CALMAR, Alta. – The day after Christmas Wayne and Shirley Forsberg were picked up by a whirlwind and dumped into an international crisis that has paralyzed the livestock industry in Canada for almost a year.
Until then the couple quietly worked, lived and raised their children on the small farm they started in 1965 southwest of Edmonton.
Their quiet existence came to an end when they were told a Holstein cow in Washington state, diagnosed with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, was believed to have been born on their central Alberta farm 61/2 years earlier.
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“I said ‘Oh no, not us’,” said Wayne, who like other farmers had followed the BSE saga since a first case was discovered in a northern Alberta cow in May.
It took time for the couple to comprehend the news. There hadn’t been a single cow on their farm for two years. Three years ago Wayne lost parts of all four limbs to meningitis and was forced to scale back his farm and sell his dairy herd.
“Up until three years ago I was a happy dairy farmer. I was very happy doing what I was doing. I enjoyed it very much,” said Wayne during a news conference at a Nisku hotel organized with the help of the National Farmers Union.
“It took us a while to get up and running in our mind of what we had and how we had it and how we did it,” said Wayne.
By coming forward and telling their story, the Forsbergs hoped they could avoid the intense media scrutiny that followed the discovery of the first BSE case. Already the detailed questioning by Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials about their herd has taken its toll.
“It does have an effect on us. We probably tended to be more of a backbench type than forefront folk in everything that we’ve done,” Wayne told a packed news conference.
Like everything in their lives, they make the best of what they’re given, including the BSE connection to their farm.
“It’s not great. I’m certainly not happy that it happened. It’s one of those things. I also don’t feel we did anything wrong, though. We abided by the rules of that time,” said Shirley.
Like thousands of other farmers, the Forsbergs fed high-protein supplements in their dairy ration to help the animals grow and give more milk. Until 1997, when the practice of feeding ruminant meat and bone meal to other ruminants was banned in Canada, part of their ration included meat and bone meal.
“As far as we are concerned we fed legal feed in an approved manner,” said Wayne.
Neither was willing to blame their feed suppliers, which CFIA officials are tracking to find a possible source of the infected feed.
“We are not going to point fingers today because I don’t think there are any fingers to be pointed. We did not do anything wrong, the feed companies did not do anything wrong,” said Shirley.
American investigators looking into the case have told the couple the same thing.
“Yesterday we had a visit from CFIA and they brought along the American counterpart here watching over and she stated it wasn’t our fault, it wasn’t anybody’s fault and it’s a North American problem,” said Wayne. He thinks all animals going to slaughter should be tested for BSE to assure consumers and international governments that Canada is doing all it can to guarantee safe food.
Canadian investigators are thankful for the family’s extensive livestock records, which go back almost 40 years. Keeping good records is the way they’ve always been, said Shirley, who still has the stub from her first paycheque in 1958.
“It is most important you keep good records and keep them for a long time. That’s what you need in a case like this,” she said.
Because of those records, CFIA has been able to rebuild the Forsberg herd on paper to trace all the animals that may have been eaten the same feed as the infected cow.
The couple doesn’t believe other livestock producers will blame them for the latest case.
“I think people will understand. Our friends have understood and stood by through this. The rest of the people will understand when you explain to them what it was. If you’re asking me if I’m going to go home and hide, no I’m not,” said Shirley.
