DIRECTORS and staff at a NSW Livestock Health and Pest Authority have written to the Federal Government objecting to the decision to allow beef imports from countries which have had bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease.
The letter from the Cumberland LHPA, which surrounds metropolitan Sydney, has singled out their objection to beef imports from the US and Canada.
The Cumberland LHPA represents 13,149 rate payers of which 29 per cent produce cattle.
They said while industry leaders may have supported the Government's decision "few if any of our cattle-owning ratepayers would have been consulted".
"We believe the decision is contrary to the interests of Australian cattle producers and the beef consuming public", the letter sent to the Minister this week states.
"Regardless of the science associated with human health risk in North American beef, the product will become associated with human health risk in Australia (as it has in Japan and South Korea) and consumption of all beef will drop as a result of the decision.
"Consumers respond to perception, not science."
The letter - signed by the authority's chairman, Mark Honey, general manager Greg Wood and district vet, Keith Hart – acknowledges the BSE risk with North American beef is negligible.
But they say the scientific uncertainty surrounding chronic wasting disease (CWD) in North America was "an entirely different story and a real concern".
The letter questions the need to implement national livestock identification policies if Australia does not demand an equivalent whole of life traceability system.
It has asked the Commonwealth to introduce labelling rules for all beef from the US and Canada in the event the Government fails to change its mind.
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