The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) confirmed bovine spongiform encephalopathy was found over the weekend in a six-year-old cross-bred cow born and raised on an Alberta farm.
"This animal ... had been showing progressive neurological signs consistent with BSE," Dr. Brian Evans, the agency's chief veterinary officer, said at a media briefing in Edmonton on Monday.
It's the fourth such case since May 2003. All have been found in Alberta. A U.S. animal that tested positive for BSE two years ago also came from the province.
Dr. Brian Evans, chief veterinary officer at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Meanwhile, Japan has confirmed that a five-year-old cow that died last week had mad cow disease.
The female Holstein from the northern Island of Hokkaido is the 22nd confirmed case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, in that country.
The cow was reportedly not raised for food and posed no danger to Japanese beef, the Agriculture Ministry said Tuesday.
Don't expect U.S. trade to be affected
The CFIA predicted the new Canadian case would not affect trade in the United States, which just started accepting young Canadian cattle last July after a two-year ban.
"All of the market access we've been able to re-achieve has been on the basis ... that the finding of additional cases of BSE into the future, small numbers, is entirely predictable and falls within that range of acceptable limits," Evans said.
He gave assurances that no part of the cow entered the human food or animal feed systems.
However, Evans said it was notable that the animal became sick after the 1997 feed ban that was designed to prevent infected cattle from being processed into feed and fed back to other cows.
"This case is, of course, unwelcome, but it is not unexpected," said Evans. "We have always maintained we could find a small number of additional cases through our active surveillance program which targets cattle populations most at risk of having BSE."
Evans said the feed ban is working despite the cluster of BSE cases in Alberta. The problem is that farmers may be still using old feed purchased before the ban. A cow can be infected by just one one-thousandth of a gram of bad feed.
"Canada will eradicate BSE, but this is not a disease that disappears overnight. We are dealing with a long incubation period, a large population of susceptible animals and a complex feed system," said Evans.
The agency is trying to find out how and when the animal was exposed to BSE. It will test all cattle born on the farm the year before and the year after the infected animal was born. It will also test two calves born to the infected cow.
According to the CFIA, the farm owner kept detailed records and has co-operated throughout. He immediately notified a veterinarian that he had a suspected case on his farm and had to euthanize it humanely.
The discovery comes at a bad time. After the U.S. reopened its border to young Canadian cattle last summer, Japan reopend its border last month.
- FROM JULY 18, 2005: Truckload of Canadian cattle enters U.S.
The mad cow crisis is estimated to have cost Canada's cattle industry more than $7 billion.
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CBC Newsworld's Nancy Wilson interviews Dr. Brian Evans, chief veterinary officer at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
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