Mad cow may be B.C.'s first
Testing is being done to confirm if a Fraser Valley cow is the province's first case of mad cow disease.
On Thursday, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said confirmatory testing is being conducted on samples from a six-year-old dairy cow from a farm located in central/eastern Fraser Valley.
The samples were initially screened at the Ministry of Agriculture facility in Abbotsford on Tuesday and showed a "high level of reactivity" to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), which is also known as mad cow disease. The samples were sent to the lab in Winnipeg for further testing on Wednesday and preliminary tests confirmed the results from Abbotsford, said Dr. Ron Lewis, B.C.'s chief veterinarian.
"It is very likely a finding of BSE," said Dr. Cornelius Kiley of the CFIA.
Final results are expected tomorrow.
If confirmed, this suspected case of BSE would be the fifth in Canada since May 2003 and the first in B.C.
However, officials say there is no concern about food supply.
"No part of this animal has entered the food chain," said Kiley.
As well, he said there is "no human health issue whatsoever" with the Holstein's milk.
The discovery of this potential case of BSE came about through the national surveillance program for BSE, said Kiley.
The farmer had a "downer" cow and had the vet look at the animal before it was put down. Samples were then sent to the Abbotsford lab for testing.
"What happened here is a good news story," said Kiley. "This is how good surveillance works."
If test results come back positive, the CFIA will begin tracing feed and will look at herd-mates born a year before and a year after the cow's birth to determine no other cows have been infected.
They have already dealt with the male calf born to the cow in the last two years, and Kiley said officials are satisfied things were "dealt with properly" with that calf.
The reason this cow may have become infected with BSE remains under investigation, but officials suspect this case may be similar to the January 2006 discovery of BSE in Alberta.
In that case, cross-contamination of feed led to the cow's infection, said Kiley.
The practice of feeding rendered material from slaughtered ruminants, including cattle sheep and goats, to other ruminants has been banned since late 1997, but he notes ingestion of feed infected with trace amounts of BSE by ruminants could lead to infection.
Kiley said BSE can be infective in doses as small as one milligram.
"The age of this animal would be consistent with previous cases and exposure to a low level of BSE infectivity," said the CFIA in a press release.
The cow, which was born at an undisclosed farm six years ago, came to its current farm in the central Fraser Valley approximately a year ago. The CFIA is not disclosing which city the current farm is in.
That farm is not under quarantine, as BSE is not contagious, said Kiley.
Since detecting Canada's first case in 2003, Canada's surveillance program, which targets animals most at risk of having BSE, has tested approximately 100,000 animals.
