Iqaluit (Aug 11/03) - In a move that will make hunters and trappers cheer across Nunavut, the U.S. has re-opened its border to Canadian muskox and caribou.

In a news release Friday, U.S. agriculture secretary Ann Veneman said after a scientific analysis, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will begin accepting applications for the import of certain ruminants from Canada.

"Our experts have thoroughly reviewed the scientific evidence and determined the risk to public health is extremely low," she said.

This is welcome news to Nunavut's caribou and muskox industry, which has been reeling after the border closure to all ruminants May 20, 2003 when one case of mad cow disease was discovered in Alberta.

Premier Paul Okalik lobbied US officials to rethink its stance on the disease, and their ban on muskox and caribou.

On Saturday, press secretary for Okalik, Bill Clay, suggested Okalik's pleas worked, as Nunavut is mentioned specifically on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Web site as one of the regions that will benefit from the lifting of the ban on game meat.

Nunavummit were disgusted with the ban that could have destroyed their $500,000 a year wild game industry.

"I'm not really sure why the border was closed," said Iqaluit-based researcher Jesse Tuntilik on Saturday. "To me it just seemed foolish."

Tuntilik, 18, is a lab and field technician at the Research Institute in Iqaluit.

Last year the teen worked on an environmental project, and this year he will focus on geomagnetics, having been interested in environmental issues much of his life.

Tuntilik thinks the ban never should have included Nunavut meat.

"I thought it was really poorly thought out," he said, "because our game meat here is not at all related to mad cow disease."