Cover BSE?

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For the past few issues we have run stories fairly prominently about Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), more commonly known as “mad cow” disease.

Agriculture Canada continues to receive angry challenges from some livestock owners against its decision to destroy animals imported from the United Kingdom and Ireland prior to 1990.

We have received a mixed reaction from our readers through phone calls and letters to the editor.

One caller said he didn’t know why we continue to waste valuable space in the paper for an issue that only affects a handful of farmers.

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Producers face the reality of shifting grain price expectations

Significant price shifts have occurred in various grains as compared to what was expected at the beginning of the calendar year. Crop insurance prices can be used as a base for the changes.

I wondered how people had reacted a few decades before when news reports first covered the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Canada.

That also must have begun with one sick animal. Canada’s fight to overcome the disease and regain a strong reputation internationally for disease-free animal herds was long and costly.

Perhaps what is frightening is the attitudes about the most recent situation. True, there are some valuable animals involved — but to put an entire industry at risk, giving priority to protecting individual wealth gained from imports, would be shameful.

This is not a case of only a handful of animals or people involved: whether or not the disease can be transmitted, it is the integrity of the nation that is at stake and must be protected.

A few years ago I walked through cattle barns during an international cattle exhibition in London, England, and found empty stalls and cancelled shows because this disease had taken its toll on entries. More than 100,000 beef and dairy cattle have been infected by the disease in Britain.

My biggest fear was that some day this could happen here.