From the Western Producer
Questions raised over BSE testing
this document web posted: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 20050120p57
By Michael Raine
Saskatoon newsroom
North American cattle populations and feeding systems are so integrated that positive BSE findings in Canada should be similar to those south of the border.
But so far, the count is Canada 3, U.S. 1 or Canada 4, U.S. 0, depending on who is counting.
Chris Clark of the University of Saskatchewan says scientifically looking for BSE is like finding a needle in a haystack.
"We're testing well above the levels committed to and to levels where we should be finding some instances of the disease," he said.
Despite the probabilities of finding BSE in the American herd, random chance seems to be favouring Canadian incidents.
Since the start of Canada's BSE testing initiatives in January 2004, 24,000 head of high-risk cattle have been tested from a national herd of 16.7 million.
Many of those animals were tested in the last months of 2004, with 2,000 tested in the first half of this month.
"Canada committed to testing 8,000 animals initially in 2004. Now we've tested 24,000 and found two - two out of the 24,000 of the most likely candidates (for BSE) that we could find," said Clark.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has checked 178,336 since it began its testing protocol in June 2004. The U.S. herd is 103.6 million animals.
Both countries have sampled at-risk animals older than 30 months, downers, dead and neurologically suspect cattle at a rate of about 1.5 percent of their total herds.
The third positive animal to be identified by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, belonging to Wilhelm Vohs of Innisfail, Alta., was injured in December and qualified for testing as a downer animal with distress.
It was born after the ruminant-to-ruminant feed ban and was fed a calf feed supplement purchased in 1998 that may have been manufactured before the feed ban, according to CFIA reports.
Clark said the U.S. likely has BSE as well since both Canada and the U.S. traded with the United Kingdom before the ban on British imports. As well, Canada and the U.S. had open trade in cattle and ruminant products until 19 months ago.
A recent report of the European Food Safety Authority that assessed the BSE risk of the U.S. said that the Americans imported infected meat and bone meal and livestock from Britain in the 1980s.
"This risk continued to exist, and grew significantly in the mid '90s when domestic cattle, infected by imported (meat and bone meal), reached processing. Given the low stability of the (feed and rendering) system, the risk increased over the years with continued imports of cattle and MBM from BSE-risk countries," said the report.
Clark said it is only a matter of time until the Americans turn up multiple cases.
"If we are finding it and they aren't, it's either chance or their testing practices need a second look," he said.
Roger Morris, a leading prion researcher at King's College in London, said in an interview last fall that "if any country, Canada, the United States, Mexico, says they don't have it, then they are fooling themselves by not looking hard enough."
Clark said American producers and politicians have to be careful not to demonize Canadian cattle because "when they have their own cases, which is inevitable, the consumer support for beef will be undermined and that will hurt them more than any numbers of Canadian imports ever could.
"That happened to European countries that banned British beef on the basis that they were free of BSE. They slapped up trade barriers and demonized British beef. When BSE was found in their own cattle, it crushed their domestic beef markets," he said.
Morris said the worst thing for the North American industry would be to find BSE in one country and not the others, because it would call into question the testing procedures of those claiming to be free of the disease.
Clark said so far the USDA is on the right track, trying the keep the issue based on science.
"Good science is good for the industry. It's defensible. That's what make's Ralph Klein's cull idea such a problem. It's bad science and it sends the wrong message here at home and in our export markets," said Clark.
Brian Evans, Canada's chief veterinary officer, rejected the Alberta premier's suggestion for a mass cull of all Canadian animals born before the feed ban, saying the idea was not scientifically sound.
If a cull were to take place, slaughtering 1.8 million animals that were born up to one year after the 1997 feed ban, new criteria would have to be established for positive cases of BSE as they relate to the new U.S. rule.
Questions raised over BSE testing
this document web posted: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 20050120p57
By Michael Raine
Saskatoon newsroom
North American cattle populations and feeding systems are so integrated that positive BSE findings in Canada should be similar to those south of the border.
But so far, the count is Canada 3, U.S. 1 or Canada 4, U.S. 0, depending on who is counting.
Chris Clark of the University of Saskatchewan says scientifically looking for BSE is like finding a needle in a haystack.
"We're testing well above the levels committed to and to levels where we should be finding some instances of the disease," he said.
Despite the probabilities of finding BSE in the American herd, random chance seems to be favouring Canadian incidents.
Since the start of Canada's BSE testing initiatives in January 2004, 24,000 head of high-risk cattle have been tested from a national herd of 16.7 million.
Many of those animals were tested in the last months of 2004, with 2,000 tested in the first half of this month.
"Canada committed to testing 8,000 animals initially in 2004. Now we've tested 24,000 and found two - two out of the 24,000 of the most likely candidates (for BSE) that we could find," said Clark.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has checked 178,336 since it began its testing protocol in June 2004. The U.S. herd is 103.6 million animals.
Both countries have sampled at-risk animals older than 30 months, downers, dead and neurologically suspect cattle at a rate of about 1.5 percent of their total herds.
The third positive animal to be identified by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, belonging to Wilhelm Vohs of Innisfail, Alta., was injured in December and qualified for testing as a downer animal with distress.
It was born after the ruminant-to-ruminant feed ban and was fed a calf feed supplement purchased in 1998 that may have been manufactured before the feed ban, according to CFIA reports.
Clark said the U.S. likely has BSE as well since both Canada and the U.S. traded with the United Kingdom before the ban on British imports. As well, Canada and the U.S. had open trade in cattle and ruminant products until 19 months ago.
A recent report of the European Food Safety Authority that assessed the BSE risk of the U.S. said that the Americans imported infected meat and bone meal and livestock from Britain in the 1980s.
"This risk continued to exist, and grew significantly in the mid '90s when domestic cattle, infected by imported (meat and bone meal), reached processing. Given the low stability of the (feed and rendering) system, the risk increased over the years with continued imports of cattle and MBM from BSE-risk countries," said the report.
Clark said it is only a matter of time until the Americans turn up multiple cases.
"If we are finding it and they aren't, it's either chance or their testing practices need a second look," he said.
Roger Morris, a leading prion researcher at King's College in London, said in an interview last fall that "if any country, Canada, the United States, Mexico, says they don't have it, then they are fooling themselves by not looking hard enough."
Clark said American producers and politicians have to be careful not to demonize Canadian cattle because "when they have their own cases, which is inevitable, the consumer support for beef will be undermined and that will hurt them more than any numbers of Canadian imports ever could.
"That happened to European countries that banned British beef on the basis that they were free of BSE. They slapped up trade barriers and demonized British beef. When BSE was found in their own cattle, it crushed their domestic beef markets," he said.
Morris said the worst thing for the North American industry would be to find BSE in one country and not the others, because it would call into question the testing procedures of those claiming to be free of the disease.
Clark said so far the USDA is on the right track, trying the keep the issue based on science.
"Good science is good for the industry. It's defensible. That's what make's Ralph Klein's cull idea such a problem. It's bad science and it sends the wrong message here at home and in our export markets," said Clark.
Brian Evans, Canada's chief veterinary officer, rejected the Alberta premier's suggestion for a mass cull of all Canadian animals born before the feed ban, saying the idea was not scientifically sound.
If a cull were to take place, slaughtering 1.8 million animals that were born up to one year after the 1997 feed ban, new criteria would have to be established for positive cases of BSE as they relate to the new U.S. rule.