ban, and legislation is begun in the US.

1997 - In April, the cow that closed the border on May 20, 2003 is born in Saskatchewan. In May, she is fed calf starter containing the BSE prion.
In August, Canada finally brings in a ruminant feed ban. It is based on the 1988 British model. The British are now up to model number 4 (enacted in March of 1996). This Canadian feed ban does not address the known issues of cross-feeding (when you throw a little chicken or hog feed into the calf mix for one reason or another) or cross-contamination (when some chicken of hog feed left in the production lines, truck, hopper, etc gets into the calf starter).

2003 - The Central Veterinary Laboratory confirms the diagnosis of BSE in an Angus cross cow (now in Alberta). International borders immediately slam shut to Canadian cattle and beef.

2007 - Canada finally implements a feed ban that adresses cross-feeding and cross-contamination issues more than 11 years after Britain and 4 years ofter the border closure.

You know the rest.

There is much, much, much more. The breadth and depth of the buffoonery involved is astounding. The statement of claim can be found at:

http://www.bseclassaction.ca/pdfs/BSE%20AFaASOC%2026%20Jan%2009.pdf

You should know that the closing of the border by the US on May 20, 2003 was not political. It was automatic. The regulations closing the US border to any country with a single domestic case of BSE date back to 1991. Canada entered into a bilateral 'one cow and you're out' agreement on BSE with the US in 1994.

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