Mad Cow Facts

Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)
July 10, 2006

Excerpt…

OTTAWA, July 10, 2006 – The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is currently conducting confirmatory testing at the National Reference Laboratory in Winnipeg of samples from a cow from Alberta suspected of having bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Preliminary screening tests were not able to rule out BSE. Therefore, consistent with established CFIA protocol, additional analysis is underway.

The animal, reported to be a 50-month old dairy cow, died and was retained on farm. No part of the carcass entered the human food or animal feed systems, and the entire carcass has been placed under control. The cow was identified through the national BSE surveillance program.

This detection is consistent with a low level of disease and does not indicate an increased risk of BSE in Canada.

The CFIA has launched an investigation to collect additional information about the affected animal. In addition, the CFIA will identify other animals of equivalent risk, namely cattle born on the same farm within 12 months before and after the affected animal. Any live animals found from this group will be segregated and tested.

Given its age, this animal would have been exposed to the BSE agent after the 1997 introduction of Canada’s feed ban, likely during its first year of life. An exhaustive investigation to examine possible routes of infection has begun on the farm. This finding is consistent with international experience, which demonstrates that BSE cases born after the introduction of feed bans are seen in other countries affected by the disease. On June 26, 2006, the Government announced regulatory enhancements to Canada’s feed ban to exclude SRM from all animal feeds, pet foods and fertilizers. This strengthening of the ban provides an even greater barrier to any potential for the circulation of infectious material in order to accelerate the eradication of BSE in the shortest time frame possible.

As testing and the investigation progress, the CFIA will provide Canadians and trading partners with regular updates. Information will be posted to the CFIA’s Website as it becomes available.

Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)
July 4, 2006

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OTTAWA, July 4, 2006 – Final test results have confirmed bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a mature cross-bred beef cow from Manitoba.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is conducting a comprehensive investigation. Officials have confirmed the animal was purchased by the owner as part of an assembled group of cattle in 1992. This means that the animal was at least 15 years of age and would have been born well before the 1997 introduction of Canada’s feed ban. As a priority, investigators are attempting to locate the birth farm, which will provide the basis needed to identify the animal’s herdmates and feed to which it may have been exposed at a young age. Given the animal’s age, investigative efforts may be constrained by few surviving animals and limited sources of information, such as detailed records. A calf born to the affected animal in 2004 is also being traced.

The safety of Canada’s food supply remains protected through the removal of specified risk material (SRM) from all cattle slaughtered for human consumption. SRM are cattle tissues that have been shown in infected cattle to contain concentrated levels of the BSE agent. This measure is internationally recognized as the most effective means to protect the safety of food from BSE. On June 26, 2006, the CFIA announced regulatory enhancements to Canada’s feed ban, which further strengthen the animal feed system.

Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)
June 26, 2006

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OTTAWA, June 26, 2006 – The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is banning cattle tissues capable of transmitting bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) from all animal feeds, pet foods and fertilizers. The enhancement will significantly accelerate Canada’s progress toward eradicating the disease from the national cattle herd by preventing more than 99% of any potential BSE infectivity from entering the Canadian feed system.

The banned tissues, which are collectively known as specified risk material (SRM), have been shown in infected cattle to contain concentrated levels of the BSE agent. Canada has already applied identical protection to the human food system, where SRM are removed from all cattle slaughtered for human consumption. This measure is internationally recognized as the most effective way to protect the safety of food from BSE.

“This ban tightens already strong, internationally recognized feed controls and shortens the path we must follow to move beyond BSE,” said the Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board. “Preventing all these materials from entering the animal feed chain minimizes risks and demonstrates the commitment of Canada’s new government to take necessary, science-based actions to address BSE.”

Ongoing surveillance testing continues to indicate that the level of BSE in Canada is very low. This is attributable to Canada’s current feed ban, which has prohibited the use of SRM in feed for cattle and other ruminant animals since 1997. Extending SRM controls to all animal feeds addresses potential contamination that could occur during feed production, transportation, storage and use. Removing SRM from pet food and fertilizers is intended to mitigate the risk associated with the potential exposure of cattle and other susceptible animals to BSE through the misuse of these products.

The new outcome-based regulations enter into force on July 12, 2007, with additional time provided for small establishments to achieve full compliance. In the meantime, an awareness campaign will be undertaken to ensure that all regulated parties are fully aware of their responsibilities and have adjusted their practices and procedures as required. Special emphasis will be placed on working closely and in full cooperation with small abattoirs to help them transition to the new requirements and facilitate their long-term viability. The Government has set aside $80 million to work with the provinces to assist industry’s implementation of the new feed controls.

Enhanced feed controls complete the Government’s response to the detection of BSE, consistent with the recommendations of the international team of experts that reviewed Canada’s situation. As a priority, Canada first focused on human health protection, which was achieved through the removal of SRM from the food system. Attention then turned to animal health measures through intensified surveillance testing for BSE and increased animal tracing capabilities.

The removal of SRM from the feed system, pet food and fertilizers involves a broad range of diverse stakeholders and considerations. In developing the required regulatory amendments, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency undertook analyses and broad consultations with industry, provinces and territories, the animal health community, trading partners and the public. This preparatory work was essential to ensure that an enhanced feed ban would be effective, enforceable, environmentally sustainable and economically feasible. Governments have identified and will continue to pursue alternative uses for SRM, such as processes that can generate biofuel.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
June 26, 2006

Excerpt…

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is aware of the release of a final rule by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to extend protections in Canada against the risks of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), so-called Mad Cow disease. The rule is an addition to existing Canadian measures to ban risky ingredients in animal feed – measures that have provided significant safeguards to protect the health of both United States and Canadian cattle fed animal feed from Canada, and thereby have protected consumers of beef in both countries.

The Canadian approach to BSE prevention is similar to FDA’s approach, and the public health agencies of both countries have been in close touch as they have developed their respective regulations. Both countries’ BSE feed rules are designed to forestall the spread of the disease and its related human form, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, through BSE-infected animal feed. The FDA BSE feed rule, which has been in effect since 1997, has proved its effectiveness as a key component of a tiered firewall against BSE; to date, there have been only three cows found with BSE in the United States, and each of them was either imported, or old enough to have consumed animal feed manufactured before the regulation took effect.

Nevertheless, since the detection of the first BSE-positive cow in the United States, FDA has been actively exploring various ways to further strengthen its existing feed rule which prohibits the use of certain mammalian protein in feed for cattle and other ruminants. Even though the risk of BSE is extremely low, in October 2005, the agency issued a proposed rule that would prohibit the use of certain high risk cattle materials in all animal feed to further reduce an already low probability event. The agency is in the process of analyzing and evaluating the approximately 800 public comments submitted to the FDA about this proposal.

Center for Consumer Freedom
June 14, 2006

For years a broad coalition of food fanatics has warned Americans about an impending mad cow disease “epidemic.” Their doom-and-gloom scenarios, of course, haven’t come to pass — and public interest has understandably fizzled. Yet the mad-cow hype is just too perfect a public fear campaign for some activists to relinquish. Some groups, like the Organic Consumers Association, continue to use it as a centerpiece of their agendas. The common thread running through activist mad-cow campaigns is that “corporations” (defined as those who raise more than ten head of cattle and haven’t gone “organic”) are the mad-cow culprits. (See here, here, and here for examples.) But at a meeting in London last month, scientists heard about an “atypical” strain of the disease, found in two U.S. cows — a discovery that indicates some mad-cow cases could arise out of thin air. As the Associated Press asked on Sunday, “Can Mad Cow Appear Spontaneously?”
Despite the continuing drumbeat of activist fear, these mad-cow cases may not, in fact, be evidence that government safeguards have failed us. Rather, they could merely indicate our improved technological ability to diagnose biological anomalies that have always been there. Professor Colin Masters from Melbourne University puts this point best: “So far [mad cow cases] are very rare and they’ve only been found because of this massively increased surveillance.”
Anti-consumer activist John Stauber ushered in the mad-cow scare in the late 1990s with a reckless book hinting at a beef-based Holocaust to come. This morning Stauber is also taking credit for “predicting” this atypical mad-cow strain, while conveniently ignoring the possibility that Mother Nature — not infected cattle feed — might cause it.
A scientific investigation into the two cases of mad cow in American-born cattle tells a very different story. Researchers are now informing the public that the “two cases of mad cow disease in Texas and Alabama seem to have resulted from a mysterious strain that could appear spontaneously in cattle.” [emphasis added]

Medical experts tell us that garden-variety Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), a progressive neurological disorder found in humans, occurs randomly in about one out of a million people each year. If the science emerging from London is on-target, mad cow disease (which is in the same class of diseases as CJD) behaves in a similar fashion. So whether a calf is raised on an organic farm, fed only exotic grasses, or finished in a conventional feedlot, it may have a roughly equal (yet infinitesimally small) risk of developing the disease.