USDA to decrease BSE testing

[rkaiser]

What has not been posturing in this whole debacle wd?

[greybeard]

We have convinced ourselves that our southern neighbors are hiding positives, but why are we so happy to only look south? Quebec has a large part of the Canadian dairy quota. I’m sure we shipped some heifers down there too. The source seems to be a relatively small area within 2 hrs drive of Edmonton.
Finger pointing is just too easy, and really does no good for any of us as producers.

[kato]

I think there is a lot of denial going on down south, and that no matter how much they wish it so, some day they will find one of their own despite their best efforts not to. After all, this disease can occur spontaneously, so to say it can never happen is pretty cheeky in anyone's books. Saying BSE is not in the States is not enough to prevent it from happening.

It would make a big p.r. flap if one of the anti-meat lobby groups in the States started making the handling of the situation in their country into a subject of public debate.

I would think the USDA is offering them up a reason to call the safety of American beef into question on a silver platter. Between this and the rhetoric from R-Calf about how one animal in a million is enough reason to call all Canadian beef tainted and unsafe, I would be worried if I was an American cattle producer.

All the ingredients are there for a major loss of consumer confidence regarding American beef, and no one in the industry seems to be willing to do anything about it. They're all busy watching us, and meanwhile they are ignoring the real troubles that are in the process of developing.

They can deny it all they like, but the fact is that they imported British cattle, just like we did. They slaughtered and rendered them, just like we did. They fed the same feed as we did (and chicken litter to boot). They have millions of Canadian cattle in their herd.

Never say never.

[cowman]

I personally think they are making a big mistake by cutting testing. I also take some satisfaction that the Canadian system has been aboveboard. Let's face it, if there was ever a time when the Canadian CFIA might have been tempted to shoot, shovel and shut up it was on the last two?
Boy I'll tell you, I sure hope the USDA hasn't been playing games and have been honest and upright! I like to have faith that our food safety boys(in both countries) are professionals who are above the greed and politics of this whole thing? It literally appalls me that R-CALF can continue to play this dangerous game they are playing? I sometimes really wonder if they are sane? Don't they know that they are playing with fire? When(if) they find that US born and raised cows all this garbage is going to come back and haunt them? Sometimes I suspect the lunatics are running the asylum?
Come on American ranchers...think of the corner you are painting yourself into? Surely you can think beyond the next calf check?