Canada confirms new mad cow case
Canada confirms new mad cow case
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Monday, 17, Apr 2006 03:41
Canada has a new case of mad cow disease, the Food Inspection Agency has confirmed.
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was found in a six-year-old pure-bred Holstein cow at a Fraser Valley farm in the western province of British Columbia.
It was discovered during a national surveillance programme.
Meat products contaminated with brain-wasting BSE are linked to more than 150 human deaths, mostly in Britain, from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a rare and fatal nerve disease.
Downplaying fears of a new epidemic, Canadian officials said humans were not at risk as the BSE-infected parts of cattle had not entered the food chain.
The latest case is the fifth detected in Canada since May 2003 and the second this year.
In 2003, the US closed its border to Canadian beef.
Inspectors in Canada have tested roughly 100,000 animals since Canada's first case was detected in Alberta.
