National Milk Producers Federation

ARLINGTON VA -- The National Milk Producers Federation, in comments submitted Friday to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is opposing the resumption of cattle exports from Canada for breeding or herd replacement purposes.

Due to ongoing concerns about the effectiveness in Canada of the 10 years-old ban on feeding mammalian tissues to cows – the key firewall intended to prevent the spread of BSE, or mad cow disease – NMPF told the USDA that it would be imprudent to allow live animal traffic to resume. USDA is currently considering reopening the U.S. border to animals born after March 1999 for any use, including as breeding stock.

In its comments, NMPF pointed out that six of the last seven Canadian cases of BSE were in cattle born after 1997. Four of the last six BSE cases were in animals born after March 1, 1999, which USDA pegs as the date of the Canadian cattle industry's full compliance with the feed ban.

“We feel that there are a few more questions that need to be answered before we allow replacement animals in the U.S.,” said Jerry Kozak, NMPF President & CEO. “The dairy and beef industry should protect itself from another case of BSE entering this country through our borders.”

The first case of BSE in the U.S. was a dairy animal, born in Canada, and exported to a Washington state dairy farm. It was discovered to have BSE in December 2003.

In its comments, NMPF expressed concern that Canada's implementation of the 1997 feed ban was not as effective as the government had originally thought. USDA estimates the prevalence of BSE in Canada at 6.8 animals per every 10 million adult cattle, which is more than seven times the BSE prevalence in the U.S.

“Detection of a single positive BSE animal within a U.S. commercial or breeding herd subjects that entire herd (all herdmates and offspring of the positively confirmed animal) to potential quarantine, testing and further tracing to the herd or herds of origin,” NMPF wrote. “This rigorous follow-up regulatory action results in a great deal of adverse publicity for the entire cattle industry, and greatly jeopardizes export sales and markets for beef, and potentially dairy products if the associated animal is a dairy cow.”

Kozak said that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has not yet done an economic impact analysis on the potential financial losses to dairy farmers from the resumption of Canadian dairy heifer imports. Such an action is “crucial to examining the overall changes to our market that will result from moving forward with a completely open border,” Kozak said.

The comment period on USDA's proposal closes today. USDA will now have to review all the comments received and come to a decision on the proposed rule.