BSE risk status

The premiere edition of the new magazine Saskatchewan Beef Business has an interesting article on the Canadian BSE risk status versus the status of the Americans. Both countries are considered to be in the “controlled” risk category. However, the Americans don’t try very hard to find new BSE cases, whereas Canada keeps coming up with a new case every now and then. As the article points out, Canada has had 15 identified cases since 2003, while the U.S. has had just three reported cases – two of which have been attributed to imported Canadian cattle. The Americans may soon have an opportunity to change their BSE status from controlled risk to negligible risk. Officially, that isn’t supposed to make any difference regarding trade restrictions. In practice, it may give the Americans an advantage over Canada when accessing certain markets. New cases of BSE in Canada no longer garner much news coverage, but countries around the world do keep score. You have to wonder if our testing diligence is going to come back and bite us at some point. I’m Kevin Hursh.