Effective July 24, specified risk material suspected of carrying bovine spongiform encephalopathy is being removed from all Canadian cattle 30 months and older at federally inspected slaughter plants.
It will no longer be allowed into the human food chain.
But the announcement did not make a dent in the world’s resistance to Canadian beef.
“We appreciate that Canada is moving quickly to address these issues,” United States agriculture secretary Ann Veneman said in Washington.
“The United States continues to have a very strong commitment to ensuring that the U.S. beef supply is safe. We look forward to the continued co-ordination among the United States, Canada and our other trading partners to address the various and complex issues regarding the single case of BSE.”
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Put another way, the U.S. border remains closed until further notice, as it has been since May 20.
Senior USDA officials told a July 18 briefing that while any border-opening decision will be science-based, it must take into account the science of other countries, including Japan.
“There is no question that the announcement by Canada is a key piece of the puzzle and it will be very helpful in helping us to evaluate how to move forward toward lifting the ban,” a U.S. official told the background briefing.
“One of the other things we need to do is look at how the Canadian mitigation measures that are being put in place will be viewed by our trading partners, so that is certainly one of the things we will have to take into account.”
Japan has threatened to end its $800 million worth of U.S. beef imports Sept. 1 if the absence of Canadian beef cannot be proven.
Although Canada delayed its announcement for several days in hopes the Americans would announce a parallel policy, it did not happen and Canadian rules are now more stringent than American rules. Canadian officials said the packing industry would have to absorb the cost of changing slaughter rules to make sure brains, spinal cords, eyeballs and other risk material from older animals does not get used in food products.
“There will be a cost,” Agriculture Canada official Gilles Lavoie said.
“It will vary from plant to plant. The companies will have to absorb it as a business cost.”
Without similar U.S. rules, some Canadian politicians say they are reluctant to see the system move too far ahead of the Americans.
“I’m very clear that if something opens the border, I’m prepared to go down that route,” said Ontario agriculture minister Helen Johns. “But to move and take us out of a competitive position when the border does open because my farmers have to do x, y and z and the Americans don’t, I have to be very careful.”
In Edmonton, federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief and health minister Anne McLellan said the exclusion of SRM material “will make a safe food supply even safer.”
Vanclief said other announcements on feed regulations, animal tracking and surveillance will follow.
While the policy takes effect July 24 in federally inspected plants that produce product for interprovincial and international trade, it could take up to a month to negotiate the same changes in provincial and municipal plants that do not meet federal standards.
Vanclief said changes are in response to recommendations from an international panel of BSE experts. He said there is no guarantee the tighter rules will quickly open international markets.
