Federal court considers lifting ban on Canadian cattle imports

SEATTLE -- The Bush administration urged a federal appeals court Wednesday to reopen the border to Canadian cattle imports, which were banned from the United States in 2003 after a cow in Alberta was found to have mad cow disease.

Justice Department attorney Mark Stern told a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that lifting the ban would not result in the "infestation in American livestock," adding that reopening the border was based on "good science."

The government made the arguments in the high-stakes border dispute as a gallery full of reporters and attorneys looked on. A large room where the case was televised was filled with cattle ranchers wearing cowboy hats and jeans. A member of the Canadian Parliament also watched the hearing.

The government is asking the judges to overturn a March ruling by a federal judge in Montana who sided with U.S. ranchers, who fear dire economic and health consequences from an outbreak in the United States.

U.S. District Judge Richard F. Cebull in Montana ruled the U.S. Department of Agriculture's decision to reopen the border "subjects the entire U.S. beef industry to potentially catastrophic damages" and "presents a genuine risk of death for U.S. consumers."

But the three judges on the appeals panel appeared skeptical of Cebull's ruling, suggesting he went too far.

Mad cow disease is the common name for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.