Canada is joining with the United States and Mexico in asking that international rules be changed to allow a more “practical risk-based” trade response to isolated cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
Agriculture ministers from the three countries are sending a letter to the Paris-based Organization of International Epizootics, the international rule-setting body for animal diseases, asking that it use a September meeting to discuss revising the rules.
Now, OIE rules call for border closings of as long as seven years if any cases of BSE are discovered.
Read Also
Ag in Motion speaker highlights need for biosecurity on cattle operations
Ag in Motion highlights need for biosecurity on cattle farms. Government of Saskatchewan provides checklist on what you can do to make your cattle operation more biosecure.
Canada’s cattle industry has lost hundreds of millions of dollars because of closed borders after one BSE case was announced in Alberta May 20.
“It is really a request that rules be created that allow a proportionate response and not the draconian response we have seen to one case,” said Ian Thomson, acting director of western hemisphere trade policy in Agriculture Canada.
He said Mexico and the U.S. have a self-interest in wanting different rules, in case they ever encounter the disease in their national herd.
It has taken more than three months to convince those two countries, the largest importers of Canadian beef, to open their borders slightly to low-risk Canadian beef products and they do not want the same thing to happen to them.
Other countries, including Finland, Denmark and Austria, also face a ban on exports despite the fact that the incidents in those countries were isolated and the disease contained.
“There has to be the ability to have a more measured response in cases like that than in the case of a widespread epidemic as we saw in Great Britain,” said Thomson.
The letter, which has yet to be sent pending signatures in Washington and Mexico City, will say there is a need for “more current, practical science-based guidelines relevant to BSE risk management.”
Thomson said one consideration would be to base allowable trade action on specific product risk rather than blanket rules about national herds that catches even no-risk products like calves and animals under 30 months.
A statement from Agriculture Canada said fast action is needed “so that countries will have the confidence to trade in animals and animal products in spite of the possibility of isolated cases of BSE in the future.”
It reflects a concern in all three countries that more cases may be found. International animal health experts say more cases of the disease almost certainly will appear and as countries increase testing, the chances of finding new cases increase.
Moving south…
The following ruminant products from Canada are allowed to enter the United States with a permit:
- Boneless beef from cattle that were 30 months old or younger at slaughter.
- Fresh or frozen cattle liver.
- Boneless meat from sheep or goats slaughtered at 12 months or younger.
- Hunter-harvested wild ruminant products that are intended for personal use.
- Caribou and musk ox meat from Nunavut for commercial use.
- Veal meat from calves that were 36 weeks old or younger at slaughter.
- Meat from farm-raised cervids.
- Finished pet chews that are made from bone, ligaments, hides or hoofs.
