KAMLOOPS, B.C. – Moving American feeder cattle into Canadian feedlots should get easier as the government streamlines some of its animal health regulations.
The North West Pilot Project was an initiative to trade cattle freely across the borders without costly health tests while protecting the health status of both countries. However the program saw less than 1,000 animals come into Canada since last October when the program started.
Problems arose because the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was concerned about the disease anaplasmosis, which is cured with chlortetracycline in feed mixes.
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“They set quite a draconian protocol for the importation of these cattle,” said Ben Thorlakson, president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association.
The agency has been convinced the therapy is safe and there has been a major shift in the rules for the importing feedlots.
“Instead of having entire feedlots segregated, we can just have a portion of the feedlots segregated. We don’t need to track every single animal in a restricted feedlot all the way through to market,” said Thorlakson, at the British Columbia Cattlemen’s Association annual meeting held May 28-29 in Kamloops.
Last year, entire feedlots were restricted and the imported animals could only be moved for slaughter.
He hopes to see changes by this July.
Another change has been the ability to ship feeders directly to Washington state without a brucellosis or tuberculosis test.
“This has put about a dollar a hundred on your cattle,” he said.
Mary Burke, president of the Washington Cattlemen’s Association, told the group that the Americans want identical language in these health agreements on both sides of the border. Cattle producers speak the same language but the governments have different definitions, she said.
“We need to see some movement on this northwest pilot project and we need to see it very soon,” she said.
