Mad cow disease reported in Canada

Officials say Alberta cow tests positive for the disease; U.S. bars beef imports from neighbor.

May 20, 2003: 1:35 PM EDT

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OTTAWA, Canada (Reuters) - A cow in Canada has tested positive for mad cow disease in a test taken on Jan. 31, a Canadian Beef Export Federation official told Reuters Tuesday.

"It was (detected) just a few days ago. The actual test was taken Jan. 31 from a cow in Fairview, Alberta," the official said. "It's just one isolated case of an eight-year-old cow."

The United States has temporarily banned Canada meat imports after the report of the case, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said Tuesday.

Veneman said in a statement that the United States would not accept any "ruminant products" from Canada until further notice. Ruminant products are from animals that chew their cud, including cattle and deer.

According to a U.S. cattle industry source, a herd has been impounded in northern Alberta because of suspicions of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), better known as mad cow disease.

Alberta accounts for nearly 60 percent of Canada's beef production. There are 5.5 million head of cattle in the western province.

Beef cattle production is Alberta's largest agricultural sector providing C$3.8 billion ($2.8 million) in annual farm cash receipts, Alberta Agriculture data shows.

Some 511,656 head of live cattle were shipped from Alberta to the U.S. in 2002, Alberta Agriculture said.

Speculation about the case sent restaurant stocks that specialize in beef lower. Among them are McDonald's (MCD: down $0.87 to $17.29, Research, Estimates), Wendy's International (WEN: down $0.67 to $29.89, Research, Estimates) and Outback Steakhouse (OSI: down $1.02 to $35.60, Research, Estimates).

Written by CBC News Online staff

Last Updated Tue, 20 May 2003 16:04:59 Eastern


EDMONTON - A case of mad cow disease in Alberta has prompted the U.S. Agriculture Department to impose a temporary ban on Canadian beef exports to the United States.

News of the ban came as Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief was holding a news conference in Alberta to announce the discovery of a case of home-grown mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), in Alberta.

A single cow in northern Alberta with the brain-wasting disease was killed in January, but tests only confirmed the diagnosis on Tuesday morning. The news prompted the United States to stop all imports of Canadian beef.

Provincial and federal labs couldn't rule out mad cow disease, so specimens were sent to the world reference laboratory in Britain, which verified the diagnosis on Tuesday.

"We believe our food safety system is among the best in the world," Alberta Agriculture Minister Shirley McClellan told the conference.

Both ministers stressed that the animal didn't go into the food system.


INDEPTH: Mad Cow Disease: the science and the story

The eight-year-old cow was not a mad cow suspect, McClellan said. But it was underweight and had pneumonia when sent to slaughter, and provincial inspectors condemned it as unfit for consumption.

After the cow was sent to the rendering plant, the head was kept for testing. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has quarantined a farm, and will cull the herd there, Vanclief said.

Federal investigators will trace the cow's origin to find out if any more herds are at risk. Canadian BSE prevention measures (since 1997) stipulate that no remains from any cow can go into feed for other cows.

Canada's only other known case of mad cow disease was found in 1993, in a cow imported from Britain in 1987. That cow was destroyed, as was its herd of origin.




http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/05/2...ow_canada030520

Other countries join U.S. in ban of Canadian beef

Wednesday, May 21, 2003 Posted: 4:36 PM EDT (2036 GMT)

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EDMONTON, Alberta (CNN) -- Mexico, Japan and South Korea on Wednesday joined the United States in temporarily banning Canadian beef after health officials announced Tuesday that a cow slaughtered in northern Alberta tested positive for mad cow disease.

In the country's first case in a decade, an 8-year-old cow was tested and killed in January after showing signs of illness, Canadian agriculture officials said. Tests in England confirmed signs Tuesday of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.

The fatal brain-wasting disease is believed to be spread through contaminated cattle food and cannot be passed from cow to cow. A human disease -- variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) -- was first identified in 1996 and linked to eating mad cow-contaminated meat and cattle products.

Health officials said they think they have limited the spread of the disease. They have identified two more herds that might have been linked to the cow, said Dr. Claude Levigne of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Those herds have been placed under quarantine, along with the original herd where the cow was first discovered.

According to Levigne, those cows will be killed and brain samples will be tested for BSE, with results in at least three days.

Canada is the world's fourth largest exporter of beef, with the United States its largest customer, according to the American Beef Growers Association. Although the United States imports 12 percent of its beef cattle, just 3 percent of the beef in U.S. grocery stores is from Canada. The largest amount of imported beef comes from Australia, followed by New Zealand and then Canada.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said she is confident of the safety of the U.S. food chain.

"I certainly, with no hesitation, would say that every mother can feel confident that they can feed their children beef in this country," Veneman said Wednesday.

The initial outbreak was in the United Kingdom in 1986, but no cattle in the United States have ever tested positive for the disease.

Canada's first case of mad cow disease was in 1993 in a beef cow imported from Britain in 1987. Since 1990, Canada has not allowed cattle or cattle byproducts from countries with cattle that have had mad cow diseases, a Canadian agricultural department spokesman said.