The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Thursday that it has expanded its cattle quarantine to seven western Canadian herds as it tries to track the source of the mad-cow disease confirmed in one cow.
Dr. Claude Lavigne, associate director of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's animal products directorate, told an Edmonton press conference that two herds in Saskatchewan and five herds in Alberta have now been quarantined. An additional two Alberta herds are likely to be added to the list by the end of the day.
"The CFIA has now placed a total of seven cattle herds under quarantine as part of its investigation," Dr. Lavigne said. "We have also identified an additional two herds in the trace back to the cow's origin that will be placed under quarantine today."
Five of the herds in question were identified in tracing back the cow's origin, while three herds involve possible offspring. The first herd quarantined was from the northwestern Alberta farm where the cow was located before its slaughter.
Prime Minister Jean Chretien shows that Canadian beef is safe by having it for lunch at a Ottawa restaurant Wednesday. (Dave Chan/ CP)
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Dr. Lavigne said the CFIA is still not sure exactly where the cow was born. Test results from cattle that have already been quarantined and depopulated are expected in three days.
"All the answers to our questions will come as a result of our ongoing investigation," he said. "Placing additional farms under quarantine is a distinct possibility as new information becomes available."
The CFIA has found no evidence that more than one cow in Canada has been diagnosed with the disease.
"There is no evidence at this time to indicate that the safety of Canada's beef has been compromised in any way," Dr. Lavigne said. "The identification of this cow at slaughter and its subsequent removal from the human food chain is evidence that Canadian meat inspection and food safety systems are working effectively."
Dr. Lavigne said the investigation is focusing on confirming the cow's birthplace and the feeding practices and sources of animal feed of the cow's life.
Canadian Press reported Thursday that the infected cow originally came from a farm in Baldwinton, Sask., 50 kilometres from the boundary between the two provinces.
The infected cow was diagnosed after it was sent for slaughter from a farm in northern Alberta. The eight-year-old breeder cow was sent for slaughter on Jan. 31 and condemned as unfit for consumption due to pneumonia and thinness. Its head arrived on Feb. 8 at an Alberta laboratory and stayed in a freezer until it was first tested last week. The confirmation of BSE came Tuesday.
The agency has ordered the entire herd from that farm destroyed so the animals' brains can be tested for the disease. A farm in Alberta and another in northwestern Saskatchewan were quarantined Wednesday.
United States agriculture officials have temporarily banned beef imports from Canada. Australia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Taiwan have also joined the ban. The European Union has announced that it will not ban the beef.
In the past, a single case of BSE was identified in a bull imported from Britain to Alberta in December, 1993.
Veterinarian experts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture arrived Wednesday in Canada to assist officials at the agency's laboratory in Winnipeg and in the field investigation.
Although the United States is by far Canada's largest customer for beef and cattle, at about $3.6-billion in 2002, Canadian farmers also exported a total of almost $400-million to Mexico, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien continued to throw his support behind the Canadian beef industry, telling reporters that visiting French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin would be enjoying a beef dinner Thursday.
"Today, the Prime Minister of France will have Western Canadian beef," Mr. Chrétien said. "I had it yesterday and look how healthy I am this morning."
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy is a chronic degenerative disorder affecting the central nervous system of cattle. Since the disease was first diagnosed in Great Britain in 1986, there have been more than 180,000 cases.
More than 100 people in Europe have died since 1995 from eating meat from infected cattle.
With reports from Jordan Heath-Rawlings and Canadian Press
