30 months or 23 months

[topper]

The news out there today doesn't sound very good. From what I hear BSE has been found in a 23 month old cow in Japan. IF this is true I presume it throws the old rules out the window. The americans will use this for an excuse to keep live cattle out and maybe even rethink the partial border opening that is in place now. I was just wondering if anybody else has heard anything on this subject and wondered if anybody has an opinion on it.

[15444]

I can only imagine that R-Calf will be screaming to shut the borders to Canadian beef permanently! Watch the American prices take off again.

[rsomer]

International BSE prevention standards are determined by the International Office of Epizootics (OIE), an animal health standard setting organization of 164 member nations, including the United States. The OIE has determined that bovine animals under 30 months of age are low risk for BSE. Animals under 30 months of age have occasionally tested positive for BSE before but the occurences are rare.

[topper]

thanks for the info rsomer, I was unaware that any animals under the 30 months had ever tested positive for BSE. I still think the US will try to use this case as an excuse to keep the border closed. I think that this is one more reason why Canada should test all beef butchered in Canada for BSE. It seems like a no brainer, if they did this no body in the world would hesitate to buy canadian beef. If our government had half a brain they would immediately start to expand our slaughter facilities and go to 100% testing. After all the customer is always right, at least that's the way I understand it.

[cowman]

For whatever reason our government and our cattle organizations have decided full testing is not going to happen. Probably has something to do with the record profits the packing and retail industry are experiencing right now.
Apparently this young animal in Japan has a different strain of BSE so maybe we'll be seeing a lot more of it.
It seems rather strange that with the almost total collapse of the cow market prices have not fallen a lot more than they have. A big Mac never went down and the price of a steak or a roast beef dinner sure hasn't dropped in the restaurants. Someone is making one hell of a lot of money out of this whole farce!
And lets not forget that if we ever went to testing everything then it would be necessary to have all imported meat tested. I can just imagine how happy that would make the Yanks, Australians etc.? Or how about the Deli owners in Montreal and Toronto? No more kangaroo meat? No more roadkill?

[ValueChainFX]

cowman you are right. As a producer group we have little faith in the government (provincial or federal) for any "REAL" help with primary producer challenges. As far as the associations, commissions or related type groups they seem to be happy as a second position at the feed bin!

In saying this, we still have to believe that some of these people think they are trying to do good. In fact in some ways they have done good. But when it comes to "Good Management Practices" and working with the producers to solve some of the issues, they fall so far short it has gone beyond shameful.

Although we will continue to wade through the reams of red tape and BS, our position remains the same. A producer solution will come from producers. We have found local governments (County and municipal) to be open and receptive in building something to assist sustainable agriculture and rural development.

I'm glad to see some of the markets opening up, it would be nice to see a more permanent solution for producers. If the government continues to work at cross purposes to a more permanent solution I suppose our next step would be to go public (in a positive way) with a more direct approach and some of the facts on the money spent in agriculture.

[rsomer]

"A producer solution will come from producers" If you are suggesting producers testing on their own for BSE in order that a small group or value chain could export beef to Japan, I would suggest this is not only a bad thing but should never be allowed to happen.

Why, because the more we test, the more likely we will find another positive. We find another positive we loose our access to the rest of the North American market for good. NAFTA is our market for beef. We think we got troubles now, it could be worse.

Until the OIE develops a more rational approach to those exporting countries that test for BSE and actually find a positive no one is going to be testing any more than is necessary. And after Canada's experience, I would think no beef exporting country, Canada or the U.S. included, is going to naively admit they found another BSE positive until the OIE rules are straighted out. Japan did, but they don't export. Japan is using BSE testing as a means of restricting imports of beef into their country to support their domestic industry. Plus Japan will never buy our beef again, whether we test every animal or not.

[topper]

rsomer: I can see your logic on testing. If we went to a 100% test of cattle over 30 months old and found a few more cases of BSE, under OIE rules our borders would be shut down again for the younger animals. So the only way we could ever go to a 100% test would be to kill 100% percent at home which is not possible. This then leads we to ask the question, how can we change the OIE rules and is anybody in this country working on that angle right now?

[Bruce14]

Yes Canada, Mexico, U.S, Australia and New Zealand are pressuring the OIE to revamp their recommendations on BSE depending on # of cases found in a country.

[ALICIA]

Lets put pressure on to get started on testing every thing. Then we can put a stop on all the beef being inported because then it will not meet our high standards in having the safest beef in the world.
That I believe is the real reason the goverment will not test every thing