The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association in the United States is launching its own investigation into the Canadian cattle industry.
Prompted by concerns raised by its members following the two latest BSE cases in Alberta, the U.S. association dispatched a team of producers, a veterinarian and a journalist to tour Alberta feedlots and feed mills and hold discussions with officials on the state of the Canadian industry.
“We’re calling it a cattlemen-to-cattlemen fact finding mission to try to bring forward to the Canadians our questions and concerns and get some answers and come back and report at our annual meeting,” said Jim McAdams, president-elect of the association.
Read Also
Calf hormone implants can give environmental, financial wins
Hormone implants can lead to bigger calves — reducing greenhouse gas intensity, land use intensity and giving the beef farmer more profit, Manitoba-based model suggests.
NCBA members from all over the U.S. are questioning how well feed manufacturers comply with the feed ban. Feeding BSE-contaminated ruminant meat and bone meal back to cattle is considered the primary source of infection.
The U.S. has not reported a homegrown BSE case even though more than 175,000 samples were tested last year.
“It might be our management practices or it could be luck. We’re just thankful and holding our breath because we know we could be next,” McAdams said.
Nevertheless, the Americans were banned from selling beef to key markets like Japan when a case appeared in Washington state in December 2003. The cow eventually traced back to an Alberta farm.
“There has been a great deal of frustration here in the United States that we have been unable to get any of our beef export markets opened up other than Mexico,” he said.
Canada also accepts American boneless product. Canadian beef has successfully returned to some markets that remain closed to the U.S.
“I think it is mainly because Canada has a national ID program,” McAdams said.
Hong Kong and Japan have said the Canadian system of individual identification provides an advantage.
The NCBA holds its annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas, Feb. 1-5. Several agendas for forums and committees plan to discuss the Canadian BSE situation and the unsettled U.S. scheme for national cattle identification.
The U.S. is still working on implementing farm premise identification and McAdams expects the individual animal component would follow soon after.
While many Americans are barely aware of the Canadian problems, more producers understand the added costs of meat processing, regulations and lost export values when such a disease is discovered.
“I’m surprised Canada found two cases so close together and hopefully we can trace back what caused it and it will put a lot of people’s minds more at ease,” McAdams said.
