Cdn. beef sector confident South Korea ban will end soon

Dec 23, 2021

South Korea suspended Canadian beef imports earlier this week

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Representatives in Canada’s beef sector don’t believe a recent ban on Canadian beef will last long.

South Korea, one of Canada’s top beef export markets, suspended imports of Canadian beef after a cow in Alberta tested positive for atypical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

Atypical BSE appears spontaneously in older cattle at a rate of about one in one million.

That cow was euthanized on the farm and didn’t enter the food or animal feed chain.

Canadian and South Korean officials are already working together to resume beef trade.

South Korea’s ministry of agriculture “requires the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to complete a questionnaire in order to lift the suspension,” Katelyn Laverdure, a Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) spokeswoman, told Farms.com in an emailed statement. “CFIA has responded to the questionnaire and is addressing any additional clarification which is required.”

Canada’s response will “hopefully lead to the prompt reopening of the Korean market.”

South Korea will reopen its borders to Canadian beef once the Canadian government has provided enough data.

And atypical cases of BSE usually don’t result in extended trade action.

“The detection of an atypical case does not impact Canada’s BSE negligible risk status, nor should it further interrupt trade flows,” Laverdure said.

CFIA officials haven’t received notifications of any other countries taking similar action.

“To date, no trading partners have indicated that they are considering any trade actions, other than South Korea,” Patrick Girard, a CFIA spokesperson, told Farms.com in an emailed statement.

Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Eric van Heugten, PhD, professor and swine extension specialist at North Carolina State University, recently spoke at the Iowa Swine Day Pre-Conference Symposium, titled Soybean Meal 360°: Expanding our horizons through discoveries and field-proven feeding strategies for improving pork production. The event was sponsored by Iowa State University and U.S. Soy.

Soybean meal offers pig producers a high-value proposition. It’s a high-quality protein source, providing essential and non-essential amino acids to the pig that are highly digestible and palatable. Studies now show that soybean meal provides higher net energy than current National Research Council (NRC) requirements. Plus, soybean meal offers health benefits such as isoflavones and antioxidants as well as benefits with respiratory diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

One of several ingredients that compete with the inclusion of soybean meal in pig diets is dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS).

“With DDGS, we typically see more variable responses because of the quality differences depending on which plant it comes from,” said Dr. van Heugten. “At very high levels, we often see a reduction in performance especially with feed intake which can have negative consequences on pig performance, especially in the summer months when feed intake is already low and gaining weight is at a premium to get them to market.”

Over the last few decades, the industry has also seen the increased inclusion of crystalline amino acids in pig diets.

“We started with lysine at about 3 lbs. per ton in the diet, and then we added methionine and threonine to go to 6 to 8 lbs. per ton,” he said. “Now we have tryptophan, isoleucine and valine and can go to 12 to 15 lbs. per ton. All of these, when price competitive, are formulated into the diet and are displacing soybean meal which also removes the potential health benefits that soybean meal provides.”