CALGARY - Canada's mad cow protection measures have earned the second-highest safety designation from the world's leading animal health organization, a stamp which the cattle industry hopes will translate into more exports.
"It's a very significant step," Hugh Lynch-Staunton, president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, said Tuesday after the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health officially categorized Canada as a controlled-risk country for bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
"It gives an independent, scientific assessment of the BSE situtation in Canada," he said.
"It's as credible as you can get: essentially, it says as a result of all the measures we've put in place as an industry, our meat is safe to trade for all ages."
Canada and the United States were both granted the "controlled risk" designation - below the "negligible" distinction which means no animal born in the previous 11 years has been infected with BSE.
Canada has had 10 cases of mad cow disease identified since the first infected cow on May 20, 2003 slammed international borders shut on Canadian beef. The U.S. has had three cases since December 2003.
Federal Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl said the designation should help efforts to reopen markets around the world that have remained closed to some Canadian cattle and beef products.
"With this controlled risk categorization, we are confident that our trading partners will continue to recognize and respond positively to Canada's commitment to animal health and food safety," Strahl said in Paris, where he was attending the organization's annual meeting.
"Canadian cattle will once again be sold throughout the world."
The United States, Mexico and Japan -- Canada's top three beef markets - still have some restrictions on Canadian imports.
Canada's beef sector has lost billions in export dollars in the four years since mad cow disease was discovered in an Alberta cow.
The industry has survived on sales of meat processed from young cattle which are believed to be at reduced risk of developing BSE.
Guidelines from the World Organization for Animal Health, commonly known by its French acronym OIE, are not binding on its member countries. But the World Trade Organization often uses the standards to handle cross-border trading disputes involving animal health.
The OIE guidelines separate countries into risk categories based on what they have done to minimize exposure to BSE.
"It allows foreign regulators to gain confidence in the safety of Canadian beef and to remove the debate on whether or not Canada truly has dealt with the risks associated with BSE," said Ted Haney of the Canada Beef Export Federation.
"We have, and now it's time to leverage this new classification and pursue access to those markets which are closed and enhancement of those which are restricted."
South Korea has previously said the controlled risk status would trigger a resumption of trade with Canada. That may also increase confidence in Taiwan.
Haney said the designation could also convince Japan, which has agreed to take beef from animals under 21 months of age, to ease that age restriction. Other countries have set under 30 months as an acceptable level.
But the road has been long and expensive.
"We stopped counting at $20 billion," said Haney.
"The final economic accounting will happen when this disaster has completely been put behind us. We're still rolling up costs every day: cattle selling at a discount, breeding cattle selling at a discount. It's corrupted our (ability) to gain full value for even the product that does trade from Canada to the United States - we have to sell at a discount because we don't have leverage to negotiate full price premiums because our companies can't divert that product profitably to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan or mainland China as a way to balance price negotiation power."
