- Hello, Jeff - Of course, we get the same
old "feel good" and 'don't worry' statements such as meat from
infected cows did not enter human food chain.
-
- How can such a determination can be made
when, in this case, herdmates of the infected cow have not been found...and
have not been determined to be either free of BSE or infected with BSE?
The answer is obvious.
-
- Patty
-
- By Marcy Nicholson
-
- (Reuters) -- The Canadian Food Inspection
Agency (CFIA) said on Friday that 15 herdmates of Canada's latest mad cow
case were exported to the United States.
-
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture has
located one of the 15 animals in Washington State and continues to trace
the others, agency spokesman Ed Loyd said.
-
- "We have just under 150 animals
that we are tracing ... and 23 were located in Canada and quarantined,"
said Dr. George Luterbach, senior veterinarian with the CFIA.
-
- The 23 cattle quarantined in Canada,
as well as the one located in Washington, will soon be euthanized and tested
for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as BSE or mad cow disease.
-
- The animals may have been exposed to
the same feed as the 6-year-old dairy cow from a farm in the western province
of British Columbia that tested positive for the brain-wasting disease.
-
- BSE is believed to be spread by feed
containing rendered protein from infected cattle or other ruminants.
-
- "I would stress that even during
the highest levels of infectivity of BSE in the European situation, there
was rarely more than one animal in the herd that would become infected
and express the disease," the USDA's Loyd said.
-
- "I would think the likelihood of
any additional exposure would be extremely remote in the United States."
-
- The Canadian agency's investigation focuses
primarily on the cow's birth farm, which is close to the one it was found
on, Luterbach said.
-
- The CFIA continues to trace the remaining
cohorts, cattle born on the same farm 12 months before or after the affected
animal. Luterbach said the agency does not expect to find them all, as
many would have been killed for a variety of reasons.
-
- "It's not likely any of these would
have entered into the human food chain as there are a number of measures
that are taken," Luterbach said.
-
- The pure-bred Holstein cow was confirmed
to have the disease on 16 Apr 2006, making it Canada's 5th native-born
mad cow case. The CFIA said then that it did not enter the food supply.
-
- The animal was born after the 1997 ban
that prohibited adding protein from cows and other ruminants, such as goats
and sheep, to cattle feed.
-
- This is not the first time that mad cow
cohorts have been exported to the U.S. This also occurred in 2003 and 2005,
the CFIA said in a release.
-
- The agency said it is "unlikely"
to find additional BSE cases in the feed cohort.
-
- The CFIA has located the cow's 2004 calf,
which had been slaughtered, but continues to search for its 2005 calf,
as it is believed possible for BSE to be passed to offspring. The cow was
pregnant at the time of her death, Luterbach said.
-
- The Canadian cattle industry suffered
in 2003, when the U.S. banned imports of live cattle after the first native-born
case was confirmed. The importation of cattle under 30 months old resumed
in 2005.
-
- _____
-
- Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD
- Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics
- Univ of West Indies
-
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases"
message board at:
- http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php
- Also my new website:
- http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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