November 20, 2006

 

Cargill recalls contaminated Canadian cattle feed

 

 

Cargill has recalled feed from about 100 Canadian farms fearing trace amounts of a banned ingredient to prevent the spread of mad-cow disease.

 

Canadian veterinary officials have now been trying to determine the number and quality of cattle that ate the feed and the possibility of any infective material therein, said the country's chief veterinarian.

 

The younger animals were more susceptible to contracting the disease and therefore the focus of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency would naturally be on them, pointed out Brian Evans of the agency.

 

Cargill, the Canadian division of privately held US agribusiness giant Cargill Inc., said it shipped a cattle feed ingredient between October 31 and November 14 in a rail car previously used to ship meat and bone meal made from cattle and other ruminant livestock.

 

Though the meat and bone meal could be used in hog and poultry feed, it has been banned from cattle feed since 1997 by Canada and the US following the outbreak of mad-cow disease.

 

An estimated 400 to 500 tonnes of feed were affected in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, but Cargill did not know how much was eaten before the recall, which began on Friday, November 17, said spokesman Rob Meijer.

 

Canada has uncovered eight cases of mad cow disease in its domestic herd since May 2003, and hopes to eliminate the disease within a decade by tightening its feed rules.

 

As a measure to wipe out the disease, cattle brains, spines and other material thought to create the most risk for spreading mad cow disease would be banned from all types of animal feed by July next year.

 

By next week, the agency hopes to be able to assess the risk posed by the contaminated feed, Evans said.

 

According to investigators, six of Canada's eight diseased animals consumed tainted feed before or shortly after the introduction of the 1997 feed ban while another contracted the disease five years after the ban, but investigators said it ate feed from a plant that failed to clean its equipment properly after making hog and poultry rations.