Third mad cow here

DOUG BEAZLEY,
EDMONTON SUN
January 12, 2005

Washington is sending a team of experts north to review Alberta's latest BSE case - the nation's third confirmed case, and the second in just 10 days. The new case, confirmed yesterday by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, was a downer animal born after Ottawa's 1997 blanket ban on feeding rendered ruminant flesh to cattle. It didn't enter the human or animal food chain.

Feed is thought to be the major disease vector for bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

Provincial and federal officials yesterday expressed confidence that the new case won't delay the reopening of American markets to Canadian live cattle, tentatively planned for March 7. But not everyone is convinced.

"Anyone who says this isn't a problem is full of it," said Ron Axelson, general manager of the Alberta Cattle Feeders' Association. "This is going to be a huge problem, because of the animal's age. We're already seeing a major political backlash south of the border from producers opposed to reopening the market.

"This could extend the ban for another year, and that would force a lot of people to leave the industry for good."

Officials aren't saying where the infected animal came from, but the province says it was a purebred Charolais raised in central Alberta, possibly near Innisfail.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is sending a team of experts up to review the latest case.

Federal Agriculture Minister Andy Mitchell said he has assurances from U.S. officials that no change in plans to open the border will be contemplated until the team does its work.

"The U.S. undersecretary (Jim Moseley) indicated that he believed that there was no need to change the rule that they had put forward a couple of weeks ago."

"We remain confident that the animal and public health measures that Canada has in place to prevent BSE ... provide the utmost protections to U.S. consumers and livestock," said USDA spokesman Ron DeHaven.

"Our system is safe. Our product is safe," said Alberta Agriculture Minister Doug Horner. "Everyone was expecting we would find a few more infected animals (after the feed ban)."

Political pressure is building on the USDA to reconsider its support for reopening the border. The U.S. National Cattlemen's Beef Association yesterday demanded the USDA "investigate Canada's feed-ban compliance" before admitting Canadian cattle into U.S. markets.

The U.S. cattlemen's lobby R-CALF launched a lawsuit Monday to block any move to reopen the border.

Chief provincial veterinarian Dr. Gerald Ollis said there's no evidence the rancher deliberately fed the animal contaminated feed.

"It only takes one one-thousandth of a gram of infected feed material to infect a healthy animal," he said. "That amount of contamination could have been in the auger at the feed mill, or at the farm itself."

Ollis admitted that if officials determine a feed plant was the source of the contamination, more animals could be infected.

But he's confident the feed ban eventually will eliminate feed as a BSE vector in Canada. "I think that'll happen over months, not years."