Canadian agriculture officials got some much-needed luck in their investigation of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy case in the United States that was traced to Canada.
Because of detailed records kept by Wayne and Shirley Forsberg, investigators practically followed a line painted on the highway from Washington state straight to Calmar, Alta.
Some farmers’ livestock records consist of a few scribbled notes on a piece of paper in their coverall pockets, but the Forsbergs have details of every animal in their herd since they started farming in 1965.
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“The record keeping of this individual in Alberta was exemplary,” said Brian Evans, Canada’s chief veterinarian with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
“They had very precise records accounting for every animal born on the farm.”
It wasn’t a single ear tag that pointed north for government officials in Canada and the U.S. Evan said they were able to identify the animal five different ways.
In its ear was a government of Canada tag with unique number. Such tags are placed in all animals exported to the U.S.
The cow also had a dairy herd improvement tag used by many Canadian dairies to record an animal’s milk production over its lifetime.
The cow had a plastic herd tag with Forsberg’s farm code that linked it to its mother, grandmother, great-great-grandmother and all of its calves and the breeding associated with that.
Because the cow was a registered dairy animal, it had registration papers, which included a drawing of the unique black and white Holstein markings.
When the Forsbergs sold their 111-head dairy herd two years ago, they took a picture of every animal, including the cow linked to North America’s second BSE case.
“It was that picture and her registration documents that allowed us, in co-operation with the United States, to actually trace the hide of the animal and place that animal with her ear tag by matching identification in the picture,” said Evans.
“I can’t reflect enough with those examples, how this demonstrates, how this assists us, in building international respect for our program, when we can get to that level of detail and that level of verification through identification preservation.”
The good luck didn’t stop when CFIA officials arrived in Calmar.
Because of the quality of records, officials have been able to rebuild Forsberg’s herd on paper, including the time the animal may have received infected feed, the most likely source of infection.
“This individual, I am told, kept a calendar, and on the calendar he recorded every breeding date, every birthday, every animal that died according to his ear tag. He had cross-referenced his own file with a calendar for the whole number of years he operated his dairy farm.”
CFIA investigators have focused on rebuilding the paper herd on animals born between April 1996, a year before the cow was born, through to April 1998, a year after the animal was born. Investigators are using this two-year window to track other animals that were in the herd and likely exposed to the same feed.
Using that information, investigators are in the final stages of tracking where the animals are now. Evans wasn’t positive how many animals are involved but said he believed it was less than 10.
The Forsbergs’ records show one feed mill as the primary source of protein material for the cattle rations. Records show the farm may have bought protein blocks or pasture blocks at a second source.
Then the investigation turns into a maze again.
Evans said investigators must go beyond the feed mill and investigate where the feed mill got its supplement, which rendering plants supplied the meat and bone meal and how many slaughter plants or farms sent animals to that rendering plant seven or eight years ago.
“Again this is a very extended web of things that need to be traced to build the case when this animal became infected and what the potential source of infection might be.”
Investigators are looking at historic records of livestock imports into Canada and the United States from the United Kingdom. While Canada tracked and killed all imported animals, there were a few in the U.S. that were never found and the animals could have ended up as feed in either country.
