Guidelines from the world animal health organization help make decisions but do not govern how a country implements trade rules, says an American policy analyst.
“We in the United States and Canada are the same way, we retain the sovereign right to decide who we trade with,” said Gary Webber of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
If Canada or the U.S. followed OIE guidelines exactly, less BSE testing would be done and probably no cases would have been diagnosed, said John Clifford, the deputy administrator for the U.S. animal and plant health inspection service, or APHIS.
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“The OIE puts out international standards for animal health issues, which we in the U.S. follow. The question is whether we follow them verbatim. No. We follow them to the level that is appropriate for the U.S.,” he said, during a session at the February NCBA convention in San Antonio.
He explained BSE testing policies at the Canada-U.S. working group committee, which evaluates ways to ease trade between the two.
Webber said the U.S. is actually tougher than the OIE requires.
“If we tested by OIE guidelines, we would never find the disease,” said Webber.
The U.S. plans to test 268,000 samples for BSE by the end of June. A decision is expected later on whether to continue enhanced surveillance.
“If it exists in the U.S., it exists at a very low level,” he said.
Clifford said it is not USDA’s intention to set up unnecessary barriers. It does not believe a feed ban needs to be operating for eight years before resuming trade if a country has implemented a series of other barriers to control the disease.
“BSE needs to be treated the way all diseases are treated around the world and that is based on risk,” said Clifford.
The USDA has published a rule naming Canada a minimal risk area for BSE so trade should resume in March. Besides a feed ban, Canada has expanded its BSE testing program.
Canada plans to test 75,000 animals by next year.
“That means every 10 to 20 minutes, every hour of the day, we are testing an animal that meets the surveillance criteria in Alberta,” said Dennis Laycraft, executive vice-president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association.
“We have more than adequate surveillance that meets the international requirements.”
Some Americans question the true prevalence since there have been four positive cases found.
Using scientific modelling, these cases have been consistent with the prevalence related to the age profile of older animals, Laycraft said.
