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Rapid City Journal / Associated Press – Saturday – November 30, 2006 and Sunday – December 1, 2006

USDA wants to open border to all Canadian cattle

By Steve Miller, Journal Staff Writer and AP reports

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is again trying to open the border to all Canadian cattle and beef of any age despite concerns that Canada’s safeguards against mad cow disease were not working.

R-CALF USA, a national ranchers’ group, calls the proposal irresponsible and says it would make the U.S. cattle industry even more vulnerable to Canada’s mad cow woes.

USDA had first proposed opening the border to all Canadian cattle and beef earlier this year, but it withdrew its proposal after a Canadian cow born in 2002 was found in July with mad cow disease, known scientifically as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.

That was significant because Canada, like the U.S., banned using cattle remains in cattle feed, in 1997. Scientists say the only known way for cattle to get BSE is by eating feed containing diseased cattle tissue -- primarily brain, spinal cord and nerve tissue.

Canadian authorities say the 2002-born cow was still within the incubation period for BSE. They said the animal likely was infected through “cross-contamination” because cattle and other ruminant remains were not banned from feed for other livestock. Theoretically, if infected remains from those other livestock, such as hogs, were fed to cattle, the cattle could still contract BSE.

Since then, Canada has banned cattle remains known to carry the disease from all animal feed.

Last Friday, Nov. 24, the USDA quietly sent its proposal to open the border to all Canadian cattle back to the White House for final consideration.

The move spurred vehement protest from Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America, a national group affiliated with state ranchers’ groups such as the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association.

Bill Bullard, chief executive officer of R-CALF, said USDA has proposed the new rule without explaining how BSE got into the nonruminant animal feed in Canada.

“They appear to be intent upon further relaxing our import standards regardless of the negative impact this will have on the U.S. cattle industry,” Bullard said Thursday in a phone interview.

R-CALF is also fighting USDA’s move two years ago to open up the border to Canadian cattle younger than 30 months of age. Animal scientists believe that cattle older than 30 months are more likely to contract mad cow disease.

“Clearly the USDA is proposing to expose the U.S. to even greater risk than they already have,” Bullard said. “In addition, USDA has not restored the confidence in our consumers, particularly our export customers who are presently imposing even more restrictions than just beef from animals under 30 months of age.”

The U.S. originally banned all cattle and beef from Canada when that country found its first BSE case in May 2003. Since then, it began allowing some beef products and, last year, began allowing younger cattle from Canada.

In December 2003, BSE was found in a Washington state cow. Although the cow originated in Canada, other countries, including Japan and South Korea, banned imports of beef from the United States.

Some countries have only recently reopened their borders to a narrow range of U.S. beef.

Bullard said the USDA proposal, if enacted, would result in the importation of beef products that the U.S. cannot export. “And that is going to hurt the industry in terms of potential oversupplies,” he said.

“We have already had export customers who have stated a concern about our co-mingling Canadian beef with U.S. beef. Yet USDA has not taken any steps to differentiate our product from the higher-risk Canadian product,” Bullard said.

Since USDA began allowing imports of younger Canadian cattle in July 2005, nearly 1.5 million head have entered the U.S.

Bullard said allowing in all Canadian beef would make the U.S. beef industry vulnerable to any further BSE discoveries in Canada. “We will essentially tie our reputation to Canada’s disease problem,” he said.

Canada has had nine native cases -- including the cow that went to Washington state -- and one imported case. Four of the infected Canadian cattle were born after the feed ban went into effect in 1997. One was born in 1998, two were born in 2000, and one was born in 2002, he said.

“That clearly shows that the Canadian feed ban has not been effective in preventing the establishment of BSE,” Bullard said. “For that reason alone, USDA’s actions are irresponsible.”

Bullard acknowledged that the U.S. has had two native BSE cases. But both were determined to be a different strain than the classical BSE found in Canada and Europe. Some animal scientists speculated that the two U.S. cases might be a form of BSE that occurs spontaneously.

BSE, a brain wasting disorder, infected more than 180,000 cows and was blamed for more than 150 human deaths during a European outbreak that peaked in 1993.

Humans can contract a form of the disease, which is always fatal, by eating infected beef products. No human cases of BSE have been confirmed as originating in the U.S., and major beef industry groups insist that the U.S. beef supply is safe.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, which represents ranchers, feeders and meatpackers, says it will review the proposal before commenting. “NCBA policy … supports a science-based approach to trade, which means trading beef and cattle of all ages when necessary food safety and animal health standards are met,” according to a news release.

The NCBA and the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association have favored opening the border to younger Canadian cattle and beef, saying safeguards are adequate to prevent the spread of BSE and to assure the safety of beef for consumers.

However, NCBA and SDCA have opposed imports of older cattle from Canada until other trade issues between the two countries are settled.

Bullard said R-CALF will take its protest over USDA’s latest proposal to the new Congress when it convenes early next year.

Earlier efforts to get Congress to overrule USDA received bipartisan support, Bullard said. The Senate passed a resolution of opposition, but he said Republican House leaders blocked the resolution from getting through committee. Having Democrats in charge of Congress -- and committees -- will help get such a resolution to a vote, Bullard said.

                            This page was last updated on Thursday, December 04, 2008.