Another Mad Cow Suspected Cases

[crossfield_beef]

Alberta cow likely got BSE from infected feed: CFIA
Link
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2006/08/25/bse-feed.html
<beginning of paste from article>
A particular incident was documented in one commercial feed facility that may have permitted the contamination of a single batch of cattle feed with prohibited material," CFIA said in a news release Thursday.

"The entire batch of feed was shipped to the BSE-positive animal's farm. This particular batch of feed is the most probable source of infection."

According to the agency's report, two feed operations received prohibited materials from a rendering plant implicated in previous mad cow disease investigations. The report said the investigation is examining the operations at the feed mills. <end of paste>

We as producers need to know which feed processor this feed came from and we can make decisions ourselves regarding which feed suppliers we use for our business. The cattle producers can make intelligent decisions to protect our industry. However, in order to do so, we need accurate information. PRODUCERS SHOULD DEMAND TO KNOW WHERE THIS FEED CAME FROM.

[wd40]

Fact is Willowcreek - The cause or causes of BSE is still ONLY "Theory" - there is no objective science that can pinpoint the cause of BSE.

Feed ban or no feed ban, not the enforcement of such is going to GUARANTEE nor elliminate BSE.

So go ride another hobbie horse.

[jensend]

willowcreek: And how many cows have been tested in the US for BSE ????

----------------

The last figure I saw was over 650,000...


in a phony testing program the rest of the world figured out long ago which is why we got into japan easier than the usa.

[grassfarmer]

crossfield-beef note the part where it says "This particular batch of feed is the most probable source of infection." Most probable being the key words - this is an unproven theory and no-one anywhere has ever been able to link any case of BSE to any type of feed scientifically. Why get mad at the feed manufacturers? what will you gain from that?
We are putting BSE behind us, consumers have no appreciable concerns about beef so just relax and it will pass. Compared to Europe we have got off so lightly on the whole BSE deal.

[Willowcreek]

grassfarmer- Too big an issue to die- especially with the monthly new case revelations of new and younger cases...
Like the Canadian author of this article stresses--It needs to be confronted...

I see where the US producers are just now realizing what I've been trying to stress for the last couple of months- the 50 month old positive would have qualified as a 15 month old to be shipped into the US, and according to the CFIA and all recent studies, was probably already infected by that time!!!


__________________________________

Canada must scrutinize the feed industry



Aug. 29, 2006. 01:00 AM

SYLVAIN CHARLEBOIS

The Star

Canada



Canada's largest market for beef, the United States, postponed plans to allow more imports of Canadian cattle over the age of 30 months in light of this country's latest case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) found in Alberta.



It is Canada's fifth case in 2006 and the eighth since 2003, when the disease was first found in this country.



Number 7 this summer was only 4 years old, though. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) seemed far from concerned, stating that no part of the latest cow's carcass entered the human food or animal-feed systems.



Finding more BSE cases in Canada should be expected, but more work to manage future cases is certainly required.



This summer, the United States announced it would cut its mad-cow testing program by almost 90 per cent, after data collected over two years showed a very low level of the disease in the domestic herd.



This would suggest that North American authorities are perhaps becoming nonchalant about the BSE scare without knowing much about the disease itself.



The last Canadian BSE case in July was born five years after the feed ban that prevented parts from cattle and other ruminants being used in feed for such animals.



For years, the CFIA argued that the 1997 feed ban would eradicate most latent BSE cases from Canadian herds.



With this last case, some have suggested that an old bag of feed produced before the bans or accidents that occurred in feed mills may have caused the disease to spread.



The possibility of maternal transmission of BSE, from cow to calf, was also mentioned after the latest case was found.



As we continue to learn about BSE and international trades concerning food safety, a guessing game is hardly an astute strategy for reassuring our trading partners.



Indeed, surveillance of the disease itself has become an even more important issue.



So far, Canada has tested almost 50,000 cases, a great improvement from 3,000 a few years go — but it is still far from enough.



Increased monitoring across the supply chain would not only serve the purpose of managing risks, it would help us understand how the disease is contracted and how it evolves in time.



Although the CFIA recently strengthened feed control in Canada, the feed industry needs to be better scrutinized. Monitoring will lead to more evidence-based analysis, which is essential for scientific research.



It would also allow the supply chain to equip itself for future threatening diseases that could someday strike the cattle industry.



Methods to detect the disease should also be reviewed.



For example, a Canadian company based in Alberta is confident it has a cheap, groundbreaking test for mad-cow disease. The only approved BSE test in Canada has to be performed post-mortem on the animal.



It is now technologically possible to test live animals and detect the disease at an early stage.



Similar technologies exist in the United States and Europe.



These would decrease the costs of monitoring capabilities while increasing our monitoring capacity and accuracy, and, at the same time, vastly increasing our knowledge of the disease itself.



Over the last three years, we have realized that the Americans are the "canaries" signalling to us when it is time to take action.



Since the Americans are reluctant to test all their cattle for BSE, Canada is synchronistically also not ready to do so, and the CFIA adamantly defends current food-safety policies. It has no other choice but to do so.



The CFIA applies rigorous methods to manage domestic risks, both for the industry and consumers.



Better monitoring, though, would democratize the entire process for both the industry and Canadian consumers.



The focus now should also be on learning, not just on managing risks. Canadian consumers deserve better protection.



In enhancing our BSE monitoring strategy, scientists will acquire better knowledge of the disease itself, and so will our trading partners have better reassurance on the quality of our products.



With the discovery of the eighth BSE case in Canada, study of the disease and improved monitoring clearly represents a far more reasonable course than the "business as usual" tack prevailing in the industry and in the Canadian policy approach since the initial crisis with the discovery of the first BSE case in this country.





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sylvain Charlebois is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Business Administration at the University of Regina.





thestar.com

[grassfarmer]

Only a big issue for a few protectionist parties in the US. There is not and has never been a consumer confidence issue with beef in North America despite RCALFs best attempts. The were many, many cases of post feed ban BSE in Europe and it's all history now. No one cares - move on.

[Willowcreek]

Yep- you help to prove it definitely is as Professor Charlebois says

"" a business as usual" tack prevailing in the industry and in the Canadian policy approach since the initial crisis"....

[jensend]

so willowcreek should usda be reducing test numbers? if this article and all your assumptions are accurate i would think in light of all the canadian cattle imported by the us that you should be increasing test numbers. if the us is bse free as you all contend then canada must not have much bse either or you'd be finding it in your herd. something doesn't add up here. i think you keep on proving that america is lying about bse in its herd. since r-calf is intent on consumer protection and confidence you should be advocating testing all otm's. get bs bill on the case.

[InAHurry]

Jensend, you reminded me of something....

Collection of brain sampling temporarily suspended
by John Gregerson on 8/29/2006 for Meatingplace.com

Inspection program personnel will halt brain sample collection under the previsions of a recently released Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) notice.

FSIS Notice 52-06, "Temporary Suspension of Provision in the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Ongoing Surveillance Program," issued on Aug. 25, 2006, informed inspection personnel to stop collecting brain samples under the provisions of FSIS Notice 51-06, "Sample Collection from Cattle Under the BSE Ongoing Surveillance Program," issued on Aug. 23, 2006, Paragraph II A.

A subsequent FSIS Notice will be issued to inspection personnel when sample collection is to resume.
--------------------

Perhaps Willowcreek would like to comment ......

[Willowcreek]

I disagree with USDA's plan to cut back on testing..I don't think they have reached that point yet- especially now that it appears that some of the UTM's Canada is sending south could be coming across the line infected and be manifesting the disease enough to be dangerous and to show on the test.....For this reason I also think the FDA needs to quickly close some of the feedban loopholes they've been allowing the Packer/Dairy industry lobbying to stall...

I also believe USDA/CFIA should be allowing private entities (Creekstone etal) to test- and to market their product as BSE tested..

And Canada should definitely be testing all OTM's until the disease is eradicated- indicatable by a time period (year) of no positives....

[grassfarmer]

"especially now that it appears that some of the UTM's Canada is sending south could be coming across the line infected and be manifesting the disease enough to be dangerous and to show on the test"

Whaaaatttt????? first of all it's not infectious and secondly what tests are any UTM cattle in Canada showing up on??

[Willowcreek]

Many of the scientists are now suggesting that the potency of the infectivity in the 50 month old to have it manifest itself at that young age and test positive indicates that the disease could be manifesting itself and appearing in cattle under 30 months old...And we know from world wide statistics that dozens of under thirty months have been found- down to as young as 21 months- in the UK, Europe, and Japan....

Thats what has some asking the question- How many infected cattle are being imported daily from Canada? How many of them are manifesting infectivity of the disease at time of slaughter?

[grassfarmer]

"the potency of the infectivity in the 50 month old" - yeah right, what is that and who has access to that information. What a bunch of Bull@#%$

[grassfarmer]

Of the 41 million animals tested in Europe (including the UK) since 2000 there have only been 4 BSE cases under the age of 35 months and none under 30 months.
That's fairly low risk even by RCALF standards.

[silverback]

I guess we better stop allowing US cattle into Canada because how would we know if they might be infected?