Manitoba_Rancher
Well-known member
USDA: Thirty-month rule withdrawal may be temporary
USDA withdrew its proposed rule that would allow cattle over 30 months of age into the U.S. market because it felt that it would be inappropriate to continue forward with the rule-making process while it was still investigating a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in Canada that affected an animal born long after a protective feed ban was imposed.
"The proposed rule is on hold until we know how this animal was exposed to infection," said USDA spokesman Ed Loyd. USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has sent an epidemiologist to Canada to assist with the investigation and report back to the agency, he said, "and we need those results" to decide whether the proposed rule is still appropriate from a scientific point of view.
"We remain committed to returning to normal trade with our partners based on sound science," Loyd said.
If nothing new is discovered in the investigation of the Canadian animal, which was born more than four years after a ruminant-to-ruminant feed ban was introduced in 1997, the rule may be resubmitted to the Office of Management and Budget. That is the final regulatory step before it is published for public comment, after which it may be published as a final rule.
Canada still suffers from a glut of cull cattle, mainly older dairy animals that are no longer productive and would normally be slaughtered for meat. The building of new slaughter facilities has eased the burden somewhat, but most new facilities are in the western part of the country, thousands of miles from large dairy herds in Ontario and Quebec. These animals would have normally been sent to slaughter in the eastern United States, and the ban on imports of older cattle is hurting both Canadian farmers and U.S. processors.
USDA withdrew its proposed rule that would allow cattle over 30 months of age into the U.S. market because it felt that it would be inappropriate to continue forward with the rule-making process while it was still investigating a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in Canada that affected an animal born long after a protective feed ban was imposed.
"The proposed rule is on hold until we know how this animal was exposed to infection," said USDA spokesman Ed Loyd. USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has sent an epidemiologist to Canada to assist with the investigation and report back to the agency, he said, "and we need those results" to decide whether the proposed rule is still appropriate from a scientific point of view.
"We remain committed to returning to normal trade with our partners based on sound science," Loyd said.
If nothing new is discovered in the investigation of the Canadian animal, which was born more than four years after a ruminant-to-ruminant feed ban was introduced in 1997, the rule may be resubmitted to the Office of Management and Budget. That is the final regulatory step before it is published for public comment, after which it may be published as a final rule.
Canada still suffers from a glut of cull cattle, mainly older dairy animals that are no longer productive and would normally be slaughtered for meat. The building of new slaughter facilities has eased the burden somewhat, but most new facilities are in the western part of the country, thousands of miles from large dairy herds in Ontario and Quebec. These animals would have normally been sent to slaughter in the eastern United States, and the ban on imports of older cattle is hurting both Canadian farmers and U.S. processors.