Thank you very much for that excellent question.
We received negligible risk status in 2021 from the World Organisation for Animal Health for our current BSE program. Our current BSE program was examined and determined to be strict enough and efficient and effective enough to grant us negligible risk status. That's based on our existing program.
We understand from industry that there are concerns, and that the differences between the U.S. and Canada in the handling and the listing of what we call “specified risk material”—those materials that present risk of BSE—are causing concerns for economic interests.
At the agency we are supporting a risk assessment to look at what the risks would be should we harmonize with the U.S.: risk to human health, risk to animal health, risk to our international trade and risk to our negligible risk status. We are working with industry to have this risk assessment completed so that we can determine whether or if changes to the BSE program could be accomplished and what the risks might be.
To say it perhaps more plainly, we are making sure that we do not make changes to the BSE program that cause risk. We need to know what those are, so a study is ongoing and we are collaborating with industry to get that done.