‘Mad cow’ found in Canadian herd

OTTAWA – The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has confirmed the diagnosis of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a 13-year-old beef cow from Alberta.
The animal’s carcass is under the agency’s control, and no part of it entered the human food or animal feed systems.
The Alberta animal was identified at the farm level by the national surveillance program, which has detected all such cases found in Canada. The animal was born before the implementation of Canada’s feed ban in 1997.
An epidemiological investigation directed by international guidelines is underway to identify the animal’s herdmates at the time of birth and the pathways by which it might have become infected.
All findings will be publicly released once the investigation concludes.