More on Mad Cow Case

[Guest guest]

Officials Look at Feed in Mad Cow Case

 

By TOM COHEN

..c The Associated Press

 

TORONTO (AP) - Investigators looking into the roots of North America's first

mad cow case in a decade were tracing where the infected cow lived, how many

calves it produced and what it ate.

 

Cattle feed from animal sources contaminated with bovine spongiform

encephalopathy is considered the most likely cause of the infection case in the

Canadian province of Alberta.

 

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said 13 farms were now under quarantine -

eight in Alberta; two in Saskatchewan to the east; and three in British

Columbia to the west.

 

The farms quarantined in British Colombia were feed suppliers, said Brian

Evans, the agency's chief veterinary officer.

 

Evans defended Canadian safeguards against BSE, such as a 1997 ban on giving

cattle feed made from animals such as cows and sheep, but acknowledged that

violations can occur.

 

``It's the individual feeding the animal who has the ultimate

responsibility,'' he said, adding investigators had yet to find evidence of any

wrongdoing.

 

The growing list of quarantined farms reflects the thoroughness of the

investigation, rather than any indication of further spread of BSE, said George

Luterbach of the Canadian food agency.

 

Early indications showed the infected cow might have been born on a Canadian

farm, which would make it the first case of a North American-born animal

contracting the illness.

 

Mad cow disease decimated the British beef industry in the 1990s. The human

form of the illness is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which causes paralysis and

death.

 

Scientists believe humans develop new variants of Creutzfeldt-Jakob when they

eat meat from infected animals. More than 130 people have died of the

disease, mostly in Britain.

 

The discovery has caused the United States, Japan, Australia, South Korea,

Singapore, New Zealand, Indonesia and Barbados to ban all beef imports from

Canada, despite reassurances from Canadian government and industry officials

that

the beef was safe.

 

Some U.S. legislators have criticized the delay in testing and called for

guarantees of improvement before reopening the U.S. market, which consumes more

than 70 percent of Canada's beef product exports.

 

Alberta Agriculture Minister Shirley McClellan said Friday that improvements

would be considered.

 

``We have a system and it did work,'' McClellan said. ``Should we change our

testing priorities? If our trading partners would ask us to change that,

certainly we'll look at that. Absolutely.''

 

Canadian investigators removed all the cattle from one Alberta farm and were

destroying the herd to examine the brains for further possible cases of BSE.

Test results were expected early next week.

 

``I don't believe that cow came in contact with anything that gave it that

disease on my farm,'' owner Marwyn Peaster said Thursday.

 

While Canadian authorities and farmers say the lone case of BSE presents

minimal public risk, the closing of major foreign markets to Canada's beef

products brought immediate cuts in production and uncertainty to a $22 billion

industry.

 

The only previous case of BSE in North America was in 1993, involving a bull

imported from Britain. The animal and its herd were slaughtered, but no trade

bans resulted.

 

The recent infected cow was slaughtered Jan. 31 but kept out of the food

chain because it was believed to have pneumonia, officials said. Testing was

delayed several months because there was no suspicion of BSE, as well as a

backlog

of higher priority cases, officials said.

 

Mad cow disease first erupted in Britain in 1986 and is thought to have

spread through cow feed made with protein and bone meal from mammals.

 

Canada and the United States outlawed the feeding of meat and bone meal to

cattle, sheep and goats in 1997, a rule believed to be the main defense against

the disease.

 

On the Net:

 

Canadian Food Inspection Agency: <A

HREF= " http://www.inspection.gc.ca/ " >http://www.inspection.gc.ca/</A>

 

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy: <A

HREF= " http://www.iatp.org/ " >http://www.iatp.org/</A>

 

 

 

05/24/03 03:26 EDT

 

 

----------------------

" Uneducated people believe what they are told...

Educated people question what they are told "

 

Reasons I have chosen veganism as a way of life for myself and my family:

 

<A HREF= " www.dumpdairy.com " >www.dumpdairy.com</A>

<A HREF= " www.milksucks.com " >www.milksucks.com</A>

<A HREF= " www.goveg.com " >www.goveg.com</A>

<A HREF= " http://www.helpinganimals.com/ " >http://www.helpinganimals.com/</A>

<A HREF= " http://www.stopanimaltests.com/ " >http://www.stopanimaltests.com/</A>

<A HREF= " http://www.furisdead.com/ " >http://www.furisdead.com/</A>

<A

HREF= " http://action.fund.org/action/index.asp " >http://action.fund.org/action/ind\

ex.asp</A>

<A HREF= " http://www.animalsvoice.com/ " >http://www.animalsvoice.com/</A>

<A HREF= " http://www.commandochicks.com/ " >http://www.commandochicks.com/</A>

<A HREF= " http://www.notmilk.com/ " >http://www.notmilk.com/</A>

<A HREF= " http://www.pcrm.org/ " >http://www.pcrm.org/</A>

<A HREF= " http://www.vegsource.com/ " >http://www.vegsource.com/</A>

<A HREF= " http://www.veganoutreach.com/ " >http://www.veganoutreach.com/</A>

<A

HREF= " http://www3.mistral.co.uk/traub/faqvegan.html " >http://www3.mistral.co.uk/t\

raub/faqvegan.html</A>

<A HREF= " http://www.vegan.com/ " >http://www.vegan.com/</A>

<A HREF= " http://www.vegan.org/ " >http://www.vegan.org/</A>

<A HREF= " http://www.coolvegan.com/ " >http://www.coolvegan.com/</A>

 

Meet Your Meat:

<A HREF= " http://www.goveg.com/mym-hi.rm " >http://www.goveg.com/mym-hi.rm</A>

 

Subscribe to my Vegan_Animal_Rights today:

<A

HREF= " Vegan_Animal_Rights/ " >http://groups..co\

mVegan_Animal_Rights/</A>