Canadian meat packers may be legally required to remove all specified risk material from the animal feed chain as soon as late summer or early autumn, says a senior Canadian Food Inspection Agency official.
Operations vice-president Krista Mountjoy told MPs on the House of Commons agriculture committee in May that the agency is making progress in its bid to introduce the rule, strongly opposed by the large packers because of cost and because their American competitors will not have to do it.
Agency officials conceded they do not yet have the necessary inspectors or a disposal plan to make the proposed SRM removal rule work.
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Last year, CFIA first proposed the complete SRM ban from livestock feed, then published the proposal, held a period of consultation as required under the Canada Gazette system for regulatory change and now is sifting through the responses.
SRMs, which include brain and spinal cord tissue, are thought to be the parts of the animal where BSE-causing prions can exist. Removing these destroys the infective agents that cause BSE, scientists think.
In the past, agency officials have refused to speculate on whether the proposal would be implemented, particularly in light of negative reaction from major players in the industry during the consultations.
But during the Parliament Hill meeting with MPs, CFIA was under attack from opposition MPs for not moving more quickly.
“The regulatory amendments are on track to come on board, I believe in late summer or early fall, that time period, and then it will become a legal requirement for the slaughter plants to redirect the SRM,” Mountjoy said.
Saskatchewan Conservative Gerry Ritz said the fact that SRM material continues to be used in animal feed (although not in feed for ruminants, such as cattle) gives American protectionists ammunition in their fight to keep the border closed. CFIA officials said while the rule is on its way, neither they nor the industry is ready for it yet.
In the federal budget now being studied by a parliamentary committee, finance minister Ralph Goodale promised $80 million to help the industry dispose of the tonnes of material that will accumulate.
