Twelve Canadian dairy cattle born on the Alberta farm from which North America’s second positive BSE case originated have tested negative for the disease, says a Canadian Food Inspection Agency official.
CFIA veterinarian Cornelius Kiley said the animals were born in the same three-year window as was the cow that tested positive for the disease in Washington state in December.
One of the animals was traced to a Calgary farm while the others were from a dairy close to the original dairy in Calmar, Alta. Its owners, Wayne and Shirley Forsberg, sold their dairy herd in 2001.
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Eighty-one animals from the herd were sent to the United States and one of those cows was the one that tested positive in Washington state.
Canada discovered its first BSE case in a northern Alberta herd last May, throwing the Canadian cattle industry into turmoil.
Kiley said the agency is still looking for a “small number” of beef cattle raised on the Calmar farm that may have eaten the same feed as the cow diagnosed with BSE.
The disease is thought to spread when cattle eat feed containing protein made from infected cattle. Canada banned the practice of feeding ruminant byproducts to ruminants in the fall of 1997, a few months after both Canadian cattle confirmed with BSE were born.
“We are continuing to trace a small group of animals that potentially were exposed to the same feed.”
Kiley didn’t know how many cattle investigators are looking for, but said most beef cattle in the herd in 1997 would no longer be alive. He said investigators are almost finished tracing animals from the farm.
“We’re satisfied we’re nearly all the way there.”
American officials have found only 29 of the 81 cattle bought from Alberta and don’t expect to find any more.
