A new case of mad cow disease has been confirmed Tuesday in Canada on a 13-year-old beef cow from western Alberta province, the
Canadian Food Inspection Agency said.
The cow was discovered in a farm east of Red Deer, Alta and it is the 11th case
since the first diseased animal was discovered in 2003. The discovery led to ban
on Canadian beef by many countries, by that time, including the U.S., Japan
and Mexico.
Red Deer is located about 140 kilometers north
of Calgary.
Alberta province accounts
for 40 percent of beef exports from Canada. Moreover, Alberta has 42 percent of the 13.7 million
cows in this country.
An investigation has been started to determine the birth farm,
trace any animals born within a year of this cow on that farm and remove them
from the population. Specialists also want to find out how the cow became
infected. It is already known that the cow was born on the farm where it was
found in March 1994.
Because the cow became thinner, doctors thought it had suffered
from an abdominal infection, George Luterbach, a senior veterinarian with the
Canadian Food Inspection Agency said, according to the National Post. Instead,
the tests revealed bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.
"These cases, while I suppose unwelcome, are not
unexpected," said Luterbach, who also said that he expects to find a small
number of BSE cases over the next 10 years.
Specialists at the government agency said that no part of
the carcass entered the human food or animal feed system and the case would not
affect Canada’s
risk status, which is determined by World Organization for animal Health.
The United States,
Canada’s
largest market, allowed beef from young cattle since September 2003, as well as
young live cattle starting in 2005. Beginning with last month, the U.S. allowed
imports of all Canadian beef, as well as live cattle born on or after March 1,
1999.
The new case “should have no impact on trade,” according to
Luterbach. However, Montana-based activist rancher group R-Calf United
Stockgrowers of America said that the U.S. Agriculture Department should
continue to ban imports of older Canadian cattle as the U.S. risk being
exposed to an “unnecessary and unavoidable risk of mad cow disease,” said Bill
Bullard of R-CALF, who has asked a federal judge to block the imports.
