November 12, 2008

CFIA fingers Canada's 13th BSE case to commercial feed

Canada's 13th case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy could be from commercial feed, according to a report by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

A 61-month-old Holstein cow from a dairy operation in British Columbia was found to have contracted the disease. The animal was destroyed in early June, and no part of the carcass entered the human food supply.

CFIA's investigated both animals at the farm in question as well as feed products there to which the BSE case animal had access. It found that while all feed products the animal was exposed to were intended for feeding to ruminants, but some of the farm's feed suppliers used prohibited material in preparing rations for non-ruminant species and this could have caused the BSE infection.

Canada imposed a ruminant feed ban in 1997 that bans the use of certain animal products, known as prohibited material, in the manufacture of ruminant feed.

The report noted that the detection of this case does not change any of Canada's BSE risk parameters. The World Organization for Animal Health categorizes Canada as a controlled risk BSE country.