December 19, 2007

Canada reports new case of mad cow disease

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Tuesday (December 19, 2007) confirmed the diagnosis of bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease in a 13-year-old beef cow from Alberta.

The agency said the animal's carcass is under its control and no part of it entered the human food or animal feed systems.

This is the 11th case in Canada since its first in a native-born animal in May 2003.

In May of this year, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) designated Canada as a controlled-risk country for the disease, acknowledging the effectiveness of its controls and effectively allowing the export of beef from Canadian cattle of any age.

The OIE also gave the US the same status. US exporters and agricultural officials have been trying to lift restrictions in South Korean and Japanese markets based on the new status.

Canada's last reported case was in May 2, 2007, in a dairy cow in British Columbia born in 2001. The diary cow cast doubts over the effectiveness of Canada's ban on specified risk materials in feed, which was introduced in 1997.

The animal involved in this latest case was born before Canada introduced the ban of these materials. The risk materials, which contained parts of cows' brains and nervous systems, were believed to be the chief causes of mad cow disease.

The US lifted bans on Canadian beef from cattle more than 30 months old just last year. in 2003 before a ban on Canadian beef took effect, about 250,000 cattle slaughtered in the US comes from Canada.

Canadian authorities are scrambling to trace the animal's herdmates at the time of birth and the pathways of infection.

The first US cow discovered to have mad cow disease was later shown to have originated from Canada.

The US has previously said that it would not consider bans on Canadian beef unless 11 cases were discovered in a four-year period from December 2003, when the first case was discovered. This month would have been the last month of that four years.