DA lifts ban on cattle, meat imports from Canada

The Department of Agriculture (DA) lifted the temporary ban on the importation of Mad Cow Disease-plagued cattle meat and meat products from Canada.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap recently signed Memorandum Order No. 7 Series of 2005, lifting the ban following the Canadian government’s implementation of measures to contain the outbreak of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or Mad Cow Disease and ensure food safety in Canada.

Yap said that based on the evaluation of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), the risk of contamination from importing meat and meat products derived from cattle from Canada is negligible.

Based on the investigation with the birth of the cohort (animals born in the same herd within 12 months before and 12 months after the affected animal) consisting of 349 animals, 41 animals were confirmed to be still alive.

These animals have been removed, sampled and tested and results found them negative of BSE. Yap pointed out however, that the lifting of the temporary ban is subject to some measures.

First, only deboned and deglanded beef from cattle not older than 30 months, devoid of any nerves and other BSE specified risk materials (SRM) will be imported.

Thus, the beef should come only from healthy ambulatory and not downer cattle. Moreover, the age of the slaughter cattle will have to be certified by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) or a third party certification company to be accredited by the DA should not be older than 30 months.

Also, the production or slaughter date of the beef will be included in the packaging label.

At the same time, all shipments into the country of beef coming from Canada not complying with these conditions will be confiscated by all DA quarantine inspectors and officers at all major sea/air ports.

As this developed, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a statement affirming its continued confidence in Canada’s safeguards to protect human and animal health from BSE. Yap said Canada has implemented a feed ban which is an important animal health measure to limit or minimize the spread of BSE in cattle production.