BSE CASE CONFIRMED IN ALBERTA

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BSE CASE CONFIRMED IN ALBERTA
OTTAWA, December 18, 2007 - The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has
confirmed the diagnosis of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a
13-year-old beef cow from Alberta. The animal's carcass is under CFIA
control, and no part of it entered the human food or animal feed systems.

Canada has a suite of robust BSE control measures exceeding the recommended
international standards. This year, the World Organization for Animal Health
(OIE) categorized Canada as a Controlled Risk country for BSE. This status
acknowledges the effectiveness of Canada's surveillance, risk mitigation and
eradication measures. This case will not affect Canada's risk status.

Canada has taken all necessary measures to achieve the eventual elimination
of BSE from the national cattle herd. The enhanced feed ban, which came into
effect on July 12, 2007, is designed to prevent more than 99 percent of
potential BSE infectivity from entering the Canadian feed system. The feed
ban prohibits cattle-derived materials with potential to harbour BSE
infectivity, such as the brain and spinal cord, from being used in all
animal feeds, pet foods and fertilizers.

The CFIA expects to detect a small number of cases over the next 10 years as
Canada progresses towards its goal of eliminating the disease from the
national cattle herd.

This detection confirms the ongoing high level of commitment and stewardship
on the part of Canadian cattle producers to food safety and animal health.
The Alberta animal was identified at the farm level by the national
surveillance program, which has detected all BSE cases found in Canada. The
program targets cattle most at risk and has tested about 190,000 animals
since 2003. The surveillance results reflect an extremely low incidence of
BSE in Canada.

The age of the infected animal falls within the age range of previous cases
detected in Canada under the national BSE surveillance program. The animal
was born before the implementation of Canada's feed ban in 1997.

An epidemiological investigation directed by international guidelines is
underway to identify the animal's herdmates at the time of birth and the
pathways by which it might have become infected. All findings will be
publicly released once the investigation concludes.

- 30 -

For information:

Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Media relations: 613-228-6682

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/ani ... avie.shtml


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TSS
 
This quote about says it all-- the USDA is putting US consumers at higher risk just because of this "trade" issue.....

"Had this 13-year-old cow not been detected under Canada's limited, voluntary testing program, the meat from that cow would have been eligible for export to the United States," Thornsberry pointed out. "OTM cattle in a BSE-affected country bear an inherently higher risk for the disease, and USDA is acting irresponsibly by allowing both higher-risk beef and higher-risk cattle into the U.S. food supply.


"Fighting for the U.S. Cattle Producer"



For Immediate Release ; Contact: Shae Dodson, Communications Coordinator
December 18,2007 Phone: 406-672-8969; e-mail: [email protected]



Canada Discovers Yet Another Case of BSE



Billings, Mont. – The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has just announced another discovery of a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) – this time in a 13-year-old Alberta beef cow.



"Although, as CFIA acknowledges, it did not improve its feed ban until mid-2007 and now claims to have a 'suite of robust BSE controls,' these controls are inadequate to protect the U.S. from this unnecessary and avoidable risk," said R-CALF USA President/Region VI Director Max Thornsberry, a Missouri veterinarian who also chairs the group's animal health committee. "It is important to note that this latest incident is actually Canada's 12th indigenous case of BSE, because the BSE-positive cow discovered in Washington state in December 2003 was imported into the U.S. from Canada. Counting the case of BSE detected in 1993 in one of the cattle Canada imported from Great Britain, Canada has detected a total of 13 BSE cases."


Eleven plaintiffs that represent both cattle-producer and consumer organizations recently filed a lawsuit against the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which argues that USDA's recently implemented over-30-month rule (OTM Rule), which allows the importation of older cattle and beef from Canada, violates USDA's own regulations. Current regulations prohibit imports of beef from BSE-affected countries that were derived from cattle born before an effective feed ban was implemented. However, the OTM Rule is in conflict with those regulations because it allows beef from cattle of any age to be imported into the United States.



"Had this 13-year-old cow not been detected under Canada's limited, voluntary testing program, the meat from that cow would have been eligible for export to the United States," Thornsberry pointed out. "OTM cattle in a BSE-affected country bear an inherently higher risk for the disease, and USDA is acting irresponsibly by allowing both higher-risk beef and higher-risk cattle into the U.S. food supply.



"Also, because Canada does not conduct mandatory testing for BSE like all other countries do that have detected multiple cases of BSE born after the date of feed ban implementation, there's a high likelihood that other BSE-infected cattle and beef from BSE-infected cattle are going undetected and making their way to beef consumers here," he warned. "Without country-of-origin labeling (COOL) in place, consumers cannot distinguish U.S. beef from Canadian beef, so they have no way of avoiding this risk."



"Canada still doesn't do sufficient BSE testing to determine the magnitude of its BSE problem, and because we are currently commingling Canadian cattle and beef with U.S. cattle and beef, our efforts to restore beef export markets lost since 2003 continue to be compromised," said R-CALF USA Trade Committee Co-Chair Eric Nelson. "In addition, USDA continues to ignore the fact that there is a hot spot of BSE infectivity in the Alberta Province. Canada's limited testing reveals that eight of Canada's 12 native BSE cases were detected in Albe rta.


"It is unconscionable that USDA would not at least allow U.S. cattle producers to differentiate their high-quality U.S. beef from Canadian beef with a country-of-origin label so we can maintain consumer confidence in our product and gain full resumption of U.S. exports," he asserted. "As things stand now, the U.S. cattle industry is unnecessarily tying its reputation to the BSE-afflicted Canadian cattle herd."



R-CALF USA calls on USDA to take immediate action to protect the integrity and viability of the U.S. cattle industry by:



Immediately reversing the OTM Rule.
Immediately reversing its policy of granting access for imports to the U.S. market before the U.S. regains full market access in foreign countries.
Immediately begin differentiating beef produced exclusively from U.S.-born cattle from beef produced from foreign cattle with a country-of-origin label.
Immediately requiring the Canadian government, as a condition of importing cattle under 30 months of age, to increase BSE testing to the level necessary to determine the true prevalence of BSE in the Canadian cattle herd, including mandatory testing of all high-risk cattle.


"USDA should take swift action to protect U.S. consumers and the U.S. cattle herd and to alleviate any negative perceptions major beef importers may have regarding Canada's BSE status, to keep from further eroding our chances of reopening lost export markets," Nelson said.



"This is still another example of why lifting the ban on OTM cattle from Canada was premature," said Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch, which is a consumer organization that also is a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the OTM Rule. "The USDA should immediately reinstitute the ban because it is obvious that Canada has an animal health problem that could impact human public health."



Besides R-CALF USA and Food & Water Watch, organizational plaintiffs include the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association; the Center for Food Safety; the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Foundation; Public Citizen, which has 90,000 members; and the Consumer Federation of American, with 50 million members. Individual plaintiffs include South Dakota cattle producers Herman Schumacher, Robert Mack, Ernie Mertz and Wayne Nelson.



"Based on USDA's so-called 'sound science,' one would assume that it is time for emergency measures for 'safe science,'" said Mertz.
 
Just a thought but would you not rather eat beef from a country that does strict testing and admits when an animal that is infected if found then a country were it is hidden and not reported?
 
S.R.R.":2pmw4zdc said:
Just a thought but would you not rather eat beef from a country that does strict testing and admits when an animal that is infected if found then a country were it is hidden and not reported?

Actually neither....Both should have been allowed to test all and market tested beef...But since we don't- just because there is a risk in the beef from this country- doesn't mean we should go importing higher risk beef from another country- especially when the US producers/consumers have nothing to gain by importing this higher risk beef and everything to lose....
 

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