The Canadian Food Inspection Agency was not planning to inform Canadians of the country’s latest case of BSE until March 10.
In an internal memo that was obtained by iPolitics Feb. 12, Canada’s chief veterinarian, Harpreet Kochar, told CFIA employees the case would be published on CFIA’s website March 10 as part of the agency’s monthly updates on reportable diseases.
The cow in northern Alberta is the first animal to be found with BSE since 2011. As of press time Feb 13, CFIA officials were still looking into how the animal could have contracted the progressive and fatal disease, which affects the neurological system.
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Canadian law stipulates it is mandatory for farmers, ranchers and processors to immediately report cases of BSE to the CFIA.
That same urgency doesn’t seem to apply to Canada’s food inspection agency when it comes to informing the general public, among them ranchers and farmers whose livelihoods are dependent on a healthy cattle industry.
The CFIA has yet to respond to queries about why it was planning to delay making the case public.
Memories of Canada’s devastating BSE outbreak in 2003 are still fresh. International borders, including the United States, were slammed shut to Canadian beef. At the time of the outbreak, industry officials estimated ranchers were losing $11 million per day in lost exports and $7 million a day thanks to the drop in prices.
Few details are known about the BSE case in northern Alberta. An investigation, led by the CFIA, is ongoing. Still, there is no question Canadian farmers have a right to know of the outbreak at the time of confirmation, rather than a month down the line.
The CFIA, federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz and Alberta agriculture minister Verlyn Olson have all confirmed the infected Alberta cow did not enter the human food or animal feed chains. If word had not broken about the case Feb. 9, that’s information Canadians would not have been told until March 10, if they had been told at all.
It’s unlikely that the case will result in an immediate shut down of international borders, which the CFIA has stressed repeatedly since the case became public, but the Alberta case comes at a bad time.
International trade minister Ed Fast is in South Korea on a trade mission promoting Canadian beef as part of the government’s ongoing promotion of the recently signed Korea Free Trade Agreement.
Just days before news of the BSE case became public, Fast had participated in a cooking demo highlighting Canadian beef. His office has not yet responded to queries about whether the Koreans, who have a history of being extremely sensitive to cases of BSE, have been notified or have expressed concerns about it.
The CFIA has said the World Organization for Animal Health has been notified of the Alberta BSE case. Canada had been pushing for the organization to lift Canada’s animal health status, an effort that sources say is now moot.
Then there’s the potential economic impact BSE could have, particularly given the current pounding Alberta’s economy and the national economy have been subjected to, thanks to slumping oil prices. Both Alberta and Saskatchewan have already indicated that they intend to rely on revenues from the agriculture sector during the downturn.
It is important to stress that the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association has said it is not too concerned at this time. However, it could be a different story if the CFIA investigation determines that the case is not an isolated one.
Which brings us back to the fact that the CFIA does not appear to think the Canadian public, including ranchers and farmers, had the right to immediately know a case of BSE had been found in a beef cow in Alberta.
This is not the first time getting information from the CFIA has proven difficult, a task that has become even more tedious since the agency was transferred to Health Canada in October 2013.
In what has become standard practice across the federal government, interviews have been replaced with canned talking points, which is commentary that can often take hours, if not days, to obtain.
The CFIA has a responsibility to ensure farmers, ranchers, international partners and the general public are informed of the state of their food, animal and plant systems. Confidence in these systems depends on this. Failing to disclose the BSE case immediately upon confirmation does not meet this standard.
