07/21/08 Report says live animal import controls are inadequate

Washington Ag July 21, 2008 The USDA does not have effective systems or controls for approving, inspecting or tracking live animals coming into the U.S. from Canada and Mexico. That's one of several findings by the USDA's Office of Inspector General looking into livestock import procedures designed to protect the U.S. against such things as BSE. Among other things the IG report says some animals got into the U.S. without any inspection at all. Karen Eggert, a spokesperson for USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, provided this reaction. Eggert: "We'd like to point out the vast majority of imports that came into the country during the time this audit was conducted were in accordance with our minimum risk regions rule. And while we disagree with some of the findings in the report, other recommendations have provided us with sound ideas and these ideas can be turned into workable strategies." R-CALF USA says the Inspector General report confirms its allegations that USDA is failing its statutory duty to protect the U.S. cattle herd from foreign animal diseases. Meanwhile, APHIS says it is in the process of going from manual paper oriented import procedures and controls to what it says are more effective automated systems. I'm Bob Hoff.