Demand for British beef has been devastated by the mad cow disease epidemic and the supposed link with new variant CD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease), the rare but fatal human disease. A raft of new regulations have been put in place in a bid to restore public confidence.

One of the most maligned measures is a system of cattle passports.

It is draconian. Every calf has to be double tagged, in the case of a dairy calf within 36 hours of birth. The application for the bilingual, Welsh and English, passport made within seven days. All movements recorded on the passport and also reported to a central agency, individually for every animal and by both seller and buyer, with the passport moving to the new owner.

Naturally, a lot of cattlemen were skeptical about the value of all this paperwork and bureaucracy.

But it proved its worth recently with the first case of BSE in an animal born after the implementation of a precautionary and complete ban on the feeding of meat and bone meal, the way the disease is spread.

The government announced the case a scant two days after diagnosis had been made, fearing a repeat of past accusations of cover-up and incompetence. During those two days, the British Cattle Movement Service was able to identify and locate the cow's mother and offspring, her date of birth and original owner.

This was like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack. There are 4.6 million registered passports and this particular animal had passed through four pairs of hands.

Scientists were quick to point out that isolated cases like this were to be expected and did not pose a public health risk.

The media was surprisingly receptive to this message. Undoubtedly, the speed and precision with which the tracing system operated created confidence that the British government was at last on top of the situation.

This is welcome news for farmers who are eager to see consumers regain their taste for beef. But more important is the hope that British public will regain its confidence in the scientific community which was so badly dented by the BSE epidemic.

For CBC commentary, I'm David Walker, an agricultural economist, at Lodge Farm Postwick in Broadland Norfolk, England.

David Walker was senior economist for Home-Grown Cereals Authority in London and previously was executive director of the Alberta Grain Commission. His opinions on British and European agricultural issues can be found at www.openi.co.uk/

Details on the British system of cattle passports can be found at http://www.maff.gov.uk/animalh/tracing/default.htm