Canadian BSE Suspect
Born Long After Ban
The Wall Street Journal reports that Canadian officials are investigating yet another possible case of BSE, or “mad cow” disease, this time in an animal born well after Canada instituted its 1997 ruminant-source feed ban.
Feed containing protein from rendered ruminants is widely thought to be the transmission mode for BSE, so infections found in animals born well after the ban suggest that either the transmission assumptions are incorrect or the ban has not been adequately enforced. The current Canadian case, not yet confirmed, involves a 50 month-old dairy cow. If confirmed, it would be Canada’s seventh and youngest case.
Canada’s only other post-ban case involved a cow born shortly after the ban and presumed to have been infected by stockpiled pre-ban feed or contaminated feed equipment. At just over four years of age, however, the cow currently being investigated would have been born roughly five years after the ban.
Born Long After Ban
The Wall Street Journal reports that Canadian officials are investigating yet another possible case of BSE, or “mad cow” disease, this time in an animal born well after Canada instituted its 1997 ruminant-source feed ban.
Feed containing protein from rendered ruminants is widely thought to be the transmission mode for BSE, so infections found in animals born well after the ban suggest that either the transmission assumptions are incorrect or the ban has not been adequately enforced. The current Canadian case, not yet confirmed, involves a 50 month-old dairy cow. If confirmed, it would be Canada’s seventh and youngest case.
Canada’s only other post-ban case involved a cow born shortly after the ban and presumed to have been infected by stockpiled pre-ban feed or contaminated feed equipment. At just over four years of age, however, the cow currently being investigated would have been born roughly five years after the ban.