A feed mix-up at a Saskatoon rendering plant and feed mill put about 8,000 cattle and 250 deer under quarantine in Saskatchewan.
Human error led to a shipment of bovine meat and bone meal from Saskatoon Processing being sent to a local feed company instead of the feather meal intended for placement into cattle rations.
However, the risk is extremely low that the malformed prion that causes BSE would be in the feed, said George Luterbach of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
“Exposure to (bovine) meat and bone meal doesn’t mean cattle have been exposed to BSE. It is extremely rare.”
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Luterbach said the agency is assessing the risk to ensure that exposure to BSE-causing prions is negligible and that beef from any of the farms can be declared safe.
Although the ingredient confusion was caught after a couple of days, the contaminated feed had already been distributed to a farm.
Eight other agricultural operations received feed that came into contact with handling equipment that transported the bovine meat and bone meal.
Included in the investigation are a feedlot and a purebred cattle operation in southern Saskatchewan, as well as dairy and commercial cattle farms in the Saskatoon area.
Current feed ban laws exclude ruminant products from inclusion in the diets of other ruminants, but allow them in poultry and swine feeds.
Luterbach said the CFIA launched an investigation after a telephone call Feb. 21 from the feed mill and renderer.
“They caught it very quickly. They voluntarily came forward. They and every farm affected have co-operated at every stage of the investigation and we were able to track down all of the feed that had been distributed,” he said.
Kelly Neudorf received feed that had come into contact with the mill’s equipment and now has 37 cows under quarantine on his dairy farm.
“This is unfortunate, but it shows everyone just how well our regulations and systems work,” said the Hague, Sask., farmer.
Feeding equipment and facilities at the Neudorf farm, like the others, was cleaned by the processor and feed company, overseen by CFIA inspectors.
New regulations that come into place this summer will make risk assessments like the one CFIA is now performing much simpler, said Luterbach. Those rules will eliminate ruminant specified risk materials from all animals before rendering. SRMs are byproducts, such as spinal cord and brain tissue, thought to pose the most danger of spreading BSE causing prions.
Neudorf’s farm income remains mostly intact because milk is not affected by BSE. But he is concerned for beef cattle producers who may have to cancel bull or calf sales or feedlots holding cattle until the quarantine is lifted.
“And provided the processor and the feed company do the right things financially by every farmer they are putting through this, I will continue to have confidence in them,” he said.
