Canada to Remove Mad-Cow Risk Materials from Feed
Date: 11-Jul-03
Country: CANADA
Author: Gilbert Le Gras
"We all agreed on the need to move quickly on new measures to completely remove specific risk materials from food," Canadian Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief told a news conference yesterday after two days of talks with provincial and territorial farm ministers.
Cattle brains, spines and other nervous system parts are known as specific risk materials, and an international panel of experts commissioned by Canada recommended that they be removed from the country's animal feed supplies. The panel was set up to study the single case of mad cow disease that has been found in Canada. It was found in Alberta in May.
Many meatpacking plants process brains, spines and other cattle body parts not usually consumed by humans into animal feed to make the most use of the entire carcass and cut back on waste. Such parts are no longer allowed in cattle feed but are used in chicken and pig feed.
Vanclief said a formal announcement on removing the materials from all animal feed would be made soon. "We certainly would like to move in that regard in conjunction with the United States," he added.
The Canadian and U.S. cattle industries are closely linked.
Government officials said final details on the policy were being ironed out with Canada's health department and an announcement could be made before Vanclief meets with his Japanese counterpart in Ottawa on Saturday morning.
Japan, the United States and about 20 countries closed their borders to Canadian beef and cattle after the Alberta mad cow discovery.
Canada's cattle industry estimates it lost more than C$550 million ($400 million) in the first month of the ban alone.
There were indications yesterday that the U.S. border would open soon.
"Our U.S. friends have put on the table today the science of Canada and fully exonerated our country in terms of the science and are now looking beyond that toward the implementation of the international committee's report," Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Clay Serby said.
"We very much support what the federal government is doing and commend them in their actions to open the border," said Manitoba Agriculture Minister Rosann Wowchuck.
On their meeting on Saturday, Vanclief will urge Japan's agriculture minister to lift the Japanese ban on beef exports from Canada.
The international panel also said Canada should do more tests on old and sick cattle as well as implement more measures to enforce an existing ban on feeding protein made from cattle to other cattle.
Also at the two-day meeting, to help boost the domestic industry, provincial ministers pressed Ottawa to stop issuing supplementary import permits, which allow countries outside the North American Free Trade Agreement to exceed Canada's limit of 76,000 tonnes of imported beef a year.
"We also called for, in the communique, an immediate review to the process for issuing supplementary import permits and I have assured my counterparts I would discuss this with Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew," Vanclief said.
"Trade officials will be consulting with industry early next week (Monday) on the supplementary import policy," Pettigrew's spokesman said.
"In the meantime, consideration of any outstanding requests for supplementary imports will be deferred, pending the outcome of the consultations and review," he added.