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The Times Advocate, 2005-01-05, Page 1010 Exeter Times–Advocate Wednesday, January 5, 2005 Lucan Lions Club donates money to Sunshine Dreams for Kids and Lucan museum Money was passing from one hand to another at the Lucan Lions Club meeting Monday night. Above, left, Lion Paul Dykeman hands over a cheque for $12,000 to Sunshine Dreams for Kids representatives Krista Brown and Kevin Morrison.Above, right, recreation committee member Glen Nevin presents a cheque for $58,000 from the annual car raffle to vice president Jake Coulter.The winner of the 1961 Corvette was Leslie Trounce of Burlington. Of the amount, $20,000 will go towards the new Lucan Area Heritage and Donnelly Museum. The balance will go towards other projects. At the meeting it was also decided to donate $3,000 to the relief effort in south Asia.Another $3,000 will go to the SARI riding school for the disabled near Arva.There was also some special recognition handed out at the meeting. Below, left, Lion Clarence Haskett receives his 55 year pin from Coulter. Haskett is the only surviving original member of the club. Below, right, Ron Culbert of Lucan Cabinets receives a plaque from Coulter in honour of all his contributions to the community. (photos/Mary Simmons) Border opens just before another case of BSE is detected OTTAWA — The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) confirmed that an older dairy cow from Alberta has tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), accord- ing to a press release issued Jan. 2. The infected animal was born in 1996, prior to the introduc- tion of the 1997 feed ban. It is suspected that the animal became infected by contaminat- ed feed before the feed ban. No part of the animal entered the human food or animal feed systems. Since confirming BSE in Canada in 2003, CFIA officials have stated that finding more cases in North America was possible. Canada's public health measures have been built on this assumption. According to the press release, the confirmation of a new case of BSE does not indicate increased risk to food safety as Canada requires the removal of specified risk material (SRM) from all animals entering the human food supply. SRM are tis- sues that, in infected cattle, con- tain the BSE agent. This mea- sure is internationally recog- nized as the most effective means of protecting public health from BSE. The suspect animal was detected through the national surveillance program, imple- mented in co-operation with the provinces and the animal health community. Testing was con- ducted after the animal was identified as a downer, one of the high-risk categories targeted by the surveillance program. To date, more than 21,000 animals have been tested this year. The detected case comes on the heels of the United States Office of the Management and Budget (OMB) announcement that it has completed its review of the proposed rule on Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and returned it to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for publica- tion in the Federal Register. The USDA announced the final rule will be published in the Jan. 4 Federal Register and will take effect March 7. When implemented, the rule will provide access to the U.S. for a range of live animals and beef and ruminant products. In particular, the rule will once again allow for the importation into the U.S. of live cattle under 30 months for immediate slaughter or for feeding, provid- ed they are slaughtered before reaching the age of 30 months. The rule also allows for the importation of meat from ani- mals older than 30 months and removes segregation require- ments at Canadian slaughter facilities. U.S. officials have been informed of the suspect case of BSE. In a statement Jan. 3, Ron DeHaven, administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said the USDA remains confident that the animal and public health measures that Canada has in place combined with existing U.S. domestic safeguards and the additional safeguards announced as part of USDA's BSE minimal -risk rule announced Dec. 29 provide the utmost protections to U.S. con- sumers and livestock. 'The extensive risk assessment conducted as part of USDA's rulemaking process took into careful consideration the possi- bility that Canada could experi- ence additional cases of BSE," he said. In the next few weeks, the CFIA will work with the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, to develop export certificates that address U.S. import requirements. Over the next several days, the CFIA will be reviewing the implica- tions of the extensive document with respect to Canadian inter- ests. "The progress we have made in recent months is testimony to the ongoing efforts of the Canadian livestock industry and the federal, provincial and terri- torial governments, who have worked very hard with their American counterparts to move this issue forward," said Agriculture and Agri -Food Minister Andy Mitchell. "Those efforts were recognized in the USDA statement acknowledging that Canada meets the require- ments for a minimal -risk region." The USDA said the minimal - risk standards that Canada has met include, among others: • Prohibition of specified risk materials in human food. • Import restrictions sufficient to minimize exposure to BSE. Since 1990, Canada has main- tained stringent import restric- tions, preventing the entry of live ruminants and ruminant products, including rendered protein products, from countries that have found BSE in native cattle or that are considered to be at significant risk for BSE. • Surveillance for BSE at levels that meet or exceed internation- al guidelines. Canada has con- ducted active surveillance for BSE since 1992 and exceeded the level recommended in inter- national guidelines for at least the past seven years. • Ruminant -to -ruminant feed ban in place and effectively enforced. Canada has had a ban on the feeding of ruminant pro- teins to ruminants since August 1997, with compliance moni- tored through routine inspec- tions. • Appropriate epidemiological investigations, risk assessment, and risk mitigation measures imposed as necessary. Canada has conducted extensive investi- gations in response to any BSE finding and has taken additional risk mitigation measures in response.