Billings, MT – In a letter sent today, R-CALF USA is requesting that United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack immediately suspend imports of ruminants and ruminant products from Brazil.
According to the letter, this request comes days after “the Brazilian government notified the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) that a confirmed case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was detected in Brazil in a cow that died two years earlier, in December 2010.”
Due to the confirmation of BSE, Brazil must now be included on the list of countries where BSE is known to exist. “With this mandatory change 400-101 to Brazil’s disease status, Brazil is not eligible to import into the United States ruminants that have been in Brazil, meat, meat products and edible products other than meat,” R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard wrote in the letter.
Bullard continued, “Further, until USDA conducts a through risk assessment of the risk of introducing BSE into the United States from Brazil and further conducts a public rulemaking with notice and
MB2-702 opportunity for comment should USDA propose to include Brazil as a country with a minimal risk of BSE, Brazilian imports of ruminants and ruminant products must be prohibited.”
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R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America) is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle industry. For more information, visit www.r-calfusa.com or, call 406-252-2516.
