SASKATOON – Court injunctions in Alberta and Nova Scotia may delay the federal government’s cleanup of mad cow disease and could jeopardize export sales, says an Agriculture Canada official.
The only reason Canadian live cattle exports continued to the United States, Japan and Mexico was because of Agriculture Canada’s promise to slaughter the remaining 64 head of cattle imported from Britain before discovery there of bovine spongiform encephalophaty (BSE), said John Kellar.
“Their trade with us is dependent on our commitment to slaughter the cattle,” said Kellar, assistant director of disease control at the federal department.
Read Also
University of Saskatchewan experts helping ‘herders’ in Mongolia
The Canadian government and the University of Saskatchewan are part of a $10 million project trying to help Mongolian farmers modernize their practices.
The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association agrees.
“There is a greater good that should be addressed,” said Ben Thorlakson, a CCA spokesman.
In 1992 Statistics Canada estimates about 1.2 million live cattle, worth $1.1 billion, were exported to the United States. In 1993 the CCA estimates the trade was worth $1.3 billion.
Two weeks ago, Agriculture Canada announced it would destroy the remaining 64 animals, on 21 Canadian farms, imported from Britain between 1982 and 1990, when live cattle imports were stopped. Nine cattle were slaughtered after the initial discovery in a Salers herd, near Red Deer. The rest of the 270-head herd will also be destroyed.
But two farmers said they will meet the government in court before allowing slaughter of their animals. Nova Scotia farmer Father Fernie MacDonald doesn’t believe his purebred herd of Black Highland Scottish cattle have been exposed to BSE. In 1988 MacDonald imported six calves from the Isle of Mull in the Scottish Hebrides to his farm in Cape Breton.
More than 100,000 cattle in Britain have been destroyed since BSE was first identified. Officials believe it began from a cattle feed that contained sheep offal infected with a smilar disease called scrapie.
MacDonald siad he would willingly quarantine his animals on his farm, but he doesn’t want the rare breed slaughtered on the “suspicion” of a disease. A court date will be set Jan. 11.
Alberta farmer Walter Jerram said he won’t let officials slaughter the $50,000 Charolais bull he imported five years ago in exchange for $2,000 government compensation.
“I saved my money to get this bull. … I don’t think a few farmers should pay for the reputation of Canada,” said Jerram, of Morinville, 30 kilometres north of Edmonton.
