Elderly Canadian Cows Returning to the US
The Canadian Press reports that the United States Department of Agriculture plans to allow “older” Canadian cattle and beef products to come south again. Canadian beef was entirely banned in May 2003, then in July 2006, cattle under 30 months were allowed to be imported.
Originally, older animals were deemed to have too high of a risk for mad cow disease to be allowed into the country, but a new risk assessment was conducted and forwarded to the White House. This step, which will result in review by the Office of Management and Budget, is considered the first step to resuming trade.
In July 2006, the effort to resume trade stopped because ”Canada discovered a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in a four-year-old cow, born long after a ban on using cattle remains in feed went into effect in 1997 to guard against the spread of the disease.” An eighth case was then reported in August. Despite these cases, Canada is considered a “minimal risk” source of mad cow disease. Based on these cases, an American Rancher’s group called R-CALF is trying to halt Canadian imports. Do you think the present lack of competition from Canada has anything to do with their opposition?
[Photo from Wikipedia]
