Ranchers Association Wants More Time to Comment on APHIS Mad Cow Rule
The comment period on the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s March 2012 proposed rule on conditions of importation of bovines and bovine products with regard to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease) should be extended by another 60 days following completion of the Department of Agriculture’s epidemiological investigation of the recently detected BSE case in California, said the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund -- United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA) in comments submitted to APHIS.
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R-CALF USA is requesting the extension in order to more carefully examine the first 22 pages of the proposed rule, which it says was written to comply with a court injunction obtained by R-CALF USA against USDA. Also, R-CALF USA said it would like more explanation of the USDA’s finding that the California BSE case was atypical in that it was not connected with consumption of infected feed, in light of the proposed rule’s statement that infected feed is the only documented mode of field transmission of BSE.
(See ITT’s Online Archives 12031313 for summary of APHIS’ proposed rule, and 12051807 for summary reopening of the period to comment on the rule.
See also ITT’s Online Archives 12042527 for summary of USDA’s confirmation of a case of BSE in California in April 2012, and 12052107 for summary of a USDA update on the case.)