06/20/06 Canadians Please with Investigation

Canadians pleased with investigation. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Canadian cattle producers are pleased the Canadian Food Inspection Agency didn`t turn up any surprises in its investigation of Canada`s fifth Case of BSE. Director of government and international relations for the Canadian Cattlemen`s Association John Masswhol says there several positive aspects in the report for producers. MASSWHOL: This is obviously an unwelcome situation that we had this case but I think as I read the case there were a number of things in there to be pleased about and first of all is I'd be pleased, very pleased that they really found no major breakdown or contravention of the feed ban. Investigators didn`t determine a specific source of the infection. But they did determine that vehicles and equipment used to ship and receive a variety of ingredients probably contaminated cattle feed with the BSE-agent. Investigators also found an ingredient supplier common to this case and Canada`s fourth BSE case confirmed in January. The agency says this potential link suggests that all of Canada`s BSE cases fall within the same geographic cluster. Masswhol says that`s another key point. MASSWHOL: Well I guess the worry had been if you had another case that had no connection with any of the previous cases, then that starts to make you wonder how many cases were there in there and if there had been a breakdown in the feed ban or if somebody had wantonly violated the feed ban. All of these things would have been concerns. Masswhol says the results of the report shouldn`t derail USDA`s risk assessment of "Rule 2" - the rule that would re-open the U.S. border to Canadian cattle over 30 months old. MASSWHOL: You know it doesn't throw a curveball into the USDA rulemaking process so they can go and look at the risk assessment they did, see if the report is consistent with all their assumptions which I believe it will be. And that should enable them to get the rule making process activated again which had been on hold waiting for this report. No new cases of BSE were detected during the investigation. One animal has been placed under quarantine and will be tested once it has calved. Canada`s fifth of case of BSE involved a six year-old dairy cow in British Columbia. Officials discovered the case this past April. No part of the animal entered the animal and human food systems. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.