Mad cow disease appears again in Canadian cattle

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) says there has been another case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Canadian cattle.

According to the agency's senior veterinarian for Western Canada, a mature bull that died on a farm last week tested positive for BSE.

Dr. George Luterbach says the animal's death caused it to be identified as an "animal of interest" at the farm level as part of a national surveillance program.

The presence of BSE, commonly known as mad cow disease, has been confirmed by both provincial and federal tests.

Where in the province the animal was when it died has not been identified but the authorities insist that is not as important as where it lived in its first year of life, and with the possible consumption of contaminated feed in its first year of life.

It has been suggested the bull was born and raised in Alberta.

Luterbach says an investigation is now underway to find other animals born within a year of the bull that may have been exposed to the same feed source.

Officials are certain that as suspect animals are removed, destroyed, tested and disposed of so they can not enter into the feed system, this particular bull also did not enter the feed system.

Since May 2003 Canada has detected eight cases of BSE in their cattle and the cases prompted the closure of cattle borders to the United States.

The borders were 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.

In 2006 five new cases were discovered in Canada, including one in a cow born five years after safeguards were adopted to prevent the spread of the disease.

Luterbach says though the small number of cases still occurring are unwelcome it is to be expected.

The use of cattle remains in feed in Canada was banned in 1997 to guard against the spread of BSE.

The CFIA says a new, enhanced feed ban, which comes into effect in July this year, should see BSE eliminated from the national cattle herd within 10 years.

The new rules which were proposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in order to allow exports of older live Canadian cattle to resume are up for public review until March 12.

Experts say almost one-third of the Canadian beef herd and one-quarter of the total herd is estimated to have been born before 1998.

The U.S. Agriculture Secretary Michael Johanns has said he does not expect Canada's latest case of mad cow to hurt trade between the two countries.

Fears that BSE can be transmitted to people from contaminated meat, causing variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a rare human brain-wasting disease, ensures any new case grabs the media's attention.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease killed 150 people, mainly in Britain, as a result of eating affected beef.

To date no human deaths as a result of mad cow have been reported in Canada.