Mad-cow worry prompts suit about Canadian cattle

— A group of cattle ranchers and consumer activists is trying to stop the U.S. Department of Agriculture from allowing older Canadian cattle into the country.

Citing concerns that bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease, could easily pass into the United States from Canada, 11 plaintiffs filed suit Oct. 24 to stop the USDA from relaxing import rules on Canadian cattle. The plaintiffs this week are seeking an immediate injunction from the District Court in South Dakota.

On Nov. 19, Canadian producers can start shipping into the U.S. any cows born since March 1999 - as long as theirage is verified - as well as cow blood, casings and parts of the small intestines.

The USDA contends it sees no scientific basis for prohibiting the importation of older Canadian cattle, and in September the agency outlined its revised rule to allow cattle older than 30 months into the country.

Montana-based R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America is the lead plaintiff. Other plaintiffs include Washington-based organizations Consumer Federation, Food and Water Watch, and the Center for Food Safety. Four ranchers from South Dakota also signed on, as well as a rancher organization there.

"The rule will expose the U.S. cattle industry and U.S. consumers to an unnecessary and avoidable risk of introducing" mad-cow disease into the domestic herd, said Bill Bullard, the chief executive officer of the legal fund suing the USDA.

Officials at the USDA disagreed.

"We are very confident in this rule," said Karen Eggert, a spokesman for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service at the USDA. "We determined through a thorough risk assessment that the establishment of BSE in the United States, through this rule, is very negligible."

At least 10 cases of mad-cow disease have occurred in Canada in recent years. The 2003 discovery of the disease in an Alberta cow prompted U.S. farm officials to close the border to Canadian cattle.

Trade was restored, but all cattle had to be younger than 30 months.

In September, officials at Springdale-based Tyson FoodsInc. said the USDA's new rule would restore stability to the North American cattle market. Tyson has beef slaughter plants on both sides of the border.

But Bullard voiced concern that neither the United States nor Canada has appropriate measures in place to stop the spread of mad-cow disease, which has been linked to the rare but fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.

Bullard said that beef buyers around the world will buy less U.S. beef once the rule takes effect, for fear that mad-cow disease could spread to their herds.

It is believed that mad-cow disease spreads only when a cow eats infected brain or spinal materials from another. Canada outlawed animal parts in feed in the late 1990s, but some RCALF officials point out that some mad-cow cases have appeared in cows born after thefeed ban.

The discovery in December 2003 of mad-cow disease in a Washington-state cow led to import bans in 60 countries. Since then two other cases have appeared in the United States. The risk of market disruption continues, Bullard claims, and will be magnified by the Canadian cattle rules.

Eggert said several measures are in place to prevent the spread of mad-cow in the U.S., including the removal of risk materials, like brains, from cattle after slaughter.

"Any cattle showing any signs of nervous-systems disorders would not be allowed to go to slaughter," Eggert said.

Bullard said he hopes the lawsuit will stop the rule from being implemented and that Congress will intervene and abolish it permanently. The court has not set a hearing for the case.

Business, Pages 27, 32 on 10/31/2007

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