Posted on 01/11/2005 3:06:17 PM PST by youngtory
USDA to investigate after third mad cow found CTV.ca News Staff
News of a third mad cow case in Canada has prompted the United States to send a team here to evaluate whether the border should be re-opened to live Canadian cattle in March.
"As always, protection of public and animal health is our top priority,'' Ron DeHaven, administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, told The Canadian Press.
The investigation will be used to decide the appropriate next steps, he said.
DeHaven noted this latest case occurred in a cow born shortly after the implementation of a feed ban in 1997.
"... To determine if there are any potential links among the positive animals, we will expedite sending a technical team to Canada to evaluate the circumstances surrounding these recent finds," he said.
Minister's news conference
Earlier in the day, federal Agriculture Minister Andy Mitchell briefed journalists on the latest discovery.
"You are now aware that a third case has been confirmed today through our surveillance system," he said in Ottawa.
Mitchell called the discovery "not unexpected." Though this is the second case found in 10 days, it's not related to the case confirmed earlier this month.
He confirmed the cow was born after the feed ban.
"Preliminary data indicates the source of the infection was contaminated feed made prior to the feed ban," Mitchell explained.
Although the feed rules -- which eliminated cattle remains believed to carry a high risk of BSE-transmission from the nutrient mix -- predated the birth of the infected cow, Canadian Food Inspection Agency veterinarian Dr. Brian Evans said it's no cause for panic.
"Finding an animal of this age is entirely consistent with the types of cases we expected to find in North America through our targeted-surveillance program," Evans told reporters.
The cow's farm of origin has also been identified, and no part of the infected animal made its way into the human or animal food supply, he added.
It is believed that humans can contract the fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease from eating BSE-contaminated meat.
The trade ban
When a single Alberta cow was diagnosed with the incurable illness in May, 2003, the news prompted a swift reaction from some of Canada's biggest trading partners. The ensuing trade bans, especially with the United States, have since cost the Canadian industry an estimated $5 billion.
But, less than two weeks ago, the industry was given new hope with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's announcement that it would reopen the American border to live, young Canadian cattle in early March.
The timing proved unfortunate, however, as it coincided with the confirmation of a second BSE-infected dairy cow in Alberta.
That case, Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials said, meant at least nine related cows would be tested for the disease.
Although the U.S. regulator said it would go ahead with plans to restart trade anyway, the discovery has stirred nervous rumblings south of the border.
On Monday, a U.S. cattle group R-Calf United Stockgrowers filed a federal lawsuit demanding the USDA reconsider its decision.
Allowing Canadian beef products, they argue, would not only pose a risk for consumers, but also send cattle prices into a sharp decline.
There has been one confirmed case of BSE in the U.S., but it was traced to a Canadian-born dairy cow.
The two other cases of BSE in Canada occurred in cattle born before feed rules were revamped to prevent the spread of the disease in 1997.
Despite the persistent Canadian connection, Mitchell told reporters Tuesday he still expects the U.S. border to open as planned in March.
"From our perspective we believe that it should," Mitchell said, expressing confidence in "science-based" decisions. But he also conceded that American officials will respond after they've had time to reflect on this latest information.
As a signal of Ottawa's commitment to the issue in the meantime, the Agriculture Minister said he has ordered six measures that include determining exactly how the cow was infected and assuring international trade partners that Canadian beef is safe.
International experts will also be invited, Mitchell said, to conduct a comprehensive audit of Canada's animal feed system before the border is due to be reopened in March.
Under World Health Organization guidelines, so-called minimal risk countries such as Canada can retain that status even with as many as 11 reported cases in a 12-month period.
With files from CTV News and The Canadian Press
We can close the border to cattle so why can't it be closed for illegals and terrorists?
If we tagged illegals and shipped them in trucks to a designated location and kept them penned there we probably could.
Looking for obligatory pic of Michael MOOre...
This disease is such a horrible way to die, it scares the hell out of me.
I watched a documentary about people with mad cow in Britain, it was horrible. They showed a young lady who had CJB(Mad Cow) and she was barely able to walk, the nurses had to pick her up. They asked her what day it was she said Thursday, it was then really Tuesday. The young lady died a few weeks later. It was indeed horrible.
"They asked her what day it was she said Thursday, it was then really Tuesday."
I might have mad cow. I never have any idea what day or time it ever is.
I believe that we could avoid this if we would just go ahead and test all animals at slaughter as Japan has done.
Not only would this be expensive and disruptive, the results wouldn't be reliable. Because of the incubation period of BSE, no animal under 2 years of age would test positive, even though it might test positive later in its life. The bulk of grain-fed animals in the US will be slaughtered long before they reach 24 months and many of them before they reach 20 months.
I disagree about the reprise of Britains history occuring here. First of all North Americans don't tend to eat brains as much as the Euro's do and since there has NEVER been any BSE prions found in beef muscle meats, unless you have a taste for brain your much more likely to be struck by lightning. In addition, the bans on feeding ruminant by-products to cattle has been in place in North America since 1997 as opposed to being a wide spread practice in Europe when BSE was first identified.
Lastly our continent has much larger land mass that allows us to grow vegetable based proteins for animal feed like soybeans. That is not the case in Europe and Japan. Hopefully these last cases are still from the feed that was around before the ban was put in place. When the ban on ruminant products in cattle feed went into effect it only applied to newly manufactured cattle feed. The old stuff that was still around in feed bins was still usable according to law. This may be what has happened in these latest cases and is what the technical team from USDA will be looking at.
Yes, there's no scientific evidence that rules out that BSE in cattle cannot be a randomly occuring, genetic accident. You're right, scrapies is a form of TSE (transmittable spongiform encephalopathy) has existed for centuries as well as chronic wasting disease in deer and elk. The human form of CJD (not related to eating beef) naturally occurs in human populations at the rate of 1 - 2 cases per million people in the world. To date the vCJD (which is associated with cattle by-products) has been diagnosed in approximately 130 people worldwide. BSE, while it's not been ruled out to be a spontaenous random event, has been shown to spread through cattle herds by feeding of contaminated ruminant by-products.
really get it just eating the mad cow meat?
NOT by eating the meat. Not muscle meat. BSE has only been found in neural tissue like brain and spinal columns and also in portions of the small intestine and tonsils. There has never been a case of prions showing up in muscle tissue but there is a small potential that neural tissue could come into contact with muscle tissue in the slaughtering process. The beef packing industry has put several safeguards and slaughter technique changes in place to prevent this. The chance of this occuring is really extremely low.
How do the protein prions know to go from your stomach to your brain?
I don't have knowlege of this physiological aspect, but perhaps it's like how cancer cells migrate and latch on to different areas.
Let's put the risk factor in this perspective. The chances of getting BSE from beef you'd eat from a grocery store or a McDonalds is far less than the odds you could get run over and killed by the truck that delivered the beef to that establishment while you were walking from your car to the front door.
ping
Isn't there some concern for contamination of muscle meat from the processing equipment used on the animal carcasses? Also, while I understand that we have the capacity to grow plant proteins for animal feed, haven't there been reports of BSE infected deer herds in No. America? In other words, it's already present in wild animals, presumably because deer have eaten livestock feed?
As I stated in an earlier post the slaughter and packing industries have taken steps to remove SRM's (specified risk materials) early in the slaughter process. Procedures have been changed and the brain, spinal column tissue etc. are removed before the carcass ever gets near the processing equipment.
haven't there been reports of BSE infected deer herds in No. America?
Yes, it's called chronic wasting disease (CWD) which is another TSE variant and not BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopahty) and has been identified for many years.
In other words, it's already present in wild animals, presumably because deer have eaten livestock feed?
There has never been evidence of crossing species, i.e. deer to sheep or cattle. I have never read any research linking deer contracting CWD because they have eaten livestock feed.
More info at: http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdahome
This is good to know. Seems only a year ago, I was reading that the animal's carcass is sawn in half -- through the spinal column and brain and, or course, all other parts as well, and this was a potential source of contamination.
BTTT!!!!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.