OIE Addresses Climate Change, BSE

From NCBA Cattlemen's Capital Concerns


The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) held its General Session this week in Paris.
 
Following a technical report entitled, "Impact of climate change and environmental changes on emerging and re-emerging animal disease and animal production", presented by Australian expert Dr Peter Black, OIE participants voted to confirm that climate change has an impact on the emergence and re-emergence of animal disease. The three animal diseases most frequently mentioned by the OIE members that responded were bluetongue, Rift Valley fever and West Nile fever.
 
The OIE also voted to grant Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) "controlled risk" status to Japan. 

"We hope this decision--which now puts Japan at the same BSE-risk status as the U.S.--will have a positive effect on our ongoing efforts to increase market access for U.S. beef in Japan. Japan's restriction on beef products from cattle over 21 months is limiting the U.S. to about 25% of our potential market there-which translates to more than $1 billion in untapped beef export revenues each year," says NCBA.
 
NCBA also continues to encourage the U.S. government to submit the appropriate information for OIE to conduct a review of our current BSE risk status. NCBA believes the U.S. has demonstrated our country should be classified as a "negligible risk" country.