Mad cow disease confirmed in B.C.'s Fraser Valley

Federal officials have confirmed the existence of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), in a British Columbia dairy cow.

But the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Sunday the finding of mad cow disease in a Canadian cow "does not affect the safety of Canadian beef."

"No part of this animal entered the human food or animal feed systems," the agency said in a release Sunday afternoon. "Tissues in which BSE is known to concentrate are removed from all cattle."

An agency spokesman told CBC News Online that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has reassured Canada that this finding would not change trade in beef between the two countries. The U.S. now bans imports of cattle more than 30 months old.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said his department would dispatch an animal health expert to Canada on Monday.

"Information gathered through this investigation will help us to determine what, if any, impact this should have on our beef and live cattle trade with Canada," Johanns said in a statement. "Based on the information currently available, I do not anticipate a change in the status of our trade."

The Japanese government also said the latest mad cow case won't affect cattle trade with Canada.

Japan lifted its ban on North American beef about three months ago, but Canada is still shipping only a fraction of what it did prior to the discovery of mad cow disease.

Canada's cattle industry has lost hundreds of millions of dollars since the first case of BSE was identified in Canada. The United States, Japan and other trading partners closed their borders to Canadian beef after the first case was discovered more than three years ago, and have been slow in opening them again.

The infected cow has been identified as a six-year-old dairy cow that was raised near Chilliwack in B.C.'s Fraser Valley. Federal officials have found the farm where it was born, and are now tracing all possible infection pathways, including the source of its food.

George Luterbach, a senior veterinarian with the food inspection agency, suspects recent Canadian instances of mad cow disease stem from tainted feed that had already entered circulation before a ban was imposed nine years ago. The new rules defined what type of feed could be given to cattle.

"The cases are probably a result of some small amount of residual contamination remaining within the feed system," Luterbach told Canadian Press from Abbotsford, B.C.

This was the fifth Canadian cow to come down with BSE among the 100,000 high-risk animals that have been tested since 2003. Federal officials said this indicates that the level of BSE in Canada is "very low and declining."

The last Canadian mad cow case turned up in Alberta in January.

The B.C. cow was checked for BSE last week after it had trouble walking.

The first tests were inconclusive, so the animal tissues were sent to the National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease in Winnipeg, which conducted a second and a third barrage of tests.

The final test confirmed the existence of BSE.