Canada, U.S. and Mexico agree to import standards related to mad cow

[Spazito]

REGINA (CP) - Canada, the United States and Mexico have agreed to a single North American import standard related to mad cow disease, Federal Agriculture Minister Andy Mitchell said Tuesday.

The standard, negotiated at a recent meeting in Mexico City, reflects guidelines laid out by the World Organization for Animal Health. It says that, as long as the materials most likely to cause mad cow disease are being removed from the animal at slaughter, and as long as animals are not being imported from herds where the disease has been found, then it should be safe for animals to move across borders.

"It's a very important agreement between the three countries," Mitchell said.

"You can trade cattle between countries so long as you take certain steps and we are please that we have all three countries on side."

more

http://www.canada.com/news/national/story.html?id=d1aaf8ef-ca9e-4cf4-ac5f-87b5820abe1d

[katsy]

1. Huh?

"It says that, as long as the materials most likely to cause mad cow disease are being removed from the animal at slaughter, and as long as animals are not being imported from herds where the disease has been found, then it should be safe for animals to move across borders."

-----------------------------

I'm confused here. How does removing the feed at slaughter prevent mad cow disease.

[Spazito]

2. They are talking about the organs of the cattle that

Mad Cow is found rather than the feed.



"The agent that causes BSE is not distributed evenly through the animal's body, but is concentrated in certain tissues, most notably the brain and spinal cord, related to the central nervous system."

This was taken from the WHO report (its a PDF)

http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/bse/en/BSEthreat.pdf

It is on page 9 of the document under questions for consumers.

[warrens]

3. specified risk materials (SRMs)

The brain, spinal column, tonsils, eyes, tongue, small intestine and a few other body parts have to be remoeved and destroyed. The problem is, prions are found in other body parts, like the liver and kidneys. And theoretically, since they find the disease in the blood system, blood should be destroyed as well. It isn't; they use it for animal feed.

[daleo]

4. They think only the brain and spinal cord are dangerous

Although there is plenty of evidence to the contrary - e.g. nerve fibers in meat can carry prions.

Also, only excluding animals if they are from herds where the disease has been found is meaningless since they aren't looking very hard for the disease in any herds anyway.

[MountainLaurel]

5. An amen, and a book recommendation for all

Deadly Feasts -- for a fascinating study about these prion diseases: mad-cow, scrapie, Creutzfeldt Jacob, and even a disease afflicting cannibals in Indonesia. The science is excellent, and the writing engaging. Get thee to a library now.

[CHIMO]

6. Mad Cow USA

The first printing of the book is available on line for free. It is in pdf format. The size is 1.05MB.

I found it very thorough.

http://www.prwatch.org/books/madcow.html

[TrogL]

7. Fine. Squelch the lawsuit. Open the border.