MAD COW DISEASE

Canada confirms its 6th case of mad cow disease

Canada confirmed on Tuesday its sixth case of mad cow disease and said it would investigate where the cow was born and what other animals may have eaten the same feed. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said test results confirmed what was suspected last week. The animal was at least 15 years of age and was born before Canada implemented restrictions on potentially dangerous feed in 1997. Mad cow disease is believed to spread through feed, when cows eat the contaminated tissue of other cattle. Humans can get a related disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, in similar fashion--by eating meat contaminated with mad cow. There have been more than 150 human deaths worldwide linked to the variant. Two of the six confirmed mad cow cases in Canada have involved animals infected after 1997, when a ban was instituted on the use of cattle parts in feed for cattle, or other ruminants such as sheep and goats. The agency says Canada's food supply is safe, and the level of mad cow disease in the national cattle herd is very low. Canada has an estimated national herd of 17 million cattle....

Appeals court sets dates in Canada-cattle case

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Billings, Mont., has set a schedule for hearing the appeal of R-Calf USA's lawsuit seeking a permanent injunction to prevent the import of cattle under the age of 30 months from Canada. The Kansas Cattlemen's Association is affiliated with R-Calf. The grassroots cattlemen's group has long opposed the import of Canadian cattle for market reasons, and especially since the discovery of mad cow disease in Canada in May 2003. The much larger mainstream Kansas Livestock Association has supported Canadian imports, a position also taken by its national affiliate, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. In July 2005, the 9th Circuit ruled against R-Calf, ordering that USDA had decision-making authority. R-Calf contends there has never been a thorough review of the case because USDA has had inconsistent statements in the past on the risk of mad cow disease. "We hope the 9th Circuit will remand the case so we can have a full review of the scientific evidence submitted in our case," said R-Calf USA president Chuck Kiker. "The ultimate decision should be based on science, not on a presumption that USDA's judgments were right just because it is a government entity."....

R-CALF commends Canada for cattle-feed regulations

Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America, the cattlemen's group that has battled to ban Canadian cattle from the United States because of mad cow disease concerns, is praising Canada for announcing new feed regulations aimed at curbing the disease's spread. Canada announced last week that it would ban the use of all specified risk materials from all animal feed - not only cattle feed - in order to prevent the spread of mad cow disease, known scientifically as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, within the Canadian cattle herd. Specified risk materials are cattle parts including brain and central-nervous-system tissue in cattle older than a certain age. Animal scientists believe that BSE is caused when cattle eat feed with bone meal containing ruminant offal contaminated with BSE. The U.S. and Canada banned such risk materials from cattle feed in 1997. R-CALF is pursuing ongoing litigation to prevent the U.S. from declaring Canada a minimal-risk country for BSE because of its concern that the Canadian feed ban has not been appropriately implemented and that it has been insufficient. "Although we have been calling on both Canada and the U.S. to do even more to strengthen their respective feed bans than what Canada is presently proposing, we commend Canada for taking the lead to bolster its resistance against the spread of the disease within its cattle-feeding system," said R-CALF vice president and Region 6 director Max Thornsberry, a veterinarian....

Japanese inspectors visit US meatpacking plants

Japanese health officials have began inspecting meatpacking plants in the US ahead of the country's plan to lift the ban on US meat imports. The ministers visited the Greeley, Colorado plant of major meatpacker Swift & Company and found that the US meat processor was in a good position to satisfy Japanese food-safety guidelines that need to be met if they are to resume beef exports to Japan. Following the visit Japan's senior vice ministers of agriculture and health said the US meatpackers are progressing with their efforts to stop the transmission of mad cow disease into beef shipments to Japan. The inspection follows the agreement between Japan and the US on June 21 that Japan will lift its reinstated ban on US beef imports after inspecting US meatpacking plants to confirm safeguard measures against bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow disease. On December 12, 2005 Japan ended its original import ban on US beef, first imposed in 2003 after the discovery of the first US case of mad cow disease. It reinstated the ban January 20, 2006 after prohibited backbone parts were discovered in a veal shipment at Narita airport. The inspection at the Swift plant is part of Japan's investigation of 35 meat-processing facilities across the US that began in late June....

U.S.: No deal yet on resuming beef trade with China

U.S. officials said Friday that it was premature for China to announce an end to a mad cow disease-related ban on American beef as it began accepting restricted imports. China's government said Friday that it had resumed limited imports after a 2 ½-year ban imposed after the first U.S. case of mad cow disease. China said it would accept only boneless cuts of beef from cattle under 30 months of age. Officials in the United States are pushing for a full resumption of trade. Agriculture Department spokesman Ed Loyd said there is no such deal. Chinese negotiators had indicated they would follow guidelines of the World Organization for Animal Health, which would allow a broader resumption of beef shipments, Loyd said. The U.S. and China have yet to agree on a protocol, he added.