No Longer Kindred Souls in the Saddle

But the herds were so intermingled before 2003 that some experts say it is likely -- even inevitable -- that the disease is in the U.S. herd.

Before 2003, Canadian and U.S. cattlemen were knit in a cross-border business that was a model for free trade. Canadian ranchers sold their cattle to feedlot operators like Glen Thompson, near Lethbridge, Alberta. He fattened them on corn and barley for six months, and then shipped them -- 10 tractor truckloads a day -- to slaughterhouses in the United States.

About 1 million head of live cattle were trucked south each year to Utah, Washington, Nebraska, Minnesota and Pennsylvania. In return, cut beef flowed north, and U.S. marketers sold both countries' beef overseas.

When the border was closed hours after the discovery of the first Alberta cow with BSE on May 20, 2003, ranchers were left with cows stranded in the field and Thompson had 18,000 head of cattle in his pen and no buyers. Thompson said he lost millions.

Four months later, the U.S. Department of Agriculture ruled that boneless meat from beef less than 30 months old and slaughtered in Canada could be imported. Canadian slaughterhouses leaped into action. Last year they shipped 60 percent more cut beef into the United States than in 2003.

Now, with no label of origin to raise their concerns, U.S. consumers are eating beef from cows that are not allowed to cross the border. But while Canadian packinghouses are expanding, U.S. packinghouses are hurting for business. Some may close.

In a move that could rescue the meatpackers, the USDA recently announced that young cows could be brought live over the border starting March 7. The agency termed Canada's BSE problem a "minimal risk." But the move was blocked when a group led by the Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund or R-CALF, filed suit and won a temporary injunction from federal judge in Montana keeping the border closed to live Canadian cows.

R-CALF argues that Canadian BSE cows will mix with U.S. cattle, poisoning the reputation of U.S. herds. The group says Canada tests too few cows for BSE and does not take aggressive enough measures to make sure diseased meat does not reach consumers.

"We are allowing Canada to practice the weakest measures in the world," Bill Bullard, a former rancher from South Dakota and the head of R-CALF, said from Billings, Montana. "Canada is not interested in finding a true prevalence of the disease in their herd."

Nonsense, reply Canadian authorities. They have boosted testing from 8,000 cows in 2004 to a level that will reach 60,000 this year. More extensive testing is statistical overkill, they say.

"Once you detect the disease you have to take certain measures. Both Canada and U.S. have taken those measures," said Gary Little, a senior veterinarian for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in Ottawa. "We have done all the right things."

But R-CALF's arguments won a strong backing by Federal District Court Judge Richard F. Cebull. In a scathing ruling in Billings on March 2, Cebull said the USDA was in too much of a rush proclaim Canadian beef safe.

The USDA "ignored its statutory mandate to protect the health and welfare of the people of the United States," the judge said. To open the border "subjects the entire U.S. beef industry to potentially catastrophic damages and presents a genuine risk of death for U.S. consumers."

The Justice Department is appealing the judge's injunction.

Some U.S. ranchers are wary of R-CALF's stridency, fearing they may find themselves in the same spot as ranchers north of the border.

"If we are successful in convincing the consumer that Canadian beef is not safe, and we get a case, how will we maintain consumer confidence?" said Steve Pilcher, executive vice president of the Montana Stockgrowers Association.

Lynch-Staunton said: "It's like calling your twin sister ugly."