BSE origin confirmed

[Muttley]

I kind of got a kick out of an Americain news cast last night. They were interviewing a person on the danger of BSE in the human food chain.
The person stated that there was no danger to Americains in eating beef as the chances of contracting a BSE related illness was next to none.

Amazing how safe BSE meat is when it's their cattle instead of ours in Canada.

[rodb]

I agree with many of the statements in this thread. I marvel at how the NCBA has stated since it was a Canadian cow that "we are still clear of BSE". The US needs to do a few things such as develope a SRM program and segregate 30 month and older cattle in their system. With all the Canadian Cattle that have gone down there in the last 6 years and if Canada is the possible source of their lone BSE case they need to do alot of things to bring up their standards. After all is said and done, at least our one confirmed case did not get into the human food chain as theirs did.

If we are to test every animal it should be every animal over 30 months of age, as the chances of it happening or being diagnosed in animals under 30 months of age is infintesamal.

Who beleives that the border should be shut to US beef products until the USA implements the same standards that they imposed on Canadian Beef?

[kato]

Personally, I don't think the US is off the hook yet.

Regardless of where it came from, they still had a BSE cow. We dodged the bullet with that cow back a few years ago by hunting down every animal that had been with it, and every imported animal in the country. I don't see anyone down south setting up appointments to kill any cattle yet. If they were to go to the same lengths we did with that British cow, they would track down every imported Canadian cow, and slaughter it. The simple fact is that they can not do it.

Over the last couple of years, I have heard from more than one cattle buyer that one of the first things that happens to our CCIA tags is that they get taken out and thrown away. "The Americans couldn't care less about our tag system" was the general opinion. I wonder if they care now?

[cowman]

Grassfarmer: I don't think I should give out a name as this farmer is quite a large purebred Limo breeder. Maybe I should have said the product was cheap in the sense that it was a high end product that he couldn't get here...or more bank for his buck kind of thing. He told me this sometime in June so I don't remember all the details...just that he was very concerned.
Rod: I think we've done the right thing by limiting the American imports to the same restrictions they have on us. The science supports it. Now if they stop our imports of boneless/under 30 mo. stuff then what can we do? There goes the science right out the window and we are in a trade war.
Hopefully the Americans will understand we are now in this together and we need to stand together not apart.

[jensend]

according to today's usda update the tag in question was a metal clip so i dont think were talking ccia here. it could still be traced to a particular farm depending on whats stamped on it. this thing has a long way to go before anybody's neck goes in the noose.

[cowman]

Bruce: The cow was an imported Salers cow. The owner was Ray Depalme just west of Red Deer Alberta. They slaughtered the whole herd and the adjoining neighbors too.
Depalme got some pretty decent compensation both from the federal government and from the All Breeds Association. I believe it was around $4,000/animal. Which was probably justified as he had perhaps the premier Salers herd in Canada. His son has repopulated the farm.

[cowman]

I think the small metal clip type of tag is pretty standard for export breeding stock. TB or bangs test I believe?

[rodb]

It is amazing to me that it took over two weeks to find this tag. If it indeed was with this cow at slaughter why did it take so long before CFIA was notified. I hope that their is a further investigation than what looks like a quick attempt to white wash a bad situation for the US beef industry.

We need the US beef market to remain vibrant but this shoddy finger pointing is not going to sholve anything

Rod

[pandiana]

rsomer: I heard one report that said that the US banned 'additive' to feed sooner than Canada. Do you know if this is true?

[Bruce14]

Thanks cowman. If I remember correctly, when the Depalme herd was slaughtered there was also a herd in the U.S. that had imports from the same U.K. herd and that herd was put down.

It's not clear in my mind but thought you might recall. Funny how we remember something years ago but can't remember what we had for lunch yesterday.