Federal officials are to open the U.S. border to Canadian cattle again after a federal appeals court overturned a ban on the animals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has said the border will be reopened to Canadian cattle within days.

``Because the ruling is effective immediately, we are immediately taking steps to resume the importation of cattle under 30 months of age,'' said Mike Johanns, agriculture secretary.

The border has been shut to most Canadian cattle since May 2003 when a single case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was discovered. The recent decision by the three-judge panel of a U.S. federal appeals court was released a day after the U.S. Department of Agriculture asked the court to strike down a lower court decision that kept cattle from crossing the border.