March 8, 2007

 

Canada releases initial report on latest mad cow disease outbreak
 

 

Alberta's latest case of mad cow disease--the province's ninth overall--involved a 6 1/2-year-old animal born and raised on the same farm where it died.

 

This was the initial news release issued by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) on March 7, explaining its investigation was nearing completion.

 

The news release said the agency has directed all necessary resources toward the tracing the cattle's exposure to the same feed as the infected animal during the early part of its life.

 

The investigation also includes a thorough examination of the formulation, production, transportation and storage of a number of feed sources used on the birth farm at the time.

 

The bull was born in 2000 and died in early February, having been detected as an "animal of interest" through a national farm surveillance program.

 

Provincial and federal tests then confirmed it had bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.

 

A ban on cattle remains in feed in Canada went into effect in 1997.

 

The CFIA has said the animal did not enter the food chain.

 

It has not been specified what part of the province the animal was found in.

 

More than 150,000 cattle have been tested since BSE was first detected in Alberta in 2003, when the United States shut down its border shut to cattle exports.

 

The border reopened for Canadian beef from younger cattle within months of the original ban. But live cattle have only been allowed to move across the border since July 2005.

 

The country's enhanced feed ban which is in effect on July 12, 2007 should have eliminated BSE from the national cattle within ten years.

 

However, it also said it expects to see "the periodic detection of a limited number of cases to continue" as overall BSE levels decline.

 

New rules proposed by the US Department of Agriculture that would allow exports of older live Canadian cattle to resume are up for public review until March 12.