Canadian Tenth Mad Cow Rouses Concern

Canadian Tenth Mad Cow Rouses Concern



May 2007 -   Mad cow disease has been 
found in a dairy cow on a farm in Delta, British Columbia, the Canadian 
Food Inspection Agency confirmed on Wednesday, the tenth Canadian cow to 
be found with the fatal disease since 2003. South of the border in the 
United States, only two cases of mad cow disease have been reported. 
American legislators and cattle producers are urging the placement of 
country of origin labels on meat so consumers can distinguish U.S. from 
Canadian beef products. 
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, CFIA, said it has the carcass of the 
five-and-a-half year old animal and no part of it entered the human food 
or animal feed systems. 
CFIA is now tracing other animals from the same herd in an attempt to 
determine precisely how the cow became infected. 
Mad cow disease, technically known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, 
BSE, is a progressive, brain-wasting disease in cattle. It is part of a 
group of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, such 
as scrapie in sheep, chronic wasting disease in deer and elk, and 
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. 
BSE is spread by prions - misfolded proteins that originate as regular 
components of neurological tissues in animals. There is no effective 
treatment or vaccine and affected animals die. 
Found in 26 countries, including Canada and the United States, BSE is 
spread through animal feed such as meat and bone meal that contains 
protein from BSE-infected animals. Cattle are naturally vegetarian and 
left to themselves do not eat animal tissue. 
Most cows are healthy, but those infected with mad cow disease invariably 
die. 

On April 13, the Canadian government announced an C$80 million program to 
help the cattle industry remove all specified risk material from the 
animal feeds, pet foods and fertilizers. 
South of the border, American lawmakers and cattle producers are not 
reassured. 
U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, introduced legislation 
today that would prevent the U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA, from 
expanding imports of Canadian cattle until the agency implements a system 
that allows consumers to see in which country their meat was produced. 
That system, known as Country of Origin Labeling, COOL, was scheduled, by 
law, to be in place by September 30, 2004. But the Bush administration has 
delayed its implementation several times. It is now not scheduled to be in 
place until September 30, 2008. 
After the first Canadian mad cow was found in 2003, the United States 
banned the import of Canadian beef, but in 2006 lifted the ban for some 
products. Currently cattle from Canada younger than 30 months, and boxed 
beef are allowed to enter the United States. In January, the Bush 
administration proposed allowing animals older than 30 months to enter the 
U.S. sometime later this year. 
"There is no longer any excuse for delaying implementation of COOL," 
Dorgan said today. "Consumers have the right to know where their meat is 
coming from, and to make their own decision - fully informed decisions - 
about whether they want to be putting beef from Canada on their dinner 
table, under the current circumstances. 
Under the COOL law, labels would be placed on packages of meat indicating 
where the animals were raised. 
"It is clear that Canada has a continuing problem with mad cow disease, 
and American families have a right to know whether their beef is coming 
from Canada." 
"It makes no sense to move forward so quickly with this plan to resume 
imports of Canadian beef when it poses such a clear risk to an important 
industry here in America," Dorgan said. "I feel bad that the Canadians are 
having problems, but we have an obligation to look after our own beef 
industry first." 
Senators Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat, and Mike Enzi, a Wyoming 
Republican, joined Dorgan as co-sponsors of the bill. 
National Farmers Union President Tom Buis called the latest case of BSE 
"very troubling." 
"It becomes even more disturbing when you consider that USDA has proposed 
to re-open the Canadian border and allow live cattle imports born after 
March 1, 1999 and beef of any age into the United States," said Buis. "The 
Canadian border should remain closed until mandatory COOL is implemented 
and Canada can demonstrate that its problem is under control." 
Speaking for the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers 
of America, R-CALF USA, CEO Bill Bullard agrees. 
From his office in Billings, Montana, Bullard said, "The U.S. Department 
of Agriculture has failed its responsibility to adequately protect the 
U.S. cattle herd, the U.S. beef supply, U.S. export markets and U.S. 
consumers from Canada’s widespread problem with bovine spongiform 
encephalopathy." 
"Despite a very limited amount of testing, six cases of BSE have been 
confirmed in Canadian cattle born after Canada implemented its feed ban in 
1997 – despite USDA’s unsupported insistence that the Canadian feed ban 
has been effective in preventing the spread of the disease," Bullard said. 

"Why is it that U.S. farmers and ranchers have to pay the expense of a 
lawsuit in order to force USDA to do the job that hard-working taxpayers 
have already paid the agency to do," asked R-CALF USA Region I Director 
Margene Eiguren. "There is something wrong with our government when 
economic trade goals are allowed to continually trump legitimate health 
and safety concerns." 
Canadian BSE mitigation measures are weak when compared to European 
countries and Japan, which have comparable incidences of the disease, 
R-CALF says. "Canada’s feed ban is weaker, its BSE testing program is less 
inclusive, and its policies on removal of specified risk materials also 
are less stringent." 
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says that in 1997, rendered protein 
products derived from almost all mammals were banned for use in ruminant 
feed. Cows are ruminant animals, defined as any cud-chewing, even-toed, 
hoofed mammal, including bison, buffalo, deer, and antelopes. 
"Canadian producers may only feed their ruminants approved animal protein 
products such as pure porcine, equine, poultry and fish," the food 
inspection agency says. "Banned as ingredients in ruminant feeds are 
'prohibited materials' - protein including meat and bone meal from mammals 
other than pigs and horses. Milk, blood, gelatin, rendered animal fats or 
their products have not been banned." 
Mad cow disease was first confirmed in southern England in December 1986. 
A rapid rise in the number of cases of BSE in the United Kingdom followed 
the initial diagnosis, with an annual peak of 37,280 confirmed cases in 
1992.    

       
      

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