01/09/06 Johanns on cattle issues

American Rancher January 9, 2006 Speaking at a public forum on avian influenza last week, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns also talked about cattle issues, including USDA's work on a new rule regarding expanding imports of cattle from Canada. Johanns: "We are working on a rule and I'll be bold enough to say I think you will see that rule published in the first half of 2006. And if we can do that and still do all the "I" dotting and "t" crossing that we need to do in terms of risk analysis, we will do that. That rule will be published. We will take comment on that and then we will make a decision about what that final rule should look like." Johanns also talked about the BSE surveillance testing program. Johanns: "One of the last boxes to check was the testing of 20-thousand healthy animals and we completed that just within the past few weeks. Now as we start the new year we will start to talk about what should surveillance look like in the future in terms of this situation with BSE and will consult with the House and Senate on how best to approach that." I'm Bob Hoff.