Canada Confirms 17th BSE Case
Canada late Wednesday finally confirmed another case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), this time in a 72-month-old beef cow in Alberta. The confirmation of its 17th case was posted on the website of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) puts to rest speculation that had grown over the past week that Canada had another case of the disease, but nothing had yet been reported by the CFIA.
The update posted to the CFIA website says that the case was confirmed Feb. 25. However, the main page where the country has listed its monthly BSE testing results still has not been updated to reflect the new finding -- the last entry on that page is their tally of BSE tests for January.
Indications are this will also set back Canada's efforts to get its disease status for BSE upgraded with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). A country cannot apply to upgrade to negligible status sooner than 11 years after the latest-born case of BSE, according to Reuters. Canadian Beef Export Federation head Ted Haney says this will push the Canadian effort back to 2016.
