View All News Items

No more half-measures - Tuesday, July 29, 2003 at 15:22

No more half-measures
Borders won't open to Alberta beef until we go the extra mile on testing
 
Calgary Herald

Sunday, July 20, 2003
 
After a week of boisterous bravado, capped by the $5-billion . . . no make that 10 . . . wait, I'll go 20 billion . . . dare by Premier Ralph Klein, inviting Japanese to eat Alberta beef, it has become dishearteningly clear no degree of grandstanding and shallow expressions of confidence in our product is going to open up the borders to the U.S., Japan and 31 other countries any time soon.

Countries that have banned Canadian beef have absolutely no incentive to change their position and, indeed, have good reason to wait until Canada can offer the same reassurances our own government demands of others. Remember: Ours is the government that banned Brazilian beef in 2001 on the mere risk of BSE infection, even though none had been found in that country. (Or was that move just the sort of protectionist mischief we so despise in others?)

In fact, Canada still has a ban on beef from 22 countries because of the risk of BSE. Why now do we expect to be treated any less severely? And, let's be honest, our level of testing is wholly inadequate to assure a jittery international community.

Until the current crisis erupted in May, no random sampling was being done for BSE in Canadian cattle. Animals were tested only if they exhibited unhealthy symptoms. And, as we now know, the test for Marwyn Peaster's animal was put on the shelf in February because it appeared to have pneumonia.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is moving to a more rigorous regime, which will include spot checks in slaughterhouses across the country and specific deadlines for determining whether BSE has been detected. Further, measures announced Friday by Health Minister Anne McLellan and Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief for the handling of brains, spinal cords and eyeballs will help restore public confidence.

These initiatives have merit but, in the current climate, they still may be seen as only half-measures. As we have said here previously, dramatic action is necessary if we hope to overcome a skeptical, even hostile, international community.

Consider Japan, whose government badly fumbled its own BSE crisis in 2001. It is generally believed that country is taking a hard line with Canada now because the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is trying to win enough public confidence to regain a majority position in upcoming elections. Setting the toughest model to emulate, Japan now tests every animal it slaughters. It's not the only country to do so; European states, like Germany, test every animal older than 24 months.

Canadian officials say testing every animal is too costly to be practical. But is it costlier than $11 million a day in losses being shouldered by the beef industry?

Clearly, such wide-scale testing would require extensive changes in the way beef is handled in slaughterhouses and the way carcasses are tracked. But it's not impossible. Initial testing of nerve tissue from carcasses can be completed in less than 24 hours. Perhaps a two-step process, in which more detailed testing is only conducted on carcasses that fail the first stage, could help streamline the system.

CFIA has said it's close to a 24-hour rapid test for prions associated with BSE. It should be: Europe already has such a test in place.

But that's still not enough. German researcher Bertram Brenig has said his university is working with a California firm, Chromix Biomedical, on a live test for BSE that detects prions in the blood. It is in a race against other firms working on quick, relatively cheap tests, and hopes to be on the market by fall.

Equally vital is the need to move ahead with a total ban on ruminants in feed. Waste byproducts can be incinerated in the short term while more viable solutions are found. Vern Hofman, an agricultural engineer at North Dakota State University, has done interesting work on the potential of biodiesel, using just such waste.

With these measures, Canada can be proud, not fearful, of the country-of-origin labelling Japan insists upon.

If Canada has learned nothing else from the past eight weeks, it should have learned that exhaustive testing measures are the only way to go. A "stepped-up" regimen will be seen for what it is and thus rendered ineffective. The future of Canada's beef industry relies on our country getting out in front on food safety. There is an urgent need to move with military haste.