U.S. Mad Cow Came From Canada

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, January 6, 2004 (ENS) - DNA test results confirm that the Washington state dairy cow found last month to be infected with mad cow disease was imported from Canada, agriculture officials from the United States and Canada said today.

The tests, along with records that show the cow came from a dairy farm in the Canadian province of Alberta, have officials "confident in the accuracy of this trace back," U.S. Department of Agriculture Chief Veterinarian Ron DeHaven told reporters.

Investigators will now set their sights on how the animal became infected - most likely through contaminated feed - and on trying to locate the other animals from the Canadian herd.

Mad cow disease, officially known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), spreads from one animal to another by consumption of feed that has been contaminated by protein - such as blood or meat meal - from an infected animal.

Beef from infected cattle is believed to cause a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, which is often fatal for humans.

The close integration between the U.S. and Canadian beef industries is proving a tricky problem for agriculture officials on both sides of the border. (Photo courtesy Factory Farm Project)

The infected cow was born in April 1997, some four months before the United States and Canada adopted a feed ban that prohibits the feeding of protein from cattle back to other cattle.

The discovery casts a further shadow over whether U.S. officials will lift a ban on Canadian imports of live cattle. Canadian ranchers exported more than one million live cattle to the United States in 2002 but the trade has been banned since May 2003, when agriculture officials announced that a cow in Alberta had mad cow disease.

The May discovery of mad cow disease has cost the Canadian beef industry more than $1 billion.

Brian Evans, chief veterinarian officer for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency told reporters "there is no definitive feed link between the two farms" and stressed that the issue is one both nations must handle together.

"This finding is but one step down a road we will continue to pursue in parallel on the Canadian and U.S. sides," Evans said.

Investigators and officials from Canada and the United States will work together on tracing and depopulation strategies, officials from both nations said.

Today's confirmation of the infected cow's origin comes on the heels of a decision by U.S. agriculture officials to slaughter a herd of 450 calves in order to try and quell fears over the safety of U.S. beef supplies.

Federal officials described the move as a "precautionary measure" - one of the 450 calves fated for slaughter is the offspring of the cow determined to have had the disease.

The decision to kill all 450 calves in the quarantined herd was made because federal officials are unable to determine which of the calves is the offspring of the BSE infected cow.

DeHaven told reporters on Monday the calves will be transported to a slaughter facility currently not in use, but offer no details on how the carcasses will be disposed.

"None of the animals will enter the food chain nor will any of the product from those animals go into a rendered product," DeHaven said.

Officials did not indicate the fate of some 4,000 other cattle in quarantine because of the concerns about mad cow disease. The two herds containing the quarantined cattle include animals that may have come from the same Canadian farm as the infected cow.

Ron DeHaven is chief veterinarian for the U.S. Agriculture Department. (Photo courtesy USDA)

USDA officials say they are working closely with many of these nations to reassure them of the safety of U.S. beef.

DeHaven said today's DNA test results show that the United States has not yet had "a native born case of BSE" but acknowledged that the U.S. and Canadian cattle industries are closely integrated.

"U.S. beef has been safe and continues to be safe," DeHaven said.

The major concern for consumers is the potential contamination of meat products by brain and spinal cord tissue during routine slaughter.

Last week the USDA enhanced its regulations to help prevent high risk tissues from entering the human food chain.

The agency declared as specified risk materials skull, brain, trigeminal ganglia, eyes, vertebral column, spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia of cattle over 30 months of age and the small intestine of cattle of all ages. These tissues will be prohibited in addition to brain, spinal column, and intestinal tissue, which are already banned for human consumption.

These classifications are consistent with the actions taken by Canada last May.