Another POST feedban BSE Case

[Willowcreek]

5/2/2007 3:20:00 PM


Cattle Alert: BSE Case Confirmed In British Columbia

OTTAWA, May 2, 2007 - The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has confirmed the diagnosis of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a mature dairy cow from British Columbia. The animal's carcass is under CFIA control, and no part of it entered the human food or animal feed systems.

Preliminary information indicates that the age of the animal (66 months) falls well within the age range of previous cases detected in Canada and is consistent with the recognized average incubation period of the disease. This signifies that the animal was exposed to a very small amount of infective material, most likely during its first year of life.

[farmers_son]

I do not know if it is post feed ban case of BSE or not but it is another BSE positive in any event. And as before, no part of the Canadian animal entered the human food or animal food systems. As I recall, the U.S. could not make a similar claim with the Washington Holstein.

But there is little to be gained by pointing fingers. It is known that BSE exists on both sides of the border, indeed it is a North American beef market. True, there are differences in testing protocols between Canada and the United States but food safety is achieved through removal of SRMs not testing anyway. As a result, Canadian beef is just as safe as U.S. beef and U.S. beef is just as safe as Canadian beef.

Canadians could get up on a soapbox and tell the world the U.S. is hiding their BSE situation while no doubt a handful of Americans will get up on their box and try to make BSE seem like Canada’s problem. I do not see that benefiting either country’s industry as our domestic consumers remain our number one market and consumer confidence is key. The pot calling the kettle black is not exactly good marketing.

If there is one positive out of all this it is that BSE is no longer the hot button issue in the press. I see the pet food scandal is still getting priority in the news and BSE is well down the list. BSE really should not be news at all.