Texan
Well-known member
Guess I've taken the wait and see approach on this whole border opening deal for the last few weeks. I think we probably need a little bit more information before we proceed, but that doesn't mean that it can't happen by March 7, as planned. Some of you might call me naive, but I trust the Canadians to do the right thing on providing more information as we require. The Canuck record of reporting their positives, even those that surface at the most inopportune times, seems to bear that out. Course I'm sure that there will be some that want to R-gue.
Below are some excerpts from an interesting article in the latest Livestock Weekly. The entire article was too long to post and I never have any luck linking them through the password protection. This is the first I've heard about some of this. Not trying to start any more cross-border bickering or finger-pointing blame games, but I wondered if any of you could verify this about the feed mill. Any comments, please?
USDA Vet Traces BSE’s History,
Outlines Surveillance Program
By David Bowser
WICHITA, Kan. — It was a year ago that Dr. Kevin Varner of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service was looking for Holstein cattle in the state of Washington.
As the USDA-APHIS Area Veterinarian in Charge, Varner was incident commander for the Washington state investigation after bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, was found in a Holstein cow in the Northwest. In June and July, he became involved in the enhanced BSE surveillance effort..........
BSE, he says, almost without exception is contracted in the first six months of life. That’s why it was important to find where that cow in Washington state spent her first six months. "Where she was born, where she spent that first six months, is important," Varner stresses. "That's where she got the disease."
To be infected, an animal has to eat parts of an infected animal. "You have to make feed out of an infected animal," Varner explains, "and you have to feed it to other animals." There's no known spread from mother cows to calves. "It's basically spread by feed," Varner says..........
The disease was first named in 1986. By 1988, the British already knew that it was a feed-borne disease, but they didn't know what was causing it. They didn't know the cause, but they knew how it was being spread. They banned the feeding of ruminant-derived protein.
"They took that step in 1988," Varner says. "One of the interesting things about that step is they had mountains of bone meal in England that they could no longer feed to their animals." The question was what were they going to do with that stuff? "They shipped it to any country that would take it," Varner continues. "They shipped it throughout Europe and to the Far East." This is one of the reasons, he contends, that BSE showed up in so many countries in Europe and elsewhere. "Other countries were accepting the bone meal," he says...........
In 1991, Canadian officials found one animal with BSE in Alberta. It had been imported from England. "It wasn't even a human health issue," Varner says. That animal was destroyed. The herd was destroyed. Trade continued.
In 2003, a second case was found in Alberta, Canada in an Angus cow. She was fed bone meal before the feed ban was in place in Canada. In December 2003, U.S. officials found the Canadian-born Holstein cow in Washington state. "We had good records on her," Varner says. They were able to track down her birthmates and verified that she was the only one with the disease.........
All of cases found so far are from Alberta, Canada. Varner says at least the first three were all exposed to feed from the same feed mill. "There's some evidence that the Angus herd feed truck pulled away from the feed mill and the Holstein feed truck backed in right after it," Varner says. "There are some ties."
Canadian officials have backed away from publishing that, he says, but their investigation shows that they had been using the same feed mill........
Below are some excerpts from an interesting article in the latest Livestock Weekly. The entire article was too long to post and I never have any luck linking them through the password protection. This is the first I've heard about some of this. Not trying to start any more cross-border bickering or finger-pointing blame games, but I wondered if any of you could verify this about the feed mill. Any comments, please?
USDA Vet Traces BSE’s History,
Outlines Surveillance Program
By David Bowser
WICHITA, Kan. — It was a year ago that Dr. Kevin Varner of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service was looking for Holstein cattle in the state of Washington.
As the USDA-APHIS Area Veterinarian in Charge, Varner was incident commander for the Washington state investigation after bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, was found in a Holstein cow in the Northwest. In June and July, he became involved in the enhanced BSE surveillance effort..........
BSE, he says, almost without exception is contracted in the first six months of life. That’s why it was important to find where that cow in Washington state spent her first six months. "Where she was born, where she spent that first six months, is important," Varner stresses. "That's where she got the disease."
To be infected, an animal has to eat parts of an infected animal. "You have to make feed out of an infected animal," Varner explains, "and you have to feed it to other animals." There's no known spread from mother cows to calves. "It's basically spread by feed," Varner says..........
The disease was first named in 1986. By 1988, the British already knew that it was a feed-borne disease, but they didn't know what was causing it. They didn't know the cause, but they knew how it was being spread. They banned the feeding of ruminant-derived protein.
"They took that step in 1988," Varner says. "One of the interesting things about that step is they had mountains of bone meal in England that they could no longer feed to their animals." The question was what were they going to do with that stuff? "They shipped it to any country that would take it," Varner continues. "They shipped it throughout Europe and to the Far East." This is one of the reasons, he contends, that BSE showed up in so many countries in Europe and elsewhere. "Other countries were accepting the bone meal," he says...........
In 1991, Canadian officials found one animal with BSE in Alberta. It had been imported from England. "It wasn't even a human health issue," Varner says. That animal was destroyed. The herd was destroyed. Trade continued.
In 2003, a second case was found in Alberta, Canada in an Angus cow. She was fed bone meal before the feed ban was in place in Canada. In December 2003, U.S. officials found the Canadian-born Holstein cow in Washington state. "We had good records on her," Varner says. They were able to track down her birthmates and verified that she was the only one with the disease.........
All of cases found so far are from Alberta, Canada. Varner says at least the first three were all exposed to feed from the same feed mill. "There's some evidence that the Angus herd feed truck pulled away from the feed mill and the Holstein feed truck backed in right after it," Varner says. "There are some ties."
Canadian officials have backed away from publishing that, he says, but their investigation shows that they had been using the same feed mill........
