BSE likely came from feed

Thursday, August 31, 2006 11:05 AM CDT

OTTAWA (AP) -- An Alberta, Canada, dairy cow that was diagnosed last month with BSE (mad-cow disease) probably contracted the disease from contaminated feed, federal regulators said.

The finding by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) came after an enforcement investigation was launched because the 50-month-old animal from an Edmonton-area farm was exposed to BSE after a 1997 feed ban was imposed.

“A particular incident was documented in one commercial feed facility that may have permitted the contamination of a single batch of cattle feed with prohibited material,” the CFIA said in a release, without naming the facility.

“The entire batch of feed was shipped to the BSE-positive animal’s farm. This particular batch of feed is the most probable source of infection.”

The announcement came a day after Canada confirmed its eighth case of BSE — this one in another Alberta beef cow believed to be between eight and 10-years old.

In the investigation of the previous case, which was confirmed in July, two feed manufacturing facilities received prohibited materials from the same rendering plant implicated in previous BSE investigations, the CIFA report said.

Officials from the agency were not immediately available for comment but the report said the investigation is focusing on the activities of the feed mills.

The agency tracked roughly 170 cows that originated at the same farm as the infected dairy cow. An expanded investigation located 38 live animals on the farm and in other herds to which they had been sold. Most of those animals have been destroyed and their carcasses burned.

Four animals have been retained under quarantine to allow for calving or collection of valuable genetic material, the CFIA said. They will also be destroyed.

Of the remaining animals 113 have died or been slaughtered. Eight animals were determined to be untraceable because of inadequate records.

The infected dairy cow did not die of BSE and no part of its carcass entered the human or animal food chain.

Canada started a feed ban in 1997 that prohibited the use of cattle parts susceptible to BSE in certain animal feeds.

Earlier this year, the food inspection agency announced the industry has until July 2007 to remove those cattle parts from all types of animal feed, pet food and fertilizers — a measure officials say will help eliminate BSE from Canada’s herd in the next decade.

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