AR-News: "Ship to take Iditarod food to Alaska- Plan bypasses Canadian beef restrictions"

[Glickman37 at aol.com]

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20040125/localnews/291746.html

Ship to take Iditarod food to Alaska
Plan bypasses Canadian beef restrictions
By MARK DOWNEY
Tribune Staff Writer 
January 25, 2004 

Iditarod dog sled racers from Montana and other lower 48 states will get 
around Canada's restrictions on American beef because of mad cow disease by 
shipping their frozen food for the race by barge to Alaska, an Iditarod official 
confirmed.

"I've been working on it quite a bit," Iditarod Race Manager Jack Niggemyer 
said Thursday from Wasilla, Alaska, the race's starting point. The race begins 
March 7.

"Through a long, convoluted process, we've arranged for a barge heading north 
from Seattle," Niggemyer said.

In December, a Washington state dairy cow was diagnosed with bovine 
spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease. That prompted Canadian 
officials to close their borders to American beef. One result was that 26 Iditarod 
racers in the lower 48 could not truck frozen race food for their dogs and 
themselves to Alaska via Canada. 

With help from Montana's four-time Iditarod champion Doug Swingley, Niggemyer 
said the arrangements are now set for the 10 Iditarod mushers training in 
Montana. 

Swingley didn't return a phone call for comment. 

















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