Mad Cow tests spark debate at world meat congress

North American meat companies have been told at this week's World Meat Congress in Canada that checking all cattle for mad cow disease would push up costs without improving food safety.

New Zealand and Australia are internationally recognised as free of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) but key markets such as Japan have been pressuring Canadian and US beef exporters to test all cattle for the brain-wasting disease after two North American cases were found in the past year.

Because the North American exporters already remove cattle brains, spines and other materials from meat - materials that can harbor the disease and transmit a form of it to humans - testing carcasses is scientifically unnecessary, said a top official at the Office International des Epizooties, the world animal health body.

"A cow that has been tested and had the (risk materials) removed is no safer than a cow that has not been tested but the (materials) have been removed," said Alex Thiermann, president of the OIE's standards setting committee.

Thiermann said tests for bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease - conducted after the animal has been slaughtered - should only be used to probe the prevalence of the disease in herds.

Kansas-based packer Creekstone Farms Premium Beef has proposed testing all its cattle for the disease so it can market beef to Japanese customers, but so far it has been rebuffed by the US Department of Agriculture.

Testing beef exclusively for Japan, which currently tests all its own cattle destined for market, could cause confusion for North American buyers, Thiermann said.

"The danger with that is ... how are you going to tell the public why you're doing it?" he told Reuters in an interview.

"If we have double standards, then we're likely to lose the whole thing, and then the American consumer is going to demand all their animals are tested as well," he said.

But industry and government have to realize that cultural and philosophical differences mean some nations will want more safeguards for food, said Peter Greenberg, managing director of Rabobank's Canadian operations.

"Trying to trump consumer preferences, whether they are scientifically based or not, is not completely advocated as a good marketing policy," Greenberg told the conference.

Major Canadian packers have said they are not interested in testing for marketing reasons. But some farmer-led startup projects have indicated they want to try using tests as a tool to move more of their backlogged beef in the wake of widespread trade bans.

"We haven't supported that -- we haven't come out and opposed it per se," said Dennis Laycraft, executive vice-president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association.

Laycraft said Canada should instead focus on developing alternative measures acceptable to Japanese buyers to help it gain entry to the market.

Rapid tests, used by companies to detect mad cow disease, could generate false positives, which could cause havoc in the market before government labs would be able to confirm or dismiss the results using more comprehensive tests, he warned.

"It has to be done accurately, it has to be done independently," he said. "If you do go down that road, it is going to have to be done in a very planned out, methodical and regulatory manner."

- REUTERS