[미국 축산업계의 캐나다 광우병 위험 비판 및 미국정부를 상대로 한 30개월 이상 캐나다산 쇠고기 및 생우 수입중단 소송제기]

미국의 ‘목장 및 목축업자법률소송기금’(R-CALF)이 광우병 위험을 예방하기 위해 30개월 이상의 캐나다산 생우 및 쇠고기의 수입을 중단해야 한다고 주장하고 있다는 사실을 주목할 필요가 있다. 그들은 그 근거로 미 농무부가 캐나다의 광우병 발생률이 100만 마리당 3~8두이며, 미 질병관리본부(CDC)는 캐나다의 광우병 발생률이 미국에 비해 48배나 높다고 밝힌 것을 제시하고 있다. 2008년 캐나다로부터 미국으로 수입된 생우는 30개월 이상의 소를 포함하여 모두 160만두에 달한다.

 R-CALF는 최근 미 농무부의 위험평가 모델에 따르면, 향후 20년간 100마리 이상의 광우병 감염소가 캐나다로부터 미국으로 수입될 것으로 예측하고 있다는 사실도 30개월 이상 캐나다산 생우 및 쇠고기의 수입중단 근거로 제시하고 있다.

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□R-CALF: Producers, Consumers Urged To Do What’s Right To Protect Against BSE

출처 : cattlenetwork 4/10/2009 10:11:00 AM
http://www.cattlenetwork.com/Content.asp?ContentID=305985

Washington, D.C. – In a highly unusual move, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday published in the Federal Register a last-minute notice regarding the agency’s intent to postpone its April 27, 2009, implementation of the final rule (published one year ago) that would enhance the U.S. feed ban to better protect against the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease). The FDA is providing the public with only seven days – through April 16, 2009 – to submit comments on whether the enhanced feed ban should be delayed for 60 days.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) increased the risk of BSE in the United States by allowing into the U.S. millions of Canadian cattle, particularly Canadian cattle over 30 months (OTM) of age, which are of higher-risk for the disease. USDA states that the prevalence of BSE in the Canadian cattle herd is between three cases per million to eight cases per million cattle. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that the level of BSE prevalence in the Canadian cattle herd is up to 48-fold higher than the prevalence estimated in the U.S. cattle herd.

Just in 2008, nearly 1.6 million Canadian cattle, including OTM cattle, were imported into the United States. A recent USDA risk assessment model that incorporated a BSE prevalence rate for Canada of fewer than four cases per million head of cattle predicted the U.S. would import more than 100 BSE-infected cattle from Canada over the next 20 years.

The current U.S. feed ban, implemented in 1997, is actually weaker than Canada’s initial feed ban because it does not ban the feeding of plate waste and poultry litter to cattle. Canada’s feed ban has proved ineffective in controlling the spread of BSE in Canadian cattle, and after Canada began detecting multiple cases of BSE in animals born years after the feed ban, it relented to the repeated urging of international scientists and then enhanced its feed ban. Canada’s enhanced feed ban, implemented in July 2007, now protects Canadian consumers against the spread of BSE from Canadian cattle by closing known transmission routes, including cross-contamination and inadvertent feeding of contaminated cattle parts. The FDA now plans to delay providing U.S. consumers with the same level of protection afforded Canadian consumers against these same Canadian cattle that are now being imported into the United States.

“This last-minute proposal to postpone the new FDA feed ban, needed to minimize the heighted BSE risk from Canadian cattle, is designed to position the U.S. cattle industry between a rock and a hard place, and we hope that U.S. producers and U.S. consumers will see through this manipulative tactic and force USDA and the FDA to do what’s right,” said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard.

The fact is that USDA has purposely exposed U.S. consumers and the U.S. cattle herd to an unacceptable risk of BSE by allowing Canada’s OTM cattle to freely enter the U.S. food supply, feed supply and cattle herd. USDA should not have allowed these higher-risk cattle into the U.S. until after it determined whether it was feasible to assume the additional costs necessary to mitigate this increased risk – the cost of upgrading the FDA feed ban.

“Like the original Canadian feed ban, the current U.S. feed ban is insufficient to address the heightened BSE risk in Canadian cattle,” Bullard emphasized. “Either USDA must immediately eliminate the source of this heightened BSE risk by prohibiting the importation of OTM Canadian cattle, or FDA must immediately implement the 2008 BSE final rule to mitigate this heightened risk. There are no responsible alternatives.”

R-CALF USA encourages U.S. consumers and U.S. cattle producers to submit comments on the FDA’s proposal before midnight Eastern, April 16, 2009. For information on how to submit a public comment and to see a sample comment letter, go to www.r-calfusa.com and click on “Food Safety.”