Billings, Mont. – R-CALF USA today called the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) proposed rule to lift foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) restrictions on Brazil inaccurate and unscientific. An early version of USDA’s proposed rule (officially scheduled for publication in the April 16, 2010 Federal Register) falsely claims the last outbreak of FMD in the Brazilian state of Parana (which borders Santa Catarina, the state USDA wants to declare free of FMD) was in 2005. 

“This is false,” said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard, who cited disease information from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) that shows Parana, Brazil, continued to have new outbreaks of FMD into 2006, just four years ago. “OIE data clearly show that Parana, Brazil, had six new outbreaks and 20 cases of FMD in 2006.”

In addition, Bullard said the proposed rule also fails to mention the 669 cases of FMD that resulted in Brazil’s destruction of over 26,000 head of cattle within the past five years in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, which borders Parana and is in close proximity to Santa Catarina.

“It is disheartening that USDA has purposely and officially failed to disclose the severity of Brazil’s FMD situation, which is publicly available on OIE’s Web site, in order to advance its own agenda to import high-risk products into the United States,” he said.

Bullard also said USDA has a 100 percent failure rate in its attempts to “regionalize,” or carve out regions, within FMD-affected countries that export meat to the U.S., as it is attempting to do with Santa Catarina, Brazil. 

“In 2000, USDA lifted FMD restrictions imposed on Argentina just before Argentina reported widespread FMD outbreaks in 2001, and then the agency tried to lift FMD restrictions against Uruguay in 2000, just months before Uruguay reported widespread FMD outbreaks in 2001,” he pointed out. “And most recently, in late 2009, USDA issued a final rule to declare South Korea free of FMD and then within just days of when that rule was to take effect, South Korea began reporting new outbreaks of FMD.

“Congress needs to rein this agency in before USDA causes the introduction of FMD in the United States,” Bullard urged. “We’ve already had too many near misses because of USDA’s unrealistic, inaccurate and unscientific evaluation of the true risks of FMD, which is the most contagious disease known to cattle.”

R-CALF USA encourages producers and consumers to urge their members of Congress to take steps to stop USDA from lifting essential FMD protections. 

“It is clear that USDA is continuing to advance the interests of the World Trade Organization while ignoring its duty to protect U.S. livestock,” Bullard concluded.

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R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America) is a national, non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle industry. R-CALF USA represents thousands of U.S. cattle producers on trade and marketing issues. Members are located across 47 states and are primarily cow/calf operators, cattle backgrounders, and/or feedlot owners. R-CALF USA directors and committee chairs are extremely active unpaid volunteers. R-CALF USA has dozens of affiliate organizations and various main-street businesses are associate members. For more information, visit www.r-calfusa.com  or, call 406-252-2516.   

Billings, Mont. – Yet again, R-CALF USA learned through the rumor mill yesterday that Canada had detected the country’s 18^th case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a 72-month-old Angus cow. Although Canadian officials were purported to have notified the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) last week, a phone call this morning to OIE revealed that Canada had not yet notified OIE of this latest discovery. However, R-CALF USA Communications Coordinator Shae Dodson was told via telephone by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) that Canada, indeed, had discovered yet another case of BSE. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) later verified CFIA’s report.

“The CFIA said the BSE-positive case was confirmed Feb. 25, 2010, which means the CFIA and all other governments who knew about this latest BSE case kept it a secret from the public for almost two weeks, said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard. “If we had not discovered this information, the public may never have known.”

At six years of age, this particular animal would have been born in 2003 or 2004, making her the 18^th Canadian-born BSE case and the 11^th BSE-positive animal eligible to be exported to the United States. In November 2007, USDA implemented the OTM (over-30-months) Rule that allows the U.S. to import into the U.S. these high-risk Canadian cattle over 30 months of age, as long as such cattle were born after March 1, 1999.

Already this year, well over 40,000 older Canadian cows and bulls have been imported into the United States for domestic slaughter.

“Consumers – now more than ever – should be telling their grocers they want the products in the meat counter labeled with country-of-origin information so they can decide on their own whether to avoid products from countries with ongoing disease problems, particularly now that USDA chooses not to disclose such important disease information,” said R-CALF USA President/Region VI Director Max Thornsberry, a Missouri veterinarian who also chairs the group’s animal health committee.

“Forty organizations representing consumers, the cattle industry and other livestock and farming interests sent a joint letter to USDA in November 2009 urging the new Administration to restore the United States’ weakened import standards that are exposing the U.S. to a heightened risk of BSE,” said Thornsberry. “It’s well past time for Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to listen to U.S. citizens and overturn the OTM Rule that is allowing the continuous introduction of BSE into the United States.

“There are no restrictions on these higher-risk OTM cattle when they enter the United States,” he continued. “These higher-risk cattle are allowed to commingle with the U.S. herd, enter the U.S. food supply and enter the non-ruminant U.S. animal feed system. USDA has an absolute duty to protect the U.S. cattle herd as well as U.S. consumers from the introduction of BSE that is known to be occurring under the OTM Rule, and R-CALF is again calling on USDA to immediately rescind the OTM Rule.”

“Since implementation of the 2007 OTM Rule, Canada has detected seven new cases of BSE, six of which met USDA’s age requirement to be imported into the United States,” Bullard said. “It is alarming that while Canada’s BSE problem is ongoing, Canada has significantly reduced its surveillance testing and likely is detecting only a fraction of the BSE cases in the Canadian herd. This haphazard approach to BSE is endangering not only U.S. beef consumers, but the U.S. cattle herd, and we want USDA to immediately halt Canadian cattle imports.”

According to Canadian data, Canada tested only 34,617 cattle for BSE in 2009. In 2008, 48,804 cattle were tested. In 2007, approximately 59,000 head were tested, and in January 2010, only 3,536 Canadian cattle were tested for the disease.

“Canada’s BSE testing is voluntary, and based on the significant numbers of BSE-positive cattle detected under very limited testing, Canada’s BSE prevalence rate is likely far higher than USDA estimated when it predicted that the OTM Rule would result in the importation of 19 BSE-infected cattle during the 20 years covered by USDA’s risk modeling,” Bullard pointed out. “The result is that the United States is assuming a much higher risk for the introduction of BSE than the negligible risk that USDA claims.”

R-CALF USA, the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association, five national consumer groups and several individual ranchers have a pending lawsuit against USDA’s OTM Rule in a South Dakota federal court. As a result of this litigation, the court ordered USDA to reopen the OTM Rule and “to revise any provisions of the OTM Rule it deems necessary.”

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R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America) is a national, non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle industry. R-CALF USA represents thousands of U.S. cattle producers on trade and marketing issues. Members are located across 47 states and are primarily cow/calf operators, cattle backgrounders, and/or feedlot owners. R-CALF USA directors and committee chairs are extremely active unpaid volunteers. R-CALF USA has dozens of affiliate organizations and various main-street businesses are associate members. For more information, visit www.r-calfusa.com  or, call 406-252-2516.   Join R-CALF USA at http://www.r-calfusa.com/Promotion/081205-donate.join.htm

R-CALF USA FOOD SAFETY RECOMMENDATIONS 
 

The United States’ food safety problems will persist unless Congress addresses their root causes, which are unique to the United States and are three-fold: 

1.      Current food policies promote and facilitate the consolidation and contraction of independent farmers and ranchers and this is inherently dangerous to both food safety and food security. 

2.      Sound U.S food safety standards were weakened when Congress acquiesced to international standards that prohibit it from targeting food safety problems originating in foreign countries with stricter standards – unless Congress first applies the stricter standards to the U.S., regardless of whether the stricter standards are applicable to the U.S. food production system. 

3.      Congress’ adoption of the internationally-touted HACCP[1] food safety system hampers Congress’ ability to ensure that even existing food safety requirements are properly followed. 

Any attempt to remedy our food safety problems by building on these failed components, as was done in the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 (H.R. 2749), would result in complete failure.     

 RECOMMENDATIONS 

1.      Correct and reverse the three above-listed fundamental deficiencies in our food system that makes genuine food safety in the U.S. unattainable.   

2.      Reestablish food safety standards previously weakened when Congress acquiesced to international standards, and then direct agencies responsible for food safety to begin hands-on inspection and enforcement of U.S. food safety standards for all imported food and for food processing facilities where food contamination is known to frequently occur. 

3.      Do not accord international standards more weight than is accorded any other standards, such as those recommended in studies by U.S. land grant universities.

4.      Do not presume that international standards – designed specifically to facilitate trade – are appropriate standards to be imposed on U.S. farmers and ranchers or that corporate food processors can adequately police themselves under HACCP. International standards must not be referenced or cited in U.S. food safety statutes, and HACCP must be reformed.

5.      Take no action that would impose any additional regulatory burdens on any U.S. farmer or rancher, including any requirement to register their farms and ranches with the federal government or participate in a federally mandated food traceability program.

6.      If Congress suspects that a particular segment of U.S. production agriculture is contributing to food safety problems, a formal risk and hazard analysis must be conducted to determine the specific practice(s) that caused or contributed to the food safety problem and the specific type of farming operation involved in that practice (i.e., an independent farming operation or an industrialized food production unit) to determine the specific corrective actions needed. 

Individual U.S. farmers and ranchers deserve no less from Congress than to be presumed careful, conscientious, and law abiding food producers – a reputation earned by them while feeding this great nation during the past two centuries. 

R-CALF USA's letter to all U.S. Senators.

Billings, Mont. – On Friday, May 15, 2009, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced yet another case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) – this time in an 80-month-old Alberta dairy cow. This cow would have been born in 2002, making her the 10^th BSE-positive cow young enough to be exported to the United States. In November 2007, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) implemented a rule to allow the importation of higher-risk Canadian cattle – cattle over 30 months (OTM) of age – into the United States, as long as they were born after March 1, 1999. 

Op-Ed by R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard 

FDA Plans to Break Food Safety Promise to America

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to break its promise to American consumers to timely upgrade the animal feed ban designed to protect U.S. consumers and the U.S. cattle herd against the heightened risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease).   

Scientific studies have linked BSE to cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) in humans, an invariably fatal disease that most likely results from human consumption of infectious material from cattle with BSE. There have been 212 human deaths in 11 countries caused by vCJD, including the United Kingdom, and there are five known living humans with the disease.      

On April 9, FDA published a special filing in the Federal Register giving the public only seven days to comment on the agency’s plans to delay the scheduled April 27, 2009, implementation of its upgraded BSE feed ban. 

The U.S. faces a heightened risk from mad cow disease because it continues to import millions of live cattle from Canada, where the disease prevalence is between three cases per million cattle to eight cases per million cattle. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states this prevalence in Canadian cattle is 18-fold to 48-fold higher than the prevalence in the United States. 

The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and scientists the world over stated that Canada’s heightened BSE risk cannot be effectively mitigated with the basic ruminant-to-ruminant feed ban implemented in both Canada and the U.S. in 1997. Following the detection of multiple cases of mad cow disease in cattle born years after Canada’s original feed ban, Canada finally relented to scientists’ urgings and upgraded its basic feed ban in July 2007. The new feed ban protects Canadian consumers against known BSE transmission routes: cross-contamination and inadvertent feeding of contaminated cattle parts. Unfortunately, 10 of Canada’s 16 native mad cow disease cases were found in animals born after the implementation of Canada’s original feed ban.

One year ago, the FDA issued a news release touting its promise to upgrade the U.S. feed ban by stating, “FDA Strengthens Safeguards for Consumers of Beef,” and informing consumers that the new feed ban would become effective on April 27, 2009,  after allowing time for the industry to adapt its practices to the new requirements.
 

But even before that, in late 2007, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued regulations that now allow even higher-risk Canadian cattle into the U.S. – cattle over 30 months (OTM) of age. USDA’s base-case risk model predicts that the importation of OTM cattle will result in the introduction of 19 BSE-infected cattle into the U.S. causing the subsequent infection of two U.S. cattle over the next 20 years. Human exposure to BSE also was predicted to increase by more than 15 percent compared the earlier base-case modeling conducted in 2003 by Harvard University.
 

The unconscionable irony is that the U.S. is importing millions of higher-risk Canadian cattle – allowing them to commingle with the U.S. cattle herd and to freely enter the U.S. human food supply and animal feed supply – without affording U.S. consumers and the U.S. cattle herd the benefit of the scientific safeguards implemented by Canada to protect its citizens and its cattle herd from the BSE infectivity known to be circulating in its cattle herd. In short, the U.S. is accepting Canada’s higher BSE risk without the protections necessary to mitigate that higher risk.  
 

The thousands of U.S. cattle producer-members of R-CALF USA recognize that we have an absolute obligation to protect our U.S. consumers from mad cow disease. Together, the USDA and FDA are undermining our efforts. Under no circumstances should FDA delay implementation of the new feed ban, which already has been found necessary to mitigate Canada’s heightened BSE risk, while the U.S. continues to import Canada’s higher-risk cattle.  
 

Either USDA must immediately eliminate the source of this heightened BSE risk by prohibiting the importation of OTM Canadian cattle, or, FDA must immediately implement the new feed ban to mitigate this heightened risk. There are no responsible alternatives. The FDA has an absolute duty to protect U.S. citizens from the foreign health threat of BSE and must not kowtow to the very industry trade associations – the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the American Farm Bureau Foundation – that are fighting to expose U.S. consumers to Canada’s BSE risk before Canada can demonstrate that it has eradicated this deadly disease from its cattle herd.    

Note: Click here to view/download a copy of R-CALF USA’s comments filed with FDA.

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R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America) is a national, non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle industry. R-CALF USA represents thousands of U.S. cattle producers on trade and marketing issues. Members are located across 47 states and are primarily cow/calf operators, cattle backgrounders, and/or feedlot owners. R-CALF USA directors and committee chairs are extremely active unpaid volunteers. R-CALF USA has dozens of affiliate organizations and various main-street businesses are associate members. For more information, visit www.r-calfusa.com  or, call 406-252-2516.