U.S. Finds BSE Positive Cow

[whiteface]

f_s, could you please explain to me how any consumer can be expected to have any confidence whatsoever in a bunch of lying, deceitful gangsters who have reassured them to no end that they can be trusted and the tests used can be trusted and now they get to hear this? I think they'd be more willing to hold a gun to thier head with only one chamber holding a bullet and fire for a reward of 10 bucks. No way they should be expected to trust any of our politically scandalous governments. Still hope y'all have a good night and weekend, good luck everyone. I doubt this is going to be fun.

[grassfarmer]

Cowman, yes you are being naive it is obvious the Americans were going to get caught out cheating." The people who are in charge of food safety must be above politics!" should be the case - unfortunately it is not. I'd love to see the US realing being put through the mill over this one but realise that any form of consumer reaction and beef consumption drop will probably hurt us more than it hurts them. You can be sure if it happens that they would have no hesitation closing of our boxed beef imports with no qualms or justification. However I don't think the scale of BSE in N America will trigger the reaction it did in Japan or Europe - it is numerically totally insignificant and even the unworldly and uninformed American consumer will see that. They are also the most babied and gullible people in the world and would believe their politicians and mickey mouse media outlets like CNN if they told them the world was flat.

[jensend]

grassfarmer - would believe their politicians and mickey mouse media outlets like CNN if they told them the world was flat.

actually i think fox news beat cnn to the punch on that one.

[cowman]

I haven't really been up on the news lately, so what is the reaction from the CFIA? R-CALF? CCA and ABP?
Will Canada close the border if the test in England comes back positive? How about the countries that have reopened to US beef?
Has the world moved down the line on this whole BSE thing enough that this may just be a hiccup instead of a disaster? If this cow is positive for BSE will the USA finally realize we are not the bogeyman here? Hopefully the American consumer will not over react and maybe a light will come on in a few R-CALF heads!

[farmers_son]

R-CALF USA President Leo McDonnell was quoted as saying “This latest announcement reinforces what R-CALF has been saying all along, that if the United States is to continue to have the safest beef in the world, with the toughest safety standards in the world, we need to maintain and reinforce our … our import ban.” Based on these comments, R-Calf appears more than willing to sacrifice U.S. exports in their enthusiasm for keeping Canadian beef out of the U.S. If we were looking for a little light to come on in some R-Calf heads, I do not think it has happened yet.

I personally doubt there would be any international reaction. The rest of the world, including Canada, has taken the position that BSE was a North American problem since December 2003 and that the U.S. would have a low incidence of BSE similar to Canada.

I would not expect an overreaction from the U.S. consumer. There is no risk, food safety is assured by removal of SRMs, not BSE tests. While this positive result from a conclusive BSE test in the U.S. is very good news for Canadian producers as it certainly should pave the way for a quick normalization of trade within North American that is about the limit of its significance. Other than it might speed up U.S. efforts to put a workable trace back system in place for its domestic herd.

I hope the USDA is not going to try and weasel out of this. The latest reports from Reuters suggest it might be two weeks before the U.S. admits to having BSE. I think that would be very negative for the industry either way. The NCBA is asking for a quick conclusion and I think they are right. I believe the U.S. is contacting all its embassies to try and gauge the international reaction once a final announcement is made. I personally think the world has already made up its mind what the truth is regardless of any final announcement.

According to Reuters, the USDA is saying there might not be enough brain tissue to send to England. That they have used up all but 4 ounces in tests up to now. Unlike previous BSE suspect cases where the brain conveniently got lost, this will be the first time it simply got used up.

[FarmRanger]

Maybe the U.S. government should set up a commission to see what went wrong. They could make sure that the commission head has no power to name those who may have done anything wrong. All the commission would be able to do is make recommendations on how not to have this sort of thing happen in the future. It would be a good P.R. exercise where the government could appear to be doing something, while just absolving themselves of blame.
Canada could lend them Justice Gomery in about 6 months to preside over the affair.

[Willowcreek]

Taiwans reaction

Chen noted, however, that if the animal is confirmed to have the brain-wasting bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) , also known as mad cow disease, Taiwan will suspend imports of U.S. beef immediately. If that is the case, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will have to produce epidemiological documents proving that no such cases existing in the United States before Taiwan will reconsider reopening its doors to U.S. beef, Chen added. U.S. beef just arrived back on the menu in Taiwan in April after being banned for a year and a half because of the discovery of a single case of mad cow disease in Washington State in 2003.
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Koreas response
Jun.12,2005 21:08 KST

New BSE Case Makes Imports of U.S. Beef Unlikely

Recent confirmation that another cow in the United States tested positive for BSE or mad cow disease is likely to thwart intensive American efforts to persuade Korea to resume import of U.S. beef. Korea banned the imports after a cow in Washington State tested positive for BSE in December 2003.
The Agricultural Ministry said Sunday it asked the U.S. for the test results as well as information on the breed and age of the sick animal. A ministry official said final confirmation that it was indeed BSE would affect Korea’s decision whether or not to restart imports of U.S. beef. He said the ministry would consider the issue from several angles but the key was a scientific confirmation that the beef is safe. After a third round of discussions in Washington from June 6 to 10 and the results form a bilateral team of experts in hand, Korea was scheduled to start negotiating details of resuming imports including price and quantity.

According to the ministry, the cow that tested positive was one of three that showed BSE-like symptoms during a U.S. investigation carried out last year but were initially judged to be disease-free. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday a cow had tested positive for mad cow disease but confirmation conducted simultaneously in the U.S. and Great Britain would take about two weeks.

(englishnews@chosun.com )

[farmers_son]

It is unfortunate that Korea would take this position. It is countries like Korea that use BSE as a protectionist tool that encourage countries like the U.S. to cover up BSE positives. This flies in the face of the recent OIE directive that boneless beef presents no risk whatsoever and should not be banned. Korea’s position would not hold up before the WTO.

However, Japan is the real important market and I do not see negotiations with Japan being halted. It was clear that under 20 month old beef from Canada were going to be allowed into Japan and in fact Canada was planning to beat the U.S. into the Japanese market by being the first to provide age verified animals, a benefit of our already established trace back system. If Japan was going to allow Canadian beef imports, this confirmed BSE positive in the U.S., and it is a confirmed BSE positive not an inconclusive result, should not affect the anticipated imports.

Anyone wonder why the Washington Holstein that was blamed on Canada was verified by Weybridge, England in two days, on Christmas Day no less, and this latest BSE positive is predicted to take 2 weeks to be “confirmed”. This needless delay is not positive for the North American beef market. The speculation and uncertainty will only make matters worse. However there is no uncertainty on this side of the border about whether that “Texas” cow had BSE or not. It had it.

While it will be bitter payback for the Yankees if Korea does block imports of American beef I am sure R-Calf members and the Bush Administration would understand. I look forward to the U.S. demonstrating to countries like Korea and others that BSE should not be used as a protectionist tool by removing their own obviously unfair and unreasonable blockade/embargo on Canadian live cattle. Canadian producers no doubt are looking to line up trucks to haul live cattle south in the next few weeks. No doubt Montana producers will give those Canadian trucks a friendly wave as they pass by on their way to Hiram, Utah. Some of those waving may even use all five fingers.

[grassfarmer]

I don't know about anyone else but I get nervous when i see all the media clips of ABP/CCA officials saying this can only help our case and it puts us all on a level playing field with the US. Can nobody else see the possible scenario of this resulting in further US exports being blocked/ not restarted and this resulting in the US being even more determined to keep the border closed to live cattle or even limiting boxed beef imports from Canada? I may be looking at the worst case scenario but in my experience of BSE s$%# usually happens and there is no justice.
The US are certainly bloody minded enough to treat us any way they want, regardless of laws, WTO or NAFTA if we have learnt nothing else in the last 2 years we should have learnt that.

[cowman]

The only good thing that might come out of this is that some American ranchers might finally wake up and smell the coffee? Apparently not the R-CALF leadership, according to the quote from farmers son!
But then I'm not talking about the died in the wool R-CALFer but the little guy who has listened and believed their drivel!
Otherwise this is not a good thing for anyone? It brings into question the honesty of the USDA and that is not good?
However if this cow tests positive hopefully America will work with us on getting this North American BSE problem cleared up and return our cattle herd to what it was...a safe healthy product that can be eaten with confidence that it is BSE free.

[farmers_son]

Grassfarmer: I hear what you are saying and you are correct. But it is surely better than if Canada had found another BSE.

[jensend]

keep in mind the americans will do what the americans have done all along - they'll do what's good for them and if they can sideswipe someone else in the process, all the better.