News of the latest BSE case and the fact that it shared the same birth farm as a previous Alberta case has had little impact on cattle markets, an analyst said.
“It’s generally been quite limited,” said Brian Perillat, senior market analyst with Canfax.
“It has added a little bit of skepticism and nervousness from packers if they’re losing markets, and from producers,” said Perillat, but markets have seen little impact from BSE.
Calf markets are still strong, cull cow and bull markets are extremely strong and breeding stock prices for bulls, cows and bred heifers remain very strong, he said.
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“Most of our world and trading partners are pretty confident in the Canadian system.”
On Feb. 27, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed that the cow in the most recent case of BSE, which was born in 2009 and died on a farm near Spruce Grove, Alta., in February, shared the same birth farm as an infected cow identified in 2010 and born in 2004.
“The focus of our feed investigation will include consideration on whether any non-compliance with respect to the feed ban may have contributed to this case,” said Paul Mayers, CFIA’s vice-president of policy and programs.
“The fact that this case was born on a farm involved in a previous case at this point is the only linkage between the two cases.”
A report on the commercial beef cow in 2010 didn’t identify one specific cause.
An investigation into the feed the animal may have been fed during its first year of life looked at six feed mills and mineral suppliers. It ruled out some suppliers as a possible source of contamination, but others, which were either no longer in business or had incomplete records, couldn’t be ruled out, said the report.
Mayers said feed remains the focus of the current investigation. Officials are tracing the animals born on the farm between the two dates.
The location of the birth farm has not been revealed.
Perillat said producers have reacted strongly to the news that the latest BSE case is on the same birth farm as a previous case.
“BSE still causes a lot of sting for a lot of people, and that makes producers nervous,” he said.
Dave Solverson, president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, said the gap in age between the cow born in 2004 and the one in 2009 is concerning but not unexpected, given the history of BSE in Europe after the feed ban.
The birth farm was both a commercial and purebred operation, which means there are good records to trace the animals born on the farm at the same time as the latest BSE case.
“I understand there is very good records and they are able to trace out all the cohorts,” said Solverson.
He said the CFIA has caused some frustration by dribbling out information, which has kept the case in the news and markets unsettled.
“It took quite a while for us to hear it was the same birth farm,” he said.
“That has been a little frustrating. There are producers concerned.”
Perillat said consumers and cattle markets don’t seem as worried.
“In general, the markets have been fairly accepting and understanding of the Canadian system and the BSE system,” he said.
“It makes producers more nervous than consumers. We get nervous and think this will be a big deal, but I don’t think the average consumer is concerned. Our main trading partners are watching, but hopefully as we get more information on the investigation, if that goes fairly well, it is just another case.”
China recently joined Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, Peru and Belarus in halting beef imports from Canada.
None of the first five countries are big importers of Canadian beef.
