May 24, 2003 Toronto Star by Daniel Girard
		

Suspect feed not given to cows

Thirteen farms in three provinces have now been quarantined as investigators focus on the possible use of contaminated feed as the source of Canada's mad cow disease outbreak.

Four more farms - including three in British Columbia - were added yesterday to the list of those isolated in Alberta and Saskatchewan in the effort to find out how a cow became infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

Alberta Agriculture Minister Shirley McClellan said she's "very, very" concerned that the animal from a farm near Wanham, in northwestern Alberta, may have been stricken with BSE, or mad cow disease, by eating feed containing the protein of cows or sheep.

The use of cow or sheep protein in cattle feed was banned in 1997.

McClellan said even though the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has found a high degree of compliance with the rules, "in the end we depend on the integrity of the producers to comply with the feed bans" and that may not have happened.

"I don't think it (the use of banned feeds) is widespread. I don't believe that," she said at a news conference. "I think the majority of the producers understand the seriousness and the importance of those rules."

The feed ban, which was part of the fallout from the mad cow crisis that devastated the British beef industry in the 1990s, is designed to protect cattle from the disease. Scientists suspect the disease is spread by the use of the animal proteins in food given to cattle. BSE attacks brain tissue, leaving it spongy and full of holes.

Dr. Brian Evans, chief veterinary officer with the CFIA, said four possibilities remain for contamination of the cow, which was declared unfit for human consumption when it was slaughtered Jan. 31. It wasn't tested for BSE until last week.

Given the incubation period of up to eight years for BSE and that the stricken cow was estimated to be between 6 and 8 years old, it may have become sick by feed before the ban, Evans said. It may have also been given illegal food after the ban.

Evans also said the cow may have been imported from another country where it was exposed to BSE, or it may have been stricken spontaneously - a likelihood, he said, of about one in 10 million.

But even though the investigation has expanded to include 13 farms - eight in Alberta, three in B.C. and two in Saskatchewan - Evans insisted that's a positive development and that there is still evidence of just one cow being infected with BSE.

"This clearly indicates to us the progress that we are making and reflects the fact that the investigation is advancing but not the disease," he said at an Ottawa news conference. "The increasing number of herds under quarantine is a normal occurrence in an investigation of this type and does not indicate that the situation is getting worse."

The three small-scale mixed livestock farms in B.C. - two near Vancouver and the other near Prince George - are suspected of having bought poultry feed, which was made from the rendered carcass of the infected cow.

Alberta farms in Wanham, Evansburg, Barrhead, Tulliby Lake and Vermilion have been quarantined, as have Saskatchewan farms in Lloydminster and Baldwinton.

Evans said the probe has determined that the suspect feed was not given to cattle.

"And to the extent that we have been able to complete the investigation, we have verified that since the feed arrived on those farms, no animals have moved off those farms into the food system," he said.

From the infected herd in Wanham more than 200 cows and calves are being slaughtered and tested for BSE, with results expected by early next week.

Evans said that officials hope to be able to soon lift quarantines on some of the farms if there's evidence to show that the sick animal wasn't there and there are no other risks.

Federal and provincial agriculture ministers discussed the issue in a conference call yesterday and Canadian Press reports that one minister suggested a widespread slaughter of all quarantined cattle may be needed to restore public confidence in Canadian beef.

"It's my view that we might want to do that," said Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Clay Serby. "That's about erring on the side of safety." Serby said the food inspection agency will likely decide on that next week.

McClellan and Alberta's chief veterinarian, Dr. Gerald Ollis, were on the hot seat again yesterday as they defended the fact that it took nearly four months to test the infected cow for BSE. Both insisted that it was given a low priority because it was not destined for human consumption and not clearly suffering mad cow.

"It was condemned for pneumonia," Ollis said. "Pneumonia can weaken an animal and it may not be able to get up, and there were obvious lesions of pneumonia.

"I still challenge that there was something here that showed BSE."