Neil Jahnke remembers May 18 like it was yesterday.
The president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association had been sorting cows with his son on a hot, dusty day on their Saskatchewan ranch. Their intention was to ship the culls on May 20.
The day’s work was over, so he treated himself to a soak in the tub. When his wife Marilyn handed him the portable phone, federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief was on the line with news that a northern Alberta cow had been diagnosed with bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
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“My world just about came to an end right then,” he told the Alberta Beef Producers annual meeting in Calgary.
Now Canadians await the results of public comments on the United States Department of Agriculture rules to allow imports of Canadian live feeder and slaughter cattle that are younger than 30 months. The deadline for comments is Jan. 4, followed by a 30-60 day period to review the results.
The CCA hopes trade will resume between March and May.
“It is encouraging that we are seeing export markets resume very quickly with confidence in the safety of our product,” said Dennis Laycraft, CCA executive vice-president.
From Sept 10 to Nov. 30, more than 150 million pounds of Canadian beef had been shipped to the U.S.
Getting back in business on a global scale is daunting, Laycraft said.
Canada is subject to rules from the OIE, the world animal health organization, as well as specific food safety requests and regulations from individual countries.
“The frustrating thing obviously is the current rules don’t treat countries differently that have put in place the proper risk mitigation measures from those that have not,” said Laycraft.
“We all fall into the same pit of purgatory.”
Canada wants to be categorized as a minimum risk nation because it has had only one case of BSE. Testing of at-risk animals will likely have to increase to about 30,000 head per year.
The United Kingdom is seeking moderate risk status of 200 cases per one million head per year. In 2002, there were more than 530 cases but this year, 116 cases have been diagnosed so far.
That means Britain is finding more than two a week in its surveillance system, where all cattle more than 30 months of age are tested and incinerated so they don’t enter the food chain. The U.K. believes it could eliminate all BSE cases by 2010-12, said Laycraft. As the BSE numbers drop, the U.K. may test all animals and release the healthy ones into the food chain.
Updated research also shows a low risk of people contracting new variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease and dismisses dire predictions of an epidemic.
The Alberta Beef Producers passed a resolution asking for a review of available research on BSE causes.
Such research is long term because of the long incubation period for the disease, said Larry Delvar of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
“You need to think when your results would be available and that is a long time down the road,” he said.
ABP delegate Bob Christie of Stavely, Alta., said there is considerable confusion over what caused BSE in Canada and elsewhere.
“I’m concerned the establishment has accepted BSE is caused by contaminated feed and they have closed their minds,” he said. Alternative theories about its cause should be researched.
Laycraft said it is believed the infected cow was born in March 1997 and likely received a calf starter feed containing contaminated meat and bone meal. The feed ban was implemented that year, but did not officially become law until Jan. 1, 1998, so it could have received some contaminated feed during that grace period.
