TORONTO — Preliminary tests have detected a potential case of mad cow disease in a mature cross-bred beef cow in the Prairie province of Manitoba, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said on Friday.
No parts of the animal's carcass entered either the human or animal feed systems, the agency said in a statement, adding the cow was born "well before" the 1997 implementation of Canada 's ban on cattle feed containing protein from cattle and other ruminants.
Samples have been sent to a testing center in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and final results are expected next week. If they come back positive, a full investigation will be launched "in accordance with international standards," the CFIA said.
If confirmed, this would be Canada 's sixth home-grown case since the first was detected in 2003. Canada confirmed its fifth case in April in a six-year-old dairy cow in British Columbia. There again, no part of the animal entered the animal or human food systems.
The discovery of the potential case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as BSE or mad-cow disease, came just a day after Canada reopened its border to all classes of cattle from the United States, following several cases of the disease in both countries.
Separately, the U.S. beef ranchers lobby group R-CALF also said on Friday it will file briefs by this fall to a U.S. appeals court as part of its latest effort to stop the government from allowing certain cattle and beef product imports from Canada and Japan. R-CALF contends the U.S. Department of Agriculture is not doing enough to consider the group's concerns over the spread of mad cow from foreign beef.
R-CALF has used litigation in the past to try to keep U.S. borders closed, and succeeded in delaying the resumption of Canadian beef and cattle imports over 30 months old after mad cow was first discovered there three years ago.
USDA's response to R-CALF is due before the 9th Circuit of Appeals on Oct. 23; no oral argument date has been set yet.
U.S. breeding cattle born after 1999 and beef from cattle over 30 months old are now eligible to enter Canada , under certain conditions.
Canada is aiming to eliminate mad cow disease within the next 10 years by banning all high-risk tissue from all livestock feed, pet food and fertilizers, the CFIA said earlier this week.
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