DeHaven announces cull of 450 calves

WASHINGTON (DTN)

DeHaven announces cull of 450 calves bull calves in Washington state as part of its program to control bovine spongiform encephalopathy, U.S. Chief Veterinarian Ron DeHaven said Jan. 5.

One calf of the 450 is believed to have come from the cow that was determined in December to have BSE, but USDA cannot determine which calf. During a USDA technical briefing for the press, DeHaven said USDA would reach agreement with the owners of the calves to compensate them for "fair market value."

Asked later if USDA would compensate producers whose downer animals can no longer enter the human food supply, DeHaven said it was too early to determine whether those producers would get "any" compensation. DeHaven also said it is "way premature" to tell if the U.S. could be declared BSE-free and that decision would be made by each importing nation.

Several cattle industry officials have said the United States should maintain its BSE-free status if the cow is proven to have been born in Canada.

USDA is ending the comment period on reopening the Canadian border to live cattle imports today despite pleas from many farm leaders to keep the comment period open, DeHaven said. The U.S. border has been closed to live cattle imports from Canada since last May when a cow in the Canadian province of Alberta was discovered to have BSE. DeHaven said USDA has also decided not to take any action on reopening the border until the completion of the investigation of the cow in Washington state. At that time, USDA officials could decide to proceed with a final rule on reopening the border, make a new proposal or reopen the comment period on the existing proposal. North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson told DTN Jan. 5 he had told USDA officials, "There is a very strong case that could be made for extending the comment period. There is so much information that continues to come out about the case in Washington. It makes sense to have all of that information in as accurate a fashion as possible before we make comments. That is not happening. That means comments are going in, these are the same comments we were going to send in before the case was discovered." Johnson also said the comments "do send a mixed message" because "we are talking about potential problems in our system while saying our system is very strong."

Johnson added, "I do believe our system is very strong, but there is still room for improvement." Johnson said he had asked USDA officials to consider, "Is this the best environment to be talking about that? Or is it better (to wait) until there is more known about this case?" But he added that USDA officials told him they had decided not to extend the comment period at the present time.

Date: 1/06/04