BSE origin confirmed

[Bruce14]

I listened to the Peter Warren show on radio today and a Canadian official said they would be getting a some DNA from the positive sample in ENGLAND and matching to DNA from the Alberta herd.

Sounds to me like not everyone trusts the Americans on this.

[cowman]

I heard one report that the "mystery" dairy farm north of Edmonton where this cow supposedly came from no longer is operating. It makes sense to me that if they dispersed their herd and an American buyer bought the entire herd then all 74 of these cows could have been that herd? So where are the other 73? Shouldn't be too hard to find out if they left the ID tags in them?
Or did the Americans even understand the importance of the Canadian ID tag? For traceback? If all 74 of these cows had been fed the same contaminated feed then we have 73 possible time bombs walking around somewhere down there!
Now if this thing is spread by the feed and is not passed down to the offspring then why is another Washington dairy quarentined because they bought one of the cows calves?
TOM4CWB over in the Commodity marketing section has some good stuff from the scientist who discovered the BSE prion. He has stated very clearly that for food safety every animal should be tested! He has apparently patented a cheap effective test. Why aren't we using it? What is the problem here?

[raymondb]

Appology accepted Topper-we all have frayed nerves now and we should all become real angry. All our beef should have be tested as Cowman and I mentioned quite a while ago. Costs should not be a problem because as this story unfolds our losses will far exceed any testing costs.

Now if the BSE was contacted from food supplied by some mill (as some of us are speculating)do you not need an animal with BSE that is mixed with the animal food to contaminate the animal food supply? If yes/ where did this animal come from?

[cowman]

Raymondb: An old farmer told me it was quite common to still get product from England up to about 1994. He had been buying an English product from there because apparently it was quite cheap. So if cows ate it and had BSE and went into the animal food chain...?
In the end who can you blame? The farmers who bought the English product? After all it was approved by our government agencies. So maybe they were to blame? I don't know. I suspect they didn't know either or what the consequences might be. And really, blaming someone doesn't solve the problems we have today. But it is time for our government to step up to the plate and make some bold moves...if not we are in big trouble!

[pandiana]

No matter how you look at this, in the short term we are in trouble. For those of us we believed that "If you hold onto the cows tail she will pull you through" may be rethinking this strategy.

Without a doubt, the concensus in these threads has been that Canada should be testing every cow over 30 months. I wonder, however, how many of our politicians have been informed of this concensus. An interesting article in Cattlemen Research Makes Sense "Does One Made Cow Equal One Dead Industry?" outlines a presentation made by Jim Untershulz of the U of A on the economic impact of BSE in Canada. He concludes that "the Canadian beef industry appears to have 2 choices:
1. Continue to concentrate on commodity level exports to the U.S. Market.
2. Develop and lead in world standards of excellence for quality and safety in beef as part of an overall strategy of Canadian beef brand recognition. The latter can be achieved, in part by improving tracebacks for food safety and by BSE testing all mature alaughter animals."

Prior to BSE II is think the CFIA was reluctant to do this for just this reason, in case we did turn up another case. Assuming that this cow turns out to be Canadian, this would no longer be an issue. We need to stop waiting on the benevolence of other nations and take this matter into our own hands I think.

[cakadu]

Pandiana - is there a place online that you know of that a person could get a copy of the article which you refer to? It sounds pretty interesting and I would like to get a look at it if all possible?

Personally, I think it was premature to "Blame Canada" when the Americans don't really know anything definitive - facts you can deal with - innuendo is just that.

What I find hard to swallow (pun intended) is that the U.S. is telling their countryfolk that they have to believe the science and it isn't a health risk. What causes the science to change at the border?

No matter how you look at it, this is not good news at all. It is always better to take the high road, even in this instance we weren't quick to close the border or take extraordinary measures, but in light of what is happening, it is hard to keep doing that. Earlier it was stated that we need to quit relying on the benevolence of others - perhaps we have to get tougher to survive?!?!

[pandiana]

cakadu
Cattlemen/ December 2003 p 40
For more information cantact: James R. Untershultz, 529 Rural Economy, University of Alberta, Edm AB T6G 2H1 phone: 780 492 5439 Fax 780 492 0268 email jim.untershultz@ualberta.ca

[Bruce14]

Does anyone know where the facts can be found regarding the 1993 Canadian BSE case of the imported animal in ALberta? I believe it was either a purebred Charolais or Salers animal brought over from the U.K.

[grassfarmer]

Cowman I'd be interested to know the facts on your allegation of UK feed being imported into Canada in the early '90s. Sounds highly unlikely to me given that UK feeds whether grain, grain based pellets or other by-product based pellets cost 150 - 200% more than Canadian prices over there. Add on the shipping charges and your guys must have been buying some pretty expensive feed.

[grassfarmer]

Oops should have read "costs 50-100% more than Canadian"