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USDA
indicated Monday that it has completed a new risk assessment
on older Canadian cattle and that it once again is seeking
to allow Canadian cattle and beef 30 months of age and older
into the U.S. food chain.
The risk assessment was sent last week to the White House's
Office of Management and Budget with little fanfare. OMB
indicated it received the proposal on Nov. 24.
An earlier initiative to resume imports of older animals
derailed when a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy
was discovered in a 4-year-old Canadian animal last July,
well after Canada implemented a ban on ruminant-to-ruminant
feed — one of the primary vectors of BSE transmission —
in 1997. The case cast doubt on the effectiveness of Canada's
cattle feed restrictions.
Canada then reported its eighth case of BSE in August.
Meanwhile, the country remains classified as a minimal risk
for introducing BSE into the United States.
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