Expanding SK TB investigation, unresolved deficiencies in Canadian livestock traceability, provide US excuse to suspend beef imports.

On May 11, the US suspended imports of cattle from Mexico, citing northward progress of the New World screwworm (NWS).

On May 14th, CTV News posted the news item “The U.S. suspended Mexican beef imports because of screwworm. Could it spread to Canada?”

The answer to CTV’s question is no, NWS could not spread to Canada.

Because there is no risk of NWS spreading to the US, let alone Canada.

New World screwworm has been effectively and collaboratively contained by the US and Mexico for more than half a century. NWS was found on “remote farms with minimal cattle movement as far north as Oaxaca and Veracruz, about 700 miles away from the U.S. border”.

The US administration did not go woke May 11, rediscover regulatory ambition, and decide healthy Texas cattle was its priority.

Having been forced to back down on tariffs Trump invoked NWS as cover for his true intent; securing leverage over Mexico by suspending cattle imports.

And Trump will now look to gain leverage over Canada by imposing non-tariff barriers on Canadian beef and cattle exports.

What non-tariff barriers could the US impose?

Hard to predict, because Canada offers so many compelling ones to choose from:

• More than a decade ago Canada identified significant deficiency in our livestock animal traceability practices, deficiencies which the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) committed to resolving by “winter or spring 2020”. Yet the CFIA has yet to secure approval of the necessary regulation amendment, let alone begin implementation.
• A bovine tuberculosis outbreak in Saskatchewan, 160 miles from the US border rather than 700, began in November 2024 with one ranch. Then expanded to five ranches in February. And now in May involves 23 ranches. And where the final count of impacted ranches is impossible to predict because investigation of the trace-in, contact, and proximity herds has yet to begin. And the investigation of which will never be conclusive because the required traceability data does not exist.
• This weeks Anthrax incident in Saskatchewan.
• The imminent, and inevitable, arrival of H5N1 (bird) flu transmission in cattle in Canada.
• Growing exposure of Alberta cattle to Chronic Wasting Disease, increasing risk of exposure to a mutated prion infectious to cattle.
• The always present risk of Hoof and Mouth disease.

The need to realize effective Canadian livestock animal traceability has progressed from a necessity to ensure Canadian food safety to an emergency requiring urgent resolution to ensure continued access to the $4B US export market for Canada’s 60,000 ranching families.

Loss of US market access in 2003 due to BSE resulted in a lost decade for Canada’s ranchers and destruction of prairie family legacies. Is Canada truly prepared to experience this again, but this time intentionally?

When the US threatened tariffs that would have hindered, not suspended, Ontario manufacturing exports, the Government of Canada mobilized billions to chase imaginary fentanyl. Outright suspension of US market access vital to the west is now likely. Urgent attention, and substantial resources, are required from Ottawa on this issue.

Flokk Systems Inc. is ready to do our part providing a solution that digitizes cow/calf herd traceability with unprecedented ease, speed, and affordability.

We encourage Federal Minister of Health, Marjorie Michel, to urgently address this issue.