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USDA official updates farmers, ranchers on BSE at convention
HONOLULU--The U.S. Department of Agriculture is making good progress in tracing the whereabouts of the 81 other cattle that were in the same herd as the cow in Washington State found to have bovine spongiform encephalopathy, according to Undersecretary of Agriculture Bill Hawks.
Hawks, along with American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman and AFBF Chief Economist Bob Young, spoke at a conference updating farmers and ranchers on the BSE situation at the AFBF annual meeting Jan. 12.
"If and when we find the 81 animals, they will be tested," Hawks promised. Twelve animals have been traced, he said, while nine have been slaughtered for testing. He described the process as "testing and hoping" and said it would be consistent with the experience in the United Kingdom if no more infected animals were found in the herd that came from Canada.
On the trade front, Hawks said USDA has taken extensive actions to reassure key customers for U.S. beef that everything possible is being done to determine that there are no other cows with BSE. He said technical consultation has occurred in Japan, South Korean and Mexico and that teams from those countries have or will visit the United States to monitor the situation.
Stallman told the conference attendees that consumer confidence in the beef supply remains high. He announced the results of a poll commissioned by AFBF in early January that found 74 percent of consumers have not changed their beef consumption. While 15 percent of consumers have said they are eating less beef, 7 percent said they are now eating more.
Beef producers, however, may not go unscathed if foreign demand drops by 90 percent, as projected by USDA. Bob Young, AFBF's chief economist, said, "The outbreak will not affect the quantity of U.S. beef, but," he said, "it could have a dramatic effect on the price we get for beef."
Date: 1/29/04
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