CALGARY Ñ The Canadian Food Inspection Agency assurance that BSE will eventually be eliminated in Canada because of the feed ban is neither credible nor accurate, says Bob Church, a veteran Alberta cattle producer, academic and researcher.
“We are talking about infected feed as being the only source (of BSE),” he said. “Cutting edge science says that is simply not the case. There is genetic predisposition, there are some environmental factors, there is infected feed and undoubtedly some other factors we don’t know about yet. So to say we are going to eliminate BSE simply by eliminating animal protein in our feedstuffs does not recognize reality.”
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Church said the CFIA is putting too much emphasis on promoting the ban on feeding ruminant protein to ruminants and specified risk materials to any animal as the answer to BSE in the Canadian herd.
British cases have been discovered long after the feed ban in the United Kingdom even though the British also have made the feed ban their main defence against the disease.
“Cutting edge science tells us that there are spontaneous cases and other reasons,” said Church.
“It is irresponsible to suggest it will be or can be eliminated.”
He said the emphasis should be on the minimal risk of continued occasional cases.
“We have no risk management component in our current plan.”
Church has been a pioneer in embryo transfer technology, a creator of commercial applications through Alta Genetics and a leading medical researcher and academic as well as a prominent rancher.
“We held BSE against other countries even as we increased our own testing and it was inevitable we would find more since it happens spontaneously, perhaps through stress, environment or genetic predisposition,” he said.
“Let’s be cautious how we approach this or it could come back to bite us in the butt.”
Church said increased testing and more sophisticated checks can have only one result.
“If we are testing older animals, current leading science says be careful how you do this,” he said.
“The simple answer seldom ever works. A cardinal rule is that biology is never black and white. It is always some shade of grey.”
