USDA Revives Efforts to Import Older Canadian Cattle

December 1, 2006 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture indicated Monday that it has completed a new risk assessment on older Canadian cattle and that it once again is seeking to allow Canadian cattle and beef 30 months-of-age and older into the U.S. food chain.

The risk assessment was sent last week to the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) with little fanfare. OMB indicated it received the proposal on Nov. 24.

An earlier initiative to resume imports of older animals derailed when a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was discovered in a 4-year-old Canadian animal last July, well after Canada implemented a ban on ruminant-to-ruminant feed - one of the primary vectors of BSE transmission - in 1997. The case cast doubt on the effectiveness of Canada's cattle feed restrictions.

Canada then reported its eighth case of BSE in August.

The country remains classified as a minimal risk for introducing BSE into the United States.

Reprinted from meatingplace.com

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