A 13-year-old cow born and raised on a farm east of Red Deer has become Canada’s 11th case of BSE, Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials announced Dec. 18.
The cow, which was born in March 1994, had been losing body condition, but the problem was believed to be abdominal and not BSE, said CFIA senior veterinarian George Luterbach.
Because the animal fit the BSE surveillance criteria, a local veterinarian euthanized it and had parts of its body tested for BSE. More than 190,000 cattle have been tested for BSE since 2003 when the disease was discovered in a northern Alberta cow.
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“It fit within the definition of a targeted animal,” Luterbach said.
The cow didn’t enter the animal or human food chain.
Luterbach said it had lived its entire life on the same central Alberta farm. Investigations must now begin to trace the cow’s birth cohorts, which are cattle that were born on the farm within a year of the cow and that may have eaten the same feed.
“That is a very positive first step in our investigation. The birth farm is known and the age of the animal is known,” he said.
Scientists believe cattle are most susceptible to becoming infected with BSE in their first year of life.
Luterbach said investigators don’t know yet how many birth cohorts are still alive, either on the farm or other farms. Many of them have most likely died or been sent to slaughter. Any birth cohort animals still alive will be destroyed and their remains tested for BSE.
Officials will begin a two-part investigation to find the birth cohorts and determine what feed the animal may have eaten.
The cow was born before Canada implemented a feed ban in 1997 that prevented ruminant material from being fed back to ruminant
animals.
As a further precautionary measure, Canada implemented an enhanced feed ban this past July that requires all specified risk material to be removed from slaughter animals and kept out of animal feed, pet food and fertilizer.
SRMs are tissues that have been linked to BSE.
The enhanced feed ban has caused problems at smaller slaughter plants that can’t afford to haul SRM material to approved landfill sites.
CFIA officials are investigating the illegal dumping of slaughterhouse waste at a ranch east of Kamloops, B.C.
“There is some concern there of a compost site in the area. They’re concerned about that,” Luterbach said.
The problems arose over the location of a slaughterhouse composting facility in the Kamloops area. All compost sites must meet provincial regulations, he said, whether they are in a landfill, an incinerator or compost.
“You cannot put waste on somebody else’s property.”
Luterbach said the dumping of ruminant waste near Kamloops isn’t a BSE related issue.
