April 30, 2004 The Daily Herald-Tribune (Grande Prairie, Alberta) by 
NEAL TALBOT

Fearing the United States will slow down border reopening negotiations if Canada allows widespread private mad cow testing, the County of Newell Agricultural Service Board has begun lobbying national agricultural boards to oppose any cattle testing effort that is not matched by the U.S.

"There is too much at stake to risk damaging our efforts to get live Canadian cattle moving across the U.S. border once again," said board chairwoman Marg Loewen.

"We can't allow our desire to regain international markets like Japan to interfere with us getting back into the U.S., which is by far our largest customer."

The U.S. accounted for $3.4 billion in annual beef sales - far outdistancing Japan at $21 million and South Korea $470,000 - before the May 20 discovery of cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE, closed all three countries borders to Canadian beef.

While the U.S. border has reopened to certain cuts of Canadian beef, the movement of live cattle is still prohibited. Negotiations to get a full border reopening are currently under way.

If Canada moves in a different testing direction than the Americans - such as allowing a Peace Country Tender Beef Co-op request to allow private mad cow testing - Loewen expects it will harm negotiations and delay a potential reopening date.

"We have to come up with a joint North American stance or it will look like we're trying to steal their international markets," she said.

"And that isn't going to do anything but ensure the border remains closed."

Japan and Korea have stated they will not allow beef from either country to cross their borders unless 100 per cent of it is tested for mad cow.

The U.S. has opposed private testing, recently turning down a request from Kansas-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef to test for the deadly brain-wasting disease.

TEST A SMALL FRACTION

Currently, governmental bodies in Canada and the U.S. test only a small fraction of the country's cattle for the mad cow and individual beef producers are not allowed to test for the disease.

Alberta's top mad cow official, Dr. Gerald Ollis, has also spoken out against allowing the testing, noting such a move could damage Canada/U.S. relations.

Ollis stated he expects the province to oppose such testing as well.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency licenses and distributes the specialized kits required to conduct the mad cow tests. It would have to change current regulations to allow private testing to take place in Canada.

The County of Newell is located in the heart of Alberta cattle country and takes in the communities of Brooks, Rolling Hills and Rosemary.