On December 15, our cattle industry was still trying to figure out whether they should oppose a US proposal to allow Canadian beef back in the USA, sponsoring a technical mission to the World Organization for Animal Health.
Now, days later, they're the experts, and fully opposed to these kinds of restrictions, and especially since they're not subject to being a "post-BSE" industry.
(via this article)
USDA-APHIS has organized a trip to France and Belgium this week to provide industry representatives with first-hand information about bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease or BSE) from the international disease experts at the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) in Paris and from other European counterparts. The information is meant to help the US cattle and beef industries evaluate the US proposal to reopen the border to cattle trade with Canada following its discovery of a single BSE infected cow last May.
R-CALF USA, one of the participating groups, says it sees the trip as an opportunity to view a post-BSE cattle industry and the hardship it has endured, along with an opportunity to visit directly with the international experts on BSE regarding the risks that such a disease poses to the US cattle industry.