The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) confirmed on December 18, 2007, the diagnosis of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a 13-year-old beef cow from Alberta. The animal’s carcass is under CFIA control and no part of it entered the human food or animal feed systems.
The animal was identified at the farm level by the national surveillance program, which has detected all BSE cases found in Canada. The program targets cattle most at risk and has tested about 190,000 animals since 2003. The age of the infected animal falls within the age range of previous cases detected in Canada, and means it was born before the implementation of Canada’s feed ban in 1997.
An epidemiological investigation is underway to identify the animal’s herdmates at the time of birth and the pathways by which it might have become infected.
February 2008 Render