Today 6/24/2005 6:46:00 PM
Cattle Alert: R-CALF CEO Says BSE Case Won't Affect Litigation
KANSAS CITY (Dow Jones)--R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America CEO Bill Bullard said Friday that confirmation of a case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease, in the U.S. cattle herd won't have any
effect on the organization's litigation against the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In that case, R-CALF USA won a preliminary injunction against the USDA's Final Rule that would have allowed Canadian cattle younger than 20 months of age to enter the U.S. directly for slaughter or for feeding before slaughter. It is pending appeal before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. R-CALF USA sought to prevent cattle from Canada from entering the U.S. because Canada has had four cases of BSE, one of which was found in the U.S. and resulted in lost export markets.
The case against the USDA charges the Final Rule is not robust enough to prevent the spread of BSE in the U.S., Bullard said.
This case of BSE in the U.S. highlights the need for the USDA to strengthen its safeguards that prevent the amplification and spread of the disease in the U.S., Bullard said. This includes preventing imports of cattle from countries known to have BSE.
The USDA also must continue testing for BSE to catch any changes or evolution of the disease, Bullard said.
And it must strengthen its feed bans to limit amplification of BSE within the U.S. herd, he said. This includes rules that allow blood and blood products in feeds, plate waste from restaurants into the feeds and the feeding of chicken litter to cattle.
The USDA also should strengthen its feed formulation rules to prevent the possibility of cross-contamination, Bullard said. When asked to clarify what he meant, he said, "like segregated feed mills."
Overall, R-CALF USA is disappointed that the USDA didn't follow protocol for this cow in November when she was slaughtered and the samples were taken, Bullard said. The U.S. cattle industry has taken two hits to prices from the same cow - once in November when the first set of positive results came back, and again two weeks ago, when the second set of positive results came back.
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