Canada confirms second case of Mad Cow

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Canada Confirms Second Case of Mad Cow

7 minutes ago World - AP Canada


By ROB GILLIES, Associated Press Writer

TORONTO - Canada on Sunday confirmed its second case of mad cow disease, just days after the United States said it planned to reopen its border to Canadian beef.



A 10-year-old dairy cow from Alberta has tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, as mad cow disease is formally known, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The results confirmed preliminary tests released earlier this week.


The border was closed 19 months ago when a cow in northern Alberta was discovered with mad cow disease, which attacks the animals' nervous system. Concerns persisted after a Canadian-born cow in Washington state was found in December 2003 to have the disease.


The U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) announced Wednesday that the border could be opened in March. Despite learning of the new suspected case, the Bush administration said the next day that it would stand by its decision to renew Canadian cattle imports, expressing confidence that public health measures in both countries will protect U.S. livestock and consumers.


Food contaminated with BSE (news - web sites) can afflict people with usually fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites).


Canadian officials said the United States was aware of the suspected case before they made their announcement Wednesday.


The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said the infected cow did not enter the human food or animal feed supply and posed no risk to the public.


Authorities said cow was born in Alberta in 1996, prior to the introduction of the 1997 feed ban. It is suspected that the animal became infected by contaminated feed before the ban.


BSE is a chronic, degenerative disorder affecting the central nervous system of cattle. Since it was first diagnosed in Britain in 1986, there have been more than 180,000 cases.


Before the trade ban, animals regularly crossed the border and Canada sold more than 70 percent of its live cattle to the United States. That market was worth $1.5 billion in 2002.


The decision to allow Canadian cows into the United States in light of the latest scare brought sharp responses from several Democratic lawmakers.


Rep. Earl Pomeroy (news, bio, voting record), D-N.D., called the decision "outrageous" and accused the Agriculture Department leadership of caring "more about the interests of mega feed lots and processors than the interests of farmers, ranchers and consumers."


Ron DeHaven, administrator of the agriculture department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, has said beef brought into the United State will be subject to Canadian inspection and subject to re-inspection by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service.


The USDA ruling, effective March 7, declared Canada a "minimal-risk region" so that cattle could be shipped into the United States under certain restrictions. The cattle must be slaughtered by the age of 30 months, which scientists say is too young to contract mad cow disease, and they must be transported in sealed containers to a feedlot or slaughter house.


The discovery in Washington state a year ago is the only confirmed case of mad cow disease in the United States. There have been a handful of suspected mad cow cases during preliminary screening in the United States, but more sophisticated tests produced negative results for the disease.


Both the beef industry and the USDA acknowledge that eventually another mad cow case is likely to be discovered among the 40 million adult cattle in the United States. About 1 percent of the herd, or 446,000 cattle, are considered in the targeted "high risk" category, according to the USDA, because they are not ambulatory and do not show signs of other ailments.

 

[sandorski]

Mad Cow is a rare disease, but occurs quite regularly. In France they find over a dozen Mad Cow cases pre year, but their testing system is such that 100% of cattle are tested and no Meat enters the Market until the Cattle has been tested for Mad Cow. The issue is not so much whether Mad Cow exists within the supply chain, but whether Meat infected by Mad Cow makes it to the Food Chain. In Canada there is a strong lobby to get 100% Testing of Cattle, but there is strong resistane to the idea from certain others, one of those Others is the USFDA which is concerned of the cost of such a system.

 

[kage69]

Ugh, poor Canucks, they JUST had W over for a steak to show him Canadian beef was safe - and now this. Lot of headaches in Ottawa over this I would imagine.

 

[lozina]

Originally posted by: kage69
Ugh, poor Canucks, they JUST had W over for a steak to show him Canadian beef was safe - and now this. Lot of headaches in Ottawa over this I would imagine.

Well that explains it... the disease was transmitted by W to the poor cow 🙁

 

[ReiAyanami]

no need to worry, most parts of this dairy cow won't even be fed to other cows

 

[kage69]

Well that explains it... the disease was transmitted by W to the poor cow

C'mon now, that's just silly..........







If that was the case the cow would have gone retarded, not mad! Jeeeeez!!!

 

[RabidMongoose]

New Mad Cow case:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH...a.madcow.ap/index.html

OTTAWA, Canada (AP) -- The Canadian government has confirmed a new case of so-called mad cow disease.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Tuesday the brain wasting disease showed up in an Alberta cow under seven years old. Officials say no part of the animal has entered the human or animal feed system.

This is the second case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) found in Canada this year. Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials were to hold a news conference Tuesday afternoon to discuss the new case.

Canadian officials confirmed the country's first case this year on January 2, just days after the United States said it planned to reopen its border to Canadian beef.

That dairy cow from Alberta, born in 1996, tested positive for BSE, which attacks the animals' nervous system. Food contaminated with BSE can afflict people with the usually fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Since the disease was first diagnosed in Britain in 1986, there have been more than 180,000 cases.

The U.S.-Canadian border was closed to Canadian cattle 19 months ago when a cow in northern Alberta was diagnosed with the disease. Concerns persisted after a Canadian-born cow in Washington state was found in December 2003 to have BSE.

But U.S. Department of Agriculture officials suggested after the discovery of this year's first case than they would not change their stance about re-opening the borders.

This is the second case this found in this year so far.