Canada confirms BSE case

Thursday, February 12, 2015

by JIM ALGIE

Canada’s first confirmed case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) since 2011 has Canadian Food Inspection Agency investigators seeking details of the infected Alberta animal’s age and herd history, an agency statement said, Thursday.

“The investigation will focus on the feed supplied to the animal during the first year of its life,” the statement said. Identified through existing surveillance measures, the animal is described in the statement only as a “beef cow from Alberta.”

Further details of the animal’s history were not available, Friday morning, from a CFIA spokesperson. However, the agency did say no part of the diseased animal entered human food or animal feed systems.

As well, CFIA said the current case should not affect Canada’s current exports of cattle or beef. Canada remains a “controlled risk” nation for BSE under World Organization for Animal Health protocols.

Canada’s current status followed adoption in 2007 of enhanced surveillance measures and a ban on most animal-source proteins – including potentially infectious materials – from all animal feeds, pet foods and fertilizers. Until recently, CFIA had estimated Canada could seek reclassification to “negligible” risk status by the spring of 2016.

A check Friday morning of World Organization of Animal Health Internet documents showed no 2015 reports so far of BSE events for Canada. Known better by its acronym in French, Office International des Epizooties, the world organization or OIE, was established in 1924 to help manage animal-human diseases.

The most recent BSE event in OIE reporting as of Friday morning was a Jan. 29 report involving an aged cow in Norway. However, CFIA and world organization data bases do record monthly test results for Canada since 2003 when the first case of BSE in a native-born animal was reported in an aged Alberta cow.

Since then, CFIA fact sheets available online show a total of 16 positive BSE tests. Consequently, Thursday’s report should bring to 17 the number of confirmed BSE cases in Canada since 2003 when emergence of the disease restricted international trade in Canadian beef and livestock.

In addition to investigating individual details of the infected cow, CFIA’s current investigation is to “trace out” and destroy “all animals of equivalent risk” in order to test them for BSE, the agency’s Thursday statement said.

photo: Gerry Ritz

In a statement provided by press secretary Jeffrey English, federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz emphasized that CFIA surveillance confirmed “no part of the animal's carcass entered the human food or animal feed systems.”

"Following internationally recognized protocols, the CFIA is working with provincial and industry partners,” Ritz said. The agency “will update Canadians as more information is available," he said.

BSE is a progressive, fatal, neurological disease in cattle with suspected links to a human variant and spread by infectious agents known as prions. Canada is among 17 countries classified at “controlled risk” for the disease by OIE, including Mexico, France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.

The United States maintains “negligible risk” status, world organization documents show. A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report on BSE identifies four cases in the United States since a widely-publicized outbreak in the U.K. which peaked in 1993 with as many as 1,000 cases weekly.

Both Canada and the United States maintain similar BSE surveillance systems and seek to eliminate possible infection of livestock through control of feed ingredients, particularly the use of meat and bone meal preparations. BF