The BSE blues

Ken Johnston

Nerves are getting short among cattle producers in the the Rainy River District when it comes to BSE.
As the U.S. border remains closed to live Canadian cattle after nearly two years, cattlemen are getting edgy as they struggle to survive and that became all apparent at last Wednesday’s annual meeting of the Rainy River Cattlemen’s Association (RRCA).
The area representative for the provincial body, Ontario Cattlemen’s Association, Roger Griffiths, spoke to the local members about all the effort OCA has put into getting the border back open. “As of March 7, 2005 we will hopefully be able to ship all beef products and live cattle under 30 months of age,” said Griffiths. He noted that a recent U.S. department of agriculture ruling has targeted the 7th for reopening the border.
Griffiths said that the main reason is that Canada has done a great deal to reassure the U.S. that its beef supply is safe. “We are now considered a minimal risk country.” That means that even with the recent discovery of another BSE infected animal in Alberta, Canada will still be “minimal risk.” Under the U.S. rule a country is allowed two cases per million head of cattle. Griffiths said as long as a huge number of cases do not all of a sudden pop up that Canada will be good to go for U.S. trade.
Griffiths noted that to prove the safety of Canadian cattle the number of animals tested each year has grown from a few thousand to 21,000 last year. “We were supposed to test 8,000 last year but did 21,000. We are ramping up to 30,000 tests this year.”
RRCA members Ken McKinnon and Len Kuorikoski both raised the question of why not test all animals. “I would be willing to test every animal at a cost of $20-$30 each to be able to say my cattle are BSE free,” said McKinnon. Kuorikoski echoed those sentiments saying, “Why not make it 100% safe?”
Griffiths said that proposal was voted down at the annual OCA meeting, siting the costs of testing every animal.
Kuorikoski said that, “After two years I think producers would be willing to pay that amount.”
RRCA member Tom Morrish said that the entire issue has been a political football. “There is so little risk of people getting BSE. They are more at risk of ecoli or other diseases like chronic wasting disease in deer.”
Griffiths said that the media is partially to blame. “Only 150 people world wide have had BSE. It is more of a media frenzy.”
Griffiths said that they are hopeful that the border will reopen March 7th and that OCA can shift more of its resources to other issues affecting its members.
Many cattlemen, including Kuorikoski, said they do not think the border will open March 7th as there are threats of a legal challenge from U.S. interest groups that could see the move delayed.
On the positive side of things. If the border does reopen on March 7th, of the 11 crossings that will be allowed for cattle to cross into the U.S. Rainy River is one of them. “When the rule came out saying there would be limited ports for the animals to enter I checked for the list on the net and Rainy River is one of them,” said local Ag. Rep. Gary Sliworksky.