050103 Canadians to Kill Cattle From Herd of BSE Infected CowJanuary 7, 2005Ottawa, Canada - Canadian authorities said they would next week begin slaughtering cows from the same birth herd as a beast diagnosed last week with mad cow disease. The announcement of a new case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy on January 3 came just after the United States said it would resume imports of live Canadian cattle imposed after a first case of mad cow disease in 2003. But officials have played down the latest case, saying that the dairy cow was born in 1996, and appeared to have been infected before new restrictions were introduced on animal feed in 1997 designed to prevent the disease. An investigation found that the infected cow had produced two calves, but both died from causes unrelated to BSE, said Canadian Food Inspection Agency senior veterinary officer Gary Little. He said that the birth herd of 93 cattle included 55 bull calves who would have been slaughtered at a young age. Of the remaining 38 animals, one tested negative for BSE last year. Nine that have been located will be killed next week to test for mad cow disease, though it is unlikely any of them are infected, Little said. The other 29 cows in the birth herd are being traced, and some may already have been transferred across the US border, he said. Another 48 beef cattle that were on the affected farm in the western province of Alberta between 1995 and 1997 are also being traced. Officials were unable to rule out the notion that elements of cows in the same birth herd as the infected beast had reached the human food chain. "We can say that the potential risk with those animals entering the food supply is very low," said Paul Mayers, the Canadian health ministry's food directorate. The first case of BSE in a Canadian cow led to import bans on the country's beef from across the world, and cost farmers here billions of dollars.
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