Mexico submits offer on cattle trade Mexico has offered a new trade protocol to the U.S. Department of Agriculture concerning the import of U.S. cattle. The news comes after Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples announced during the first week of March specific Canadian cattle would not cross into Mexico through Texas export facilities due to unfair trade practices. "I have now learned that Mexico has submitted an offer to USDA as of March 6. Although details of this offer have not yet been shared, the fact an offer has been made is proof of progress," Commissioner Staples said. "I want to thank the many people who have stood with me in support of this action. I look forward to learning the details of this new Mexican offer and reviewing its consistency with international standards." On March 4, Commissioner Staples issued an order to stop specific Canadian cattle from passing through the state's export facilities into Mexico. Canada and Mexico have signed an agreement allowing the trade of certain dairy and beef cattle less than 30 months of age--including breeding stock. Currently, Mexico only allows the importation of U.S. dairy heifers under the age of 24 months, despite in-depth international negotiations to broaden this to breeding stock....
California joins Arizona, other states in international cattle trade dispute California is the latest of several border states to enter an international dispute surrounding cattle trade. State officials announced Friday afternoon that California would join Arizona, New Mexico and Texas in urging U.S. exporting facilities to turn away Mexico-bound Canadian cattle. California's decision follows an order issued March 4 by the Texas Department of Agriculture that would stop state-operated exporting facilities from allowing Canadian cattle to pass through to Mexico. A recent agreement between Canada and Mexico prompted the trade dispute, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples said when he issued the order. Earlier this month, Canadian and Mexican officials signed an agreement that allows Canada to trade breeding cattle less than 30 months old. But Mexico prohibits imports of U.S. breeding cattle, with the exception of dairy heifers under the age of 24 months. Mexico enacted the embargo on U.S. cattle in 2003 after a single Canadian-born cow in Washington state was found to have mad cow disease. Unlike in Texas, where the state operates five livestock export facilities, such facilities in California, New Mexico and Arizona are privately owned and operated and do not fall under state jurisdiction. Nevertheless, the agriculture departments in those three states are urging private facilities to support Texas' decision....
Senate considers stricter slaughterhouse controls Acting in the wake of undercover video that showed “downer” cattle – those too sick to stand – being shoved to their slaughter in a Southern California packing plant, California’s two U.S. Senators are calling for tighter controls on packing plants. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is author of a bill that would shut down slaughter facilities that repeatedly process downed animals and offer stiff fines and temporary one-year shutdowns for first and second time violators. For first time offenders, the legislation would impose stiff fines and for second time offenders, it would effectively shut down operations for a year. Third time offenders would be shut down permanently. The bill, which is co-sponsored by Sens. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska) and Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, will give the USDA additional authority to apply a tough penalty system on facilities that violate the law when it comes to handling nonambulatory animals, including stiff fines for first time offenders and temporary or permanent facility shutdowns for repeat violators. Nonambulatory is defined as those animals that cannot stand or walk without assistance....
Too little testing for mad cow, critics say After the country's first mad cow case was found in 2003, the federal government ramped up testing cattle for the fatal disease. But in 2006, officials scaled it back by 90 percent, citing the "extremely low" incidence of the disease in the United States. Today, about 40,000 -- or 0.1 percent -- of the 37 million cows slaughtered each year are tested, a number that consumer groups say is too low, especially when compared to testing programs in other countries. "Don't look, don't find" might be a more apt way of describing this country's testing program, said Michael Hansen, a senior scientist at Consumers Union. But officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which oversees mad cow testing, say the fact that only two infected cows were found during the heightened testing -- which cost $158 million -- made it difficult to justify continued testing at those levels. No cases have been identified since then. "We're finding it at extremely low levels," said Karen Eggert, a spokeswoman for the inspection service....
Equine Herpesvirus-1: Mutant Strain an Emerging Problem Scientists from the Gluck Equine Research Center and the Livestock Disease Diagnostic Center at the University of Kentucky recently reported that a particular mutant form of equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) that causes myeloencephalopathy (a degenerative disease of the brain and spinal cord) in horses has the potential to pose serious health and economic threats to the North American horse industry. Like other herpes viruses, EHV-1, including the encephalopathy-causing mutant strain, can lay dormant in previously infected horses. "Latently infected horses are at risk for re-activation of the dormant mutant virus and can serve as a virus reservoir to potentially infect other horses," explained George Allen, PhD, a professor at the University of Kentucky and a co-author on the study. Since EHV-1 myeloencephalopathy is currently considered a potentially emerging disease, this study was designed to determine the prevalence of the mutant EHV-1 in the Thoroughbred broodmare population in central Kentucky. DNA was extracted from submandibular lymph nodes from 132 broodmares and was analyzed by a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to determine if EHV-1 and/or mutant EHV-1 were present. "Over half of the horses examined were latently infected with EHV-1, and 18% of these horses harbored the mutant form of EHV-1 that causes myeloencephalopathy," said Allen....