I wonder if the USDA employee is still the chairman of the committee that makes the decision... :wink: :lol:
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Today 8/28/2006 8:00:00 PM
INTERVIEW: US To Ask OIE For Official BSE Status
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. will make a massive submission in September to the World Organization for Animal Health, known commonly by the French acronym OIE, for its decision on the U.S. status for bovine spongiform encephalopathy risk, a government agricultural official said Monday.
J.B. Penn, U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary for farm and foreign agriculture services, said the U.S. will not be asking for a specific status level, but rather making a presentation and allowing the OIE to decide for
itself.
"We are going to submit to the OIE a package of information that details our entire experience with this disease," Penn told Dow Jones Newswires.
"We're going to let them determine our status and tell us," he said, but stressed that the submission will show that USDA's
"conclusion is that this disease is very, very rare in our livestock herd."
The U.S. began restricting what ranchers could feed their cattle in 1996 as means to prevent the spread of BSE even though the disease had not been found here.
It was not until December 2003 that the U.S. discovered BSE in a cow and most foreign markets shut off beef imports from the U.S. immediately. More than two years later Japan, once the largest buyer of U.S. beef, has just resumed scaled-down imports. South Korea, previously the second-largest importer, still bans U.S. beef.
The USDA discovered two more BSE cases after boosting the amount of testing it does around the country in an "enhanced" program that is set to wind down soon.
There are three OIE risk categories: "negligible," "controlled" and "undetermined."
"Negligible" status is reserved for countries considered to have the smallest risk of BSE - a cattle disease that can be passed to humans through tainted meat - but Penn stressed it is not imperative for the U.S. to be put in that category for full trading privileges.
"From a practical point of view, in terms of what you can trade, it makes no difference whether you're in the negligible category or whether you're in the controlled risk category," Penn said. "You can trade the full range of products - boneless beef, bone-in beef, variety meats, offal and processed products from animals of any age - if you're in either one of those categories."
One country that is still not importing U.S. beef is China. It has offered to buy solely boneless cuts from young cattle under 30 months old, but the U.S. has repeatedly refused, saying all cuts from all cattle should be traded.
USDA Secretary Mike Johanns stressed to China in an August letter - a copy of which was obtained by Dow Jones Newswires - that the U.S. is making its submission to the OIE for a BSE risk status. He offered to share the submission with China.
USDA and OIE officials agree that it should be easier for the U.S. to get a "negligible" status thanks to a recent change in international standards.
Previously, a country had to wait seven years after its latest BSE discovery before it could be considered in the a "negligible" risk. That changed earlier this year. Now countries must wait until 11 years after birth date of the last native-born cow discovered with the disease. USDA, in March, discovered its latest BSE case in a cow it says was more than 10 years old when it died.
Source: Bill Tomson; Dow Jones Newswires; 202-646-0088;
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