Dumb Aust Question re testing

[malleefarmer]

Been on agriville a while mostly commodity section.
But i do have 120 angus and hereford breeders.

My question is Canada has rigourous testing for bse and comes up with some d positive tests which its hard to trace where and what cased the positive test whereas the americans have some sort of a demi god status and test randomly and in a dubiuos fashion and never get detected, seems from here in aust it doesnt add up why the canadians bear the brunt of the bad press and consumer concern and accross the border they get away with blue with a less strict protocol?

And to further show my lack of knowledge what is r-calf?

thanks in adavnce for the replies

[farmers_son]

R-Calf:

See:http://www.r-calfusa.com/

R-Calf is a U.S. producer group whose main purpose is to stop all imports of beef and cattle into the United States while still seeking to export U.S. beef and cattle globally. R-Calf has successfully used the U.S. court system to delay the reopening of the border to Canadian cattle and beef following the discovery of BSE in Canada in May 2003 and in the U.S. in December of the same year. While there is no doubt the U.S. administration has deliberately kept the border closed to benefit their producers who have enjoyed record high prices throughout the BSE crisis in North America; R-Calf has taken the blame or credit for the border closure, depending on which side of the border you are on.

The U.S. does have a questionable history when it comes to testing and actually had hidden BSE positives until the Auditor General of the USDA forced a retest. The incidence of BSE in Canada and the U.S. is bound to be similar if for no other reason than a long history of large volumes of live cattle movement both north and south plus the free movement of feed containing animal protein both ways.

Canada is taking a different approach to testing and time will tell if the world views Canada as an honest broker versus the U.S. who are obviously covering up the problem.

It is my belief that BSE will be found in any country that seriously targets the high probability cattle populations.

[kato]

Don't forget that R-Calf is also opposed to Aussie imports.

[rkaiser]

Come now folks, lets get to the real truth. Rcalf is only a puppet. And by the way they are about defunct. They have been the scapegoat bad guy for Cargill and Tyson who have been enjoying this Canadian BSEconomic situation for now what ---- three years.

The testing issue is just like everything else my Australian freind. It's all about money. Keep the captive Canadian market for cheap cattle --- period.