PUBLISHED BY MANITOBA BEEF PRODUCERS
JULY 2021
Laura Plett, of Sawmill Creek Livestock near Stead, enjoys some family time with son Dustin between filming segments on her property for the upcoming Season 32 of Great Tastes of Manitoba. (Photo credit: Donalee Jones)
Canada achieves BSE negligible risk status It took 18 years, but Canada has finally been declared BSE-free. The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) has recognized Canada as a country with negligible risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), giving it the most preferred status under the OIE’s system for evaluating BSE risk. The announcement in May removes the final trade barrier against Canadian beef exports. Negligible risk status means importing countries no longer have any grounds for restricting beef from Canada because of BSE.
That means good news for both traders who export beef and ranchers who produce it, industry officials say. “The difference will be the ability to access markets that we otherwise weren’t able to because we didn’t have that status,” said Tyler Fulton, Manitoba Beef Producers president. Bob Lowe, Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) president, said some Asian countries still limit Canadian beef imports to cattle under 30 months of age, citing BSE concerns. Now they no longer have reason to do so. “Assuming that the world is based on science-based trade, there’s no reason to have those restrictions anymore,” said
Lowe. The industry has asked Ottawa to encourage Canada’s trading partners to recognize the OIE’s ruling and accept Canadian beef without restrictions, he said. In a May 27 statement, federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said the government will do so. “Canada will inform those trading partners of Canada’s BSE negligible risk status and will undertake immediate work to support expanded global market access for Canada’s high-quality cattle, beef and beef products,” Bibeau said. It has been a long and difficult journey for Canadian beef producers since that black day in May 2003 when a case of BSE
was detected in an Alberta cow and international borders immediately slammed shut to Canadian beef exports. Since 50 per cent of beef in Canada is exported, producers suddenly found themselves with collapsed market prices and animals they could not sell because the market could not absorb them. The result was cataclysmic for the industry. CCA estimates direct economic losses between 2003 and 2006 alone ranged between $4.9 billion and $5.5 billion. Some 26,000 beef producers left the industry between 2006 and 2011. More than 2.2 million acres of pasture lands were converted to crops, creating a major negative environmental and ecological impact. Page 2
President's Column
Weatherrelated emergencies
Reliable summer water
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BY RON FRIESEN