The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) submitted comments to USDA regarding the opening of the Canadian border to breeding or herd replacement dairy animals. The organization expressed an opposing view to the proposed rule and asked the USDA to consider a more in-depth analysis before approving the opening.
Due to ongoing concerns about the effectiveness in Canada of the 10 years-old ban on feeding mammalian tissues to cows – the key firewall intended to prevent the spread of BSE, or mad cow disease – NMPF told the USDA that it would be imprudent to allow live animal traffic to resume. USDA is currently considering reopening the U.S. border to animals born after March 1999 for any use, including as breeding stock.
“We feel that there are a few more questions that need to be answered before we allow replacement animals in the U.S.,” said Jerry Kozak, NMPF President & CEO. “The dairy and beef industry should protect itself from another case of BSE entering this country through our borders.”
In its comments, NMPF expressed concern that Canada’s implementation of the 1997 feed ban was not as effective as the government had originally thought. USDA estimates the prevalence of BSE in Canada at 6.8 animals per every 10 million adult cattle, which is more than seven times the BSE prevalence in the U.S.
Kozak said that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has not yet done an economic impact analysis on the potential financial losses to dairy farmers from the resumption of Canadian dairy heifer imports. Such an action is “crucial to examining the overall changes to our market that will result from moving forward with a completely open border,” Kozak said.