BSE confirmed in suspect Alberta animal; investigations underway

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed Sunday that an older dairy cow from Alberta tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, otherwise known as mad cow disease.

The infected animal was born in 1996, prior to the introduction of the 1997 feed ban. It is suspected that the animal became infected by contaminated feed before the feed ban.

No part of the animal entered the human food or animal feed systems. This finding does not indicate an increased risk to food safety, the agency said in a release Sunday.

“Canada’s public health safeguards have been developed on the assumption that a low, declining level of BSE remains in North America,” the statement said.

Canada requires the removal of specified risk material, known as SRM, from all animals entering the human food supply. SRM are tissues that, in infected cattle, contain the BSE agent.

The measure is internationally recognized as the most effective way to protect public health from BSE, the agency said.

The agency’s investigation would continue after it first raised the possibility of this BSE case Dec. 30.

The 10-year-old Alberta animal was a dairy cow but more of a family pet and not in commercial milk production, a CFIA veterinarian confirmed last week.

The cow was first examined Dec. 17 after she was identified as a “downer” - too sick to walk.

Before definitive diagnostic findings were released Sunday, tissue samples were tested twice in Edmonton and Winnipeg using two different preliminary quick tests. Test results from all four failed to clear the cow. 

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