US to join Canadian mad cow investigation
Thu Jul 13, 2006 5:45 PM EDT163
By Marcy Nicholson
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - The Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed on Thursday that an Alberta dairy cow had tested positive for mad cow disease, an announcement that raised enough concern in Washington for it to send an expert to join the investigation.
"We need a thorough understanding of all the circumstances involved in this case to assure our consumers that Canada's regulatory system is effectively providing the utmost protections to consumers and livestock," U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said on Thursday.
"I am dispatching a USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) expert to participate in the investigation of this case, particularly as it relates to how this animal may have been exposed to BSE-infected material," Johanns said.
"We have been assured by our Canadian counterparts that they welcome having our experts participate side-by-side with their investigators."
The 50-month-old cow, which died on the Alberta dairy farm where it was born, is Canada's seventh mad case since 2003. There have been three cases mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, in the United States.
"One of the contributors to finding these cases is a very robust surveillance program that is very targeted," Canadian Food Inspection Agency veterinarian George Luterbach said, when asked why there were more mad cow cases in Canada than in the United States.
Officials will now investigate other cows that were born at the farm near Edmonton, Alberta, within a year of the diseased cow, and have identified 170 "animals of interest," Luterbach said.
The affected animal's carcass was incinerated and did not enter either the human or animal food supply, according to the agency.
The CFIA has not euthanized any cattle as a result of its investigation and still must determine how many of the 170 birth cohorts, cattle born 12 months before and after the affected cow, are on its birth farm. The farm now has 300 head of cattle.
Some cohorts have likely been sold to other farms or have left the food system, Luterbach said.
Contaminated feed is believed to spread BSE and the agency has initiated a preliminary feed investigation.
"It's four years after the fact so there were no samples of feed on the farm," Luterbach said.
(Additional reporting by Christopher Doering in Washington)