Canada Finds Mad Cow Disease in Animal in Alberta

March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Canada confirmed its 17th case of mad cow disease since 2003, in a 6-year-old beef cow in Alberta.

Meat from the animal didn’t enter the human or livestock food chain, the government’s Food Inspection Agency said today in an e-mailed statement. Countries including Japan and South Korea have restricted imports of Canadian beef since cases of the brain-wasting illness, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE, were discovered in North American herds in 2003.

Robert McNabb, the general manager of operations for the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association in Calgary, Alberta, said he doesn’t expect the new BSE case to affect Canadian beef exports.

“Most countries are simply looking for assurance on the day of the announcement that no product from the animal got into the human food chain, and that information has been provided,” he said in a telephone interview. The case “shouldn’t change anybody working with us.”

The BSE case may delay Canada’s eligibility to be certified as a country with “negligible risk” for the disease by the World Organization for Animal Health, McNabb said. Such a designation from the Paris-based group may help Canada expand export markets, he said.

A country is eligible for negligible-risk status after going 11 years without the birth of an animal later diagnosed with BSE, McNabb said. That would mean Canada can apply for certification in 2015, because the Alberta cow was born in 2004, he said.

Whitney McFerron, "Canada Finds Mad Cow Disease in Animal in Alberta" accessed November 7, 2010. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-12/canada-has-mad-cow-disease-in-alberta-beef-cow-17th-since-2003.html.

Haneen Dalla-Ali Novebmer 7/10