The United States will within days resume imports of Canadian beef, which was banned more than two years ago after a cow in Canada was found to have mad cow disease.

The decision was announced by the US Department of Agriculture late Thursday and came after an appeals court on Thursday overturned a ruling which said that to reopen the border could spread mad cow disease.

"Because the ruling is effective immediately, we are immediately taking steps to resume the importation of cattle under 30 months of age from Canada," said Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns.

The department has already been in contact with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to prepare to certify cattle for shipment, he added.

Johanns said that the United States have been safely importing boneless boxed beef from Canada since September 2003, and "now we will use the scientific approach laid-out in our minimal risk rule to once again safely import live Canadian cattle for processing."

About 80 percent of Canada's beef exports went into the United States. It was estimated that Canada had lost about four billion US dollars because of the US ban, according to local reports.

Source: Xinhua