USDA's Johanns Says Canada-Beef Curbs May Be Lifted

The U.S. banned Canadian cattle and beef in May 2003 after Canada's first mad-cow case. When the ban was eased in August 2003 to allow imports of cattle under 30 months of age and boneless beef from those animals, the Agriculture Department said it hoped to eventually end all restrictions. The U.S. only began importing younger Canadian cattle in July because of a court challenge. Strahl, who took office in February, said he is proud of Canadian beef and expressed confidence in the ban Canada and the U.S. imposed in 1997 on certain feeding practices to stop the spread of mad-cow disease, which has a fatal human form. The latest infected animal, a six-year-old dairy cow from British Columbia, was born after the governments prohibited cattle feed enriched with ground-up cattle parts. The Canadian minister said scientists have told him that ``from time to time'' an ``occasional animal will crop up'' with mad-cow disease, until the brain-wasting livestock illness is eliminated from North America. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000082&sid=a.VejCf3ylGE&refer=canada#

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