The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is
blaming feed for the recent case of a cow confirmed to have had Bovine
Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cows disease).
But that seems curious since feeding
rendered materials from packing plants was banned two years before this cow was
able to eat feed rations.
It’s believed that the disease can be
spread to cattle that eat feed that contains protein rendered from materials
supplied by meat-packing companies who slaughtered BSE-infected cattle.
The cow was born on one farm and was
sold from another, both in the Edmonton area.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency
announced Wednesday that the cow discovered with bovine spongiform
encephalopathy earlier this month was born in March 2009.
Paul Mayers, a CFIA vice-president, said
the agency is working to determine the source of the feed used at the birth
farm in Alberta and assess any potential risk factors to other animals.
"The enhanced feed ban was put in
place to accelerate Canada's progress toward the reduction of the
disease," Mayers said in Ottawa.
"As this progression continues, the
detection of a small number of cases among the 30,000 samples tested yearly as
part of our BSE surveillance program is not unexpected."
If this cow indeed ate BSE-contaminated feed, then the CFIA's lack of enforcement of its ban is at least partly to blame.
But will the federal government compensate the farmers or the beef industry which has lost the market in South Korea? Need I ask?
