[Newspoetry] Oh Canada: Mad Cowboy Diplomacy

[emerick at chorus.net]

Excerpted from the NYTimes, 12-31-03 --DENISE GRADY:  U.S. Imposes Stricter Safety Rules for Preventing Mad Cow Disease:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/31/national/nationalspecial2/31COW.html?th

The Agriculture Department has said that the Washington State cow apparently came from a farm in Canada, where it may have been infected by contaminated feed more than six years ago, just months before a feed ban was imposed on rendered cattle parts that were considered the principal means of transmitting the disease. At yesterday's news conference, Dr. Ron DeHaven, the chief veterinary officer at the Agriculture Department, said officials were still trying to trace 81 other cows that may have been shipped to the United States at the same time.

"We are conducting a painstaking record review to determine the location of these cattle," he said. "Some were on the same premises as the positive cow."

Ms. Smith DeWaal said: "In 2002, we imported 1.7 million head of cattle from Canada. [Canadian cows are 5% of the total number of cows slaughtered in the US.]  While U.S.D.A. is searching for these 81 cows, the problem may be much bigger."

Only one case of mad cow disease has been reported in Canada, in May, also from Alberta, where the Washington cow may also have originated.

The investigation into where the Washington cow was infected has sparked a bit of a border war between Canada and the United States, with Canadian officials asserting in the last week that they wanted to wait for DNA evidence as proof that the animal was born in Canada.

Officials there also have pointed out that when the Canadian case was revealed in May, the United States imposed a complete and sweeping ban on Canadian beef.  Canadian ranchers were suddenly cut off from their most important market and destination for 70 percent of Canada's beef exports.  Now, there are too many live cattle not being sent to slaughter, cattle prices are depressed and some ranchers are facing the prospect of bankruptcy.  The industry as a whole has lost more than $1 billion in sales since May because of mad cow disease.

The ban remained largely because Japan threatened to stop accepting United States beef exports unless certified and labeled to be free of meat or byproducts originating in Canada.  American officials said that would be too costly given the highly integrated nature of the American and Canadian beef industries.

When the more recent case of mad cow disease was found in Washington last week, Canada's ban was more measured than that of the United States' seven months earlier.  Canada restricted some American beef products, but the ban did not include the import of live cattle for immediate slaughter or boneless beef from cattle under 30 months old.