U.S. court sees little mad cow risk from Canada

By Adam Tanner

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – U.S. imports of young Canadian
cattle pose a negligible risk of spreading mad cow disease two
years after Canada found its first domestic case of the
illness, a U.S. federal appeals court ruled on Monday.

The 56-page 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, explaining
a two-paragraph order 11 days ago, said a Montana district
court in March overstated the risk of such imports, which the
U.S. Agriculture Department had wanted to resume.

“USDA decided to reopen the border to Canadian ruminants
after making a reasoned determination that the importation of a
small number of BSE infected cattle into this country would not
pose a serious risk to humans or livestock,” Judge Wallace
Tashima wrote for a three-judge panel.

The decision faulted a lower court preliminary injunction
halting, at the request of a ranchers’ group, a January U.S.
plan to resume imports of Canadian cattle less than 30 months
old.

The dispute follows the discovery of four Canadian mad cow
cases since May 2003, including the first U.S. case in a dairy
cow imported from Canada later that year. A second U.S. case
was confirmed a month ago in a 12-year-old Texas-born cow.

By contrast, tests in the United Kingdom showed the deadly
bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) spread to tens of
thousands of their cattle in the late 1980s.

Despite the handful of recent North American cases, U.S.
appetite for steaks and hamburgers remains strong.

“The district court’s concern over the possibility of
‘stigma’ harming the American beef industry appears to be
overstated,” Tashima wrote. “The record does not support the
district court’s alarmist findings that the ‘irreparable
economic harm’ the district court foresaw from the stigma of
Canadian beef will actually befall the American beef industry.

“Following the case of BSE diagnosed in a Washington State
cow in 2003, consumer demand for, and confidence in, American
beef remained strong.”

SAFEGUARDS IN PLACE

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said America’s
northern neighbor had safeguards to bar the spread of BSE.

“The secretary had a firm basis for determining that the
resumption of ruminant imports from Canada would not
significantly increase the risk of BSE to the American
population,” the decision said.

“USDA necessarily decided that the risks inherent in the
uncertainty surrounding the current scientific understanding of
BSE were insufficiently significant to justify the continued
exclusion of Canadian cattle,” Judge Tashima wrote.

The plaintiffs in the case, the Ranchers Cattlemen Action
Legal Fund, had no immediate comment.

The appeals court — the last rung of the U.S. federal
court system before the Supreme Court — also said that
“Canada’s already low rate of BSE is decreasing.” It cited
Canada’s feed ban, BSE testing and others measures as factors
minimizing BSE in their cattle.

(Additional reporting by Sophie Walker in Washington)