By Jennifer Dorsett
Field Editor
A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposal to withdraw existing bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) import regulations for sheep and goats is being met with resistance from Congress.
Under current law, the importation of most live sheep, goats and their products from countries considered a risk for BSE, also called scrapie in sheep and goats, are prohibited. Non-pregnant slaughter or feeder sheep that are under 12 months old from Canada, certain products from sheep and goats and sheep and goat semen are presently allowed for import.
USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has sought to remove the BSE-related import restrictions. The agency said in a proposed rule change these restrictions “are no longer warranted for non-bovine ruminant products.”
But in a letter to Robert Fairweather, acting director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), eight U.S. senators, including
Texas Sen. John Cornyn said the import ban keeps American flocks safe from harm and protects American sheep and goat ranchers from unfair trade.
“The federal government has invested over $200 million into scrapie eradication since the early 2000s,” the letter said. “This investment has yielded tremendous results, lowering the percentage of scrapie-positive cull sheep at slaughter by 99 percent since FY2003. By allowing scrapie-positive animals and genetic materials into the U.S., we risk reintroducing the very disease we have nearly eradicated.”
Scrapie was detected in less than 1 percent of all U.S. sheep and goats by the end of fiscal year 2016, according to APHIS.
Japan was the primary export market for U.S. lamb until a BSE occurrence in the U.S. cattle herd in 2003. American access to the Japanese market immediately shuttered, according to the senators’ letter.
Increased market access for American lamb, goats and their products should come before removal of the import restrictions, the senators noted.
Another letter from members of Congress to Acting U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Kevin Shea urged him to consider the “severe consequences” withdrawing the import ban would have on American sheep producers.
“This rule would deliver another substantial blow to an industry that is already distressed by extreme predation, increasing labor costs and loss of access to federal lands grazing,” the letter, which was signed by three Texas members of Congress, said. “Additionally, the rule no longer meets regulatory criteria to consider economic consequences. The regulatory impact review and initial regulatory flexibility analysis released by APHIS during the initial rulemaking process was based on economic data that is now nearly a decade old.”
Citing the United Kingdom’s (UK) exit from the European Union (EU) as a major factor, the Congressional leaders asked Shea to reanalyze the economic impact of the decision.
Other nations, including the UK, have an unfair trade advantage “due to being highly governmentally subsidized,” they wrote. “Our market is already overcrowded, with more than half of all lamb consumed being imported.”
Allowing animals or genetic materials into the U.S. that are scrapie-positive keeps the door closed to important trade partners like Japan, the letter added.