The Montana-based group Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America confirmed this week that Canada had detected its 18th case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and had failed to promptly inform international animal health officials or post the information publicly.
According to R-CALF officials, the brain-wasting disease was discovered in a 72-month-old Angus cow. Canadian authorities reportedly confirmed the finding of the disease on Feb. 25 but did not inform the World Organization for Animal Health. Shae Dodson, R-CALF’s communications director, was told via telephone by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that Canada had indeed discovered yet another case of BSE. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) later verified CFIA’s report.
“The CFIA said the BSE-positive case was confirmed Feb. 25, 2010, which means the CFIA and all other governments who knew about this latest BSE case kept it a secret from the public for almost two weeks,” said R-CALF USA Chief Executive Officer Bill Bullard. “If we had not discovered this information, the public may never have known.”
Dodson said her group learned about the BSE case from the rumor mill.
At 6 years of age, this particular animal would have been born in 2003 or 2004, making her the 18th Canadian-born BSE case and the 11th BSE-positive animal that could have been eligible to be exported to the U.S. In November 2007, USDA implemented the over 30 months (OTM) rule that allows the U.S. to import Canadian cattle over 30 months of age, as long as such cattle were born after March 1, 1999.
Already this year, well over 40,000 older Canadian cows and bulls have been imported into the U.S. for domestic slaughter, according to Dodson.
“Consumers – now more than ever – should be telling their grocers they want the products in the meat counter labeled with country of origin information so they can decide on their own whether to avoid products from countries with ongoing disease problems, particularly now that USDA chooses not to disclose such important disease information,” said Max Thornsberry, a Missouri veterinarian who also chairs the group’s animal health committee.
“Forty organizations representing consumers, the cattle industry and other livestock and farming interests sent a joint letter to USDA in November 2009 urging the new administration to restore the United States’ weakened import standards that are exposing the U.S. to a heightened risk of BSE,” said Thornsberry. “It’s well past time for Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to listen to U.S. citizens and overturn the OTM rule that is allowing the continuous introduction of BSE into the United States.”
“Since implementation of the 2007 OTM rule, Canada has detected seven new cases of BSE, six of which met USDA’s age requirement to be imported into the United States,” Bullard said. “It is alarming that while Canada’s BSE problem is ongoing, Canada has significantly reduced its surveillance testing and likely is detecting only a fraction of the BSE cases in the Canadian herd. This haphazard approach to BSE is endangering not only U.S. beef consumers, but the U.S. cattle herd, and we want USDA to immediately halt Canadian cattle imports.”
According to Canadian data, Canada tested only 34,617 cattle for BSE in 2009. In 2008, 48,804 cattle were tested. In 2007, approximately 59,000 head were tested, and in January 2010, only 3,536 Canadian cattle were tested for the disease.
“Canada’s BSE testing is voluntary, and based on the significant numbers of BSE-positive cattle detected under very limited testing, Canada’s BSE prevalence rate is likely far higher than USDA estimated when it predicted that the OTM rule would result in the importation of 19 BSE-infected cattle during the 20 years covered by USDA’s risk modeling,” Bullard pointed out. “The result is that the United States is assuming a much higher risk for the introduction of BSE than the negligible risk that USDA claims.”
R-CALF USA, the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association, five national consumer groups and several individual ranchers have a pending lawsuit against USDA for the OTM rule in a South Dakota Federal Court. As a result of this litigation, the court has ordered USDA to reopen the OTM rule and “to revise any provisions of the OTM rule it deems necessary.”
