Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Food Inspection Agency Confirms New Mad Cow Case in Canada A new case of mad cow disease has been confirmed Tuesday in Canada on a 13-year-old beef cow from western Alberta province, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said. The cow was discovered in a farm east of Red Deer, Alta and it is the 11th case since the first diseased animal was discovered in 2003. The discovery led to ban on Canadian beef by many countries, by that time, including the U.S., Japan and Mexico. Red Deer is located about 140 kilometers north of Calgary. Alberta province accounts for 40 percent of beef exports from Canada. Moreover, Alberta has 42 percent of the 13.7 million cows in this country. An investigation has been started to determine the birth farm, trace any animals born within a year of this cow on that farm and remove them from the population. Specialists also want to find out how the cow became infected. It is already known that the cow was born on the farm where it was found in March 1994. Because the cow became thinner, doctors thought it had suffered from an abdominal infection, George Luterbach, a senior veterinarian with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said, according to the National Post. Instead, the tests revealed bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. "These cases, while I suppose unwelcome, are not unexpected," said Luterbach, who also said that he expects to find a small number of BSE cases over the next 10 years....

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