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Dow Jones - - - Wednesday - - - Sept. 6, 2006 - - - 5:34 p.m. CDT Canadian BSE Cow Might Have Missed Testing -- R-CALF USA KANSAS CITY (Dow Jones)--For more than a year, the beef from Canada's youngest victim of mad cow disease would have been eligible for export to the U.S., and even at 50 months of age, she might not have been tested for the disease if she hadn't died of an unrelated malady, according to Canada's testing protocol. Bill Bullard, CEO of R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America, in a release noted the technicality. While those specific parts of an animal thought to harbor bovine spongiform encephalopathy - mad cow's scientific name - and transmit it to humans in the form of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease are removed at slaughter, R-CALF USA claims the beef from such animals is too close for comfort for many consumers. The small-rancher group has fought the U.S. Department of Agriculture's efforts to reopen the border with Canada ever since a case of BSE was discovered in Canadian cattle in May 2003. The 50-month-old cow died on the farm of the toxicity from mastitis, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said in its report on the case. The animal showed no symptoms of BSE and the CFIA said she probably wouldn't have shown her first signs for another three to six months, after which it would have taken one to two months before veterinarians might have recognized it. The cow was diagnosed on July 13, 2003. In an e-mailed response to questions, CFIA Veterinary Program Specialist for BSE Darcy Undseth said Canada's BSE testing policy targets two sets of cattle: those that show signs of BSE, regardless of age, and those that are over 30 months of age and are either dead, diseased, distressed or down, meaning non-ambulatory. Undseth said the cow in question qualified for testing because she was over 30 months of age, was a downer, and she was found dead. However, had she been sent to slaughter at 50 months of age for some other reason, perhaps one that was economic in nature, she might not have been singled out for testing, Bullard said. R-CALF USA has pushed for Canada to increase its BSE testing to prove its rate of BSE infectivity throughout its herd is low enough to be considered for export to the U.S. The cattlemen's group maintains the U.S. border with Canada should be closed to all cattle and beef until this proof has been supplied. The U.S. currently allows beef and cattle that are under 30 months of age and aimed at slaughter before they reach 30 months of age to be imported. "Canada's Enhanced BSE Surveillance Program specifically targets the population of cattle in which BSE animals would most likely be identified," Undseth said. "This is consistent with the guidelines published by the World Organization for Animal Health." Undseth also said in an interview that the cow was just over four years old, placing it barely within a range of ages that U.K. researchers have created in low-dosage experiments. This is why the CFIA report on the case concluded its cases all suggest low dosages of the BSE agent. In a U.K. experiment on cattle, large-dose exposures, where 10 out of 10 animals succumbed to the disease using either three 100-gram doses or one single 100-gram dose, the age range for symptoms to appear was 33 to 61 months of age. In low-dose exposures of 10 grams and one gram per dosage, incubation periods were 42 to 72 months, Undseth said. At a 0.1-gram exposure, the incubation was 53 to 90 months, and at an exposure of .01 gram it was 56 months. For its part, the USDA has said it has no plans to alter its import rules for Canadian beef or cattle, although it has placed on hold its plans to expand import rules to include beef and cattle over 30 months of age. -By Lester Aldrich; Dow Jones Newswires |
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