Mad cow disease appears again in Canadian cattle

According to Canada's Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), tests have confirmed that a six-year-old dairy cow in the Canadian province of British Columbia suffered from mad cow disease.

The agency says no part of the animal entered the human food chain or animal feed system.

The case of the pure-bred Holstein represents Canada's fifth native-born case of the brain-wasting bovine spongiform encephalopathy disease.

Officials announced the suspected case in the Fraser Valley region near Vancouver last week and say the finding does not affect the safety of Canadian beef.

Although the United States says it plans to send inspectors to Canada, U.S. agriculture officials are downplaying the impact of the discovery on the trade in live cattle.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns has said that on the basis of the current information he does not anticipate a change in the status of trade with Canada.

Canadian officials have repeatedly said they expect additional cases of BSE would surface and the cow was discovered as part of the routine process of testing cattle thought to be susceptible of having contracted the disease.

The CFIA has detailed records of the cow's history from birth, and will pay particular attention to the feed to which the animal may have been exposed early in its life on the two farms where it lived.

According to official sources the cow was born in April 2000, three years after the Canadian government prohibited cattle from eating feed containing ruminant protein in 1997.

Canada's first BSE case in 2003 prompted the United States to ban imports of live cattle; the ban on the importation of younger cattle was lifted last year, and it is presently considering ending the ban on older cattle.