I just picked this up from a SCI email I get. It affects us all in all areas of hunting.


APHIS Bans Trophies from Countries with Mad Cow Disease
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the US Department of Agriculture has abruptly released a directive that no ruminant trophies from BSE countries will be allowed into the US unless they have been completely processed, that is, tanned or ready to be hung on the wall. If you have un-mounted ruminant trophies about to be shipped to you in the US from a country that is classified as having Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, or Mad Cow disease), it's urgent that you notify your outfitter or shipping agent to stop that shipment. Ruminants are even-toed, hoofed animals such as sheep, goats, caribou and deer. For more information, please visit the following website: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/manuals/port/pdf_files/AP...oreign_Countries.pdf (Source: The Hunting Report)

That certainly is interesting and good information. However, I get a Page Not Found message when I hit the link.

This is worrysome. I have a caribou hunt in Sept. I wonder about the meat.

Check the Canadian forum it was a couple threads on this topic

I understood that skins and horns, from South Africa for instance, are tanned and treated before shipment, even if you decide to have a taxidermist elsewhere do the mounting. I am wrong about this?

quote:

Originally posted by Jorge400:
That certainly is interesting and good information. However, I get a Page Not Found message when I hit the link.

Try this:

LINK

This page only lists the countries, not anything to do with this ruling as originally ciurculated by The Hunting Report. No African implications for game we would hunt, but reg Canada it does say the following - which maybe means that products from Canada will be treated differently???

"Currently Canada is the only country designated at minimal risk for BSE. Bovine, ovine, and caprine ruminant meat are treated differently from cervid and camelid ruminant meat. Where there is not a minimal risk for BSE designation, then regulate Canada as BSE-affected."

Not sure what this is actually saying, Don Causey said he's still looking into it. I am surprised that SCI would only have quoted THR, and not looked into this on their own.

According to the list on the link Bill C provided, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Zambia are BSE free.

In South Africa all trophies must undergo a dipping process that involved boiling of scull and bleached in Peroxide, the skins must be dipped in a formic acid and salt solution and so on. There is even a process that the crate material has to undergo.

THR's Email Extra website had an update as of 3/23 pm, and it appears that this will NOT effect most of us.

Per the website, as suspected: Canada is classified as a BSE minimal risk region and is not, under the revised regulations, subject to the above mentioned ban.

This means we can bring unprocessed trophes into the States just as we have done in the past. I assume "meat" is not impacted either, as nothing I saw recently made any mention of meat.

The regs have also been relaxed for other countries, allowing up to two raw trophies per shipment. Over two and it is considered a "commercial import", and I guess would have to be either separated and shipped or processed. This could apply to perhaps somebody hunting sheep and roe in Europe, which is what triggered THR's initial email as well as SCI's.

Sorry, this is not "African" but I wanted to bring this full circle.