The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said no part of the affected animal, a beef cow from Alberta, had reached the human food or animal feed systems.
Mad cow is formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a progressive, fatal neurological disease.
«The CFIA is seeking to confirm the age of the animal, its history and how it became infected. The investigation will focus in on the feed supplied to this animal during the first year of its life,» the agency said.
Canadian exports were badly hit in 2003 after the first case of BSE was found on a farm. Canada subsequently tightened its controls and many nations have since resumed the beef trade with Canada, despite the discovery of more cases since then.
Asked whether he was concerned about exports being harmed, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz told reporters in Calgary: «Not at this time, no.»
He added though that markets in South Korea and Japan were generally very concerned about the potential risk from BSE.
A fresh discovery of BSE may not close borders to Canadian beef, given Canada’s tougher measures, but it could delay the country’s efforts to upgrade its international risk status from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
Ritz said Canada’s current risk status at the OIE meant it could report up to 12 outbreaks in a calendar year.
«We’ve stayed well below that,» he said.
John Masswohl, director of government and international relations at the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, noted the carcass had never made it to a packing plant.
«Overall we are not too concerned there will be much impact,» he told Reuters.
BSE is believed to be spread when cattle eat protein rendered from the brains and spines of infected cattle or sheep. Canada banned that practice in 1997.
The CFIA tightened feed rules in 2007 and said at the time the moves should help eliminate the disease nationally within a decade, although the agency said it still expected to discover the occasional new case.
Source: Yahoo
