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The closure of the US border to Canadian live cattle and beef products after the confirmation of a single Canadian BSE case in May, 2003 seriously jeopardized the Canadian beef cattle industry, which had relied heavily on exports. The inventory of cattle rapidly increased and farmers were paid record low prices for live cattle. But at the same time, the cattle slaughtering industry experienced a substantial increase in profits. The enlarged price spread between the value of live cattle and beef steak raised concerns about oligopsony market power in the live cattle market. This thesis investigates the hypothesis that the Canadian slaughtering industry exercised this market power in the months following the discovery of BSE. Two models, the conjectural variation model from the New Empirical Industrial Organization and an asymmetric price transmission model were used and the results from both models do not support the hypothesis of oligopsony market power.

There is no known cure for the family of diseases known as Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies. These include the infamous Mad Cow disease-technically known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)--as well as its human form, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Although BSE was initially diagnosed in Britain in 1986, the first U.S. regulation to prevent BSE was not enacted until three years later. This delayed reaction proved to be a trend amongst the regulatory agencies responsible for keeping the U.S. food supply safe and BSE-free. The focus of this study is to delineate the degree of U.S. government liability in the event of a BSE outbreak. This study takes into account the various aspects of administrative law as it relates to liability, along with the numerous medical and scientific documents from domestic as well as international authorities, to determine governmental liability. There is sufficient evidence to suggest that the U.S. regulatory agencies concerned with food safety have created legislation consistently favoring industry concerns over those of public health. The legal system of a truly civilized society should be derived from ethical principles, which are then applied to institutions like the economy. When the process is reversed, when laws are based on industrial or economic concerns, ethics becomes an after-thought. This thesis sheds light on the government's handling of the threat of BSE: its shortcomings, competence, failures and successes. - ---

Freie Univ., Diss.--Berlin, 2005.

L’encéphalopathie spongiforme bovine (ESB) est une maladie neuro-dégénérative fatale affectant les bovins ; elle est également une zoonose à l’origine du variant de la maladie de Creutzfeldt-Jakob. Identifiée pour la première fois au Royaume-Uni en 1986, cette maladie s’est rapidement étendue en Europe, malgré la mise en place de mesures de contrôle. En raison des particularités épidémiologiques de l’ESB (longue période d’incubation, âge précoce à l’infection et diagnostic post-mortem possible uniquement en fin d’incubation), l’évolution temporelle de l’exposition des bovins à l’ESB ne peut être appréhendée qu’à partir de la modélisation. Nous avons utilisé le modèle Age-Période-Cohorte afin de (ré)évaluer, en relation avec les principales mesures de contrôle, l’évolution de l’épizootie d’ESB à la lumière des données de surveillance les plus récente, en France, et dans six autres pays européens : Allemagne, Irlande, Italie, Pays-Bas, Pologne et Royaume-Uni. / Bovine spongiform encephalopathy is a fatal neurodegenerative disease affecting cattle and transmissible to humans as the cause of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. BSE was first identified in 1986 in United Kingdom, before spreading to European countries despite the implementation of control measures. Due to BSE epidemiological characteristics (long incubation period, early age at infection and post-mortem diagnostic at end stage of incubation period), time trend of BSE cattle exposure can only be estimated by modeling. We used age-period-cohort model in order to (re)evaluate, in relation to the main control measures, the trend of BSE epidemic, using the most recent surveillance data in France and six other European countries: Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and United Kingdom.

Assessment of occurrence and diagnostic methods of viral diseases in cattle – viral diarrhoea (BVD), infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), rabies, enzootic bovine leukosis (EBL), and spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) – was carried out for the first time in Lithuania. It was established that viruses of rabies, infectious rhinotraheitis and viral diarrhoea are most widespread in the country. It was determined that occurrence of rabies in cattle is parallel with the infection of wildlife with rabies virus. Analysis of eradication programme of enzootic bovine leucosis was done. It revealed that only combined application of diagnostic and preventive measures allowed reducing the cattle infection up to 0.2%. Though bovine spongiform encephalopathy has not been recorded in Lithuania, it is feasible to implement its diagnostic and prevention programme. An overall financial analysis of expenditures on BSE and viral diseases diagnostics and control was for the first time done in Lithuania. It showed that BSE and EBL occupied the leading positions in the structure of expenditures on viral diseases. In 2001, expenditures on BSE investigations accounted for 76.68% and in 2004 for 86.74% of the total. Expenditures on EBL investigations relatively reduced from 86.98% in 2000 to 8.47% in 2004. During the time under consideration, expenditures on investigations of other viral diseases changed but little. It was determined that consistent and wide-scale preventive vaccination created... [to full text]

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