Canada Probing Possible 8th Case of Mad-Cow Disease
By Greg Quinn
Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Canada is investigating a possible eighth case of mad-cow disease, after a provincial laboratory's test was inconclusive.
The government received a sample that came from ``a mature animal'' and a federal lab will test to confirm if it has the disease, Alain Charette, a spokesman for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in Ottawa, said today in a telephone interview. Charette said he didn't know which province sent the sample.
Canada confirmed the seventh case of the disease July 13 in a 50-month-old dairy cow born after feed restrictions were imposed in 1997. The country's food inspection agency in June tightened its animal feed restrictions to speed up domestic eradication of mad-cow disease, or BSE, which stands for bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said July 28 there will be no decision on expanding beef and cattle trade with Canada until the conclusion of a joint probe into that nation's seventh case. The U.S. withdrew a proposal to allow shipments of cattle more than 30 months old and beef from older animals.
To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Quinn in Ottawa at gquinn1@bloomberg.net .
