WSJ -- Canada Reports Mad Cow; U.S. Slaps Ban on Imports.
May 20, 2003
Canada Reports Mad Cow; U.S. Slaps Ban on Imports
A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP
TORONTO -- A cow in Alberta was diagnosed with mad-cow disease, the first known case in North America in a decade, Canadian agriculture officials announced Tuesday.
They said the finding triggers a temporary ban on exporting Canadian beef until the situation is resolved. U.S. health officials immediately banned imports of cattle, beef, beef-based products and animal feed from Canada.
Shares of fast-food giant McDonald's Corp. fell 6% on the news. Shares of Wendy's International Inc. were also off 6%.
The eight-year-old cow from a farm in northern Alberta was diagnosed with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, in routine testing after slaughter, Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief told a news conference at the Alberta legislature in Edmonton.
The carcass went to a rendering plant after slaughter.
"The animal did not go into the food chain," Mr. Vanclief said, emphasizing the case involved one cow and that the farm and herd it came from have been isolated for testing.
Symptoms of the brain-wasting disease include disorientation and a staggering gait. The disease can be transmitted to humans through eating tainted beef. There is no known cure.
Mad-cow disease first erupted in Britain in 1986 and is thought to have spread through cow feed made with protein and bone meal from mammals. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration outlawed the feeding of mammalian meat and bone meal to cattle, sheep and goats in 1997, a rule considered the nation's main defense against the disease.
No case of mad-cow disease has ever been found in U.S. cattle, despite intensive testing. To help prevent its spread, the U.S. government routinely bans the import of meat and livestock from countries where the disease is found.
The only previous known case in Canada, in 1993, involved an animal born in Britain that was imported, Mr. Vanclief said. The herd was destroyed and there was no further spread of the disease, he said.
It wasn't immediately clear where the cow in the new case was born. The cow was slaughtered on Jan. 31. It wasn't suspected to have BSE at the time, but subsequent tests in Canada were unable to eliminate the possibility, the minister said. A subsequent test in England confirmed BSE, also known as mad-cow disease, on Tuesday, he said.
Authorities have quarantined the farm and will "depopulate" the herd it came from, along with any other herds that come into question, Mr. Vanclief said. In addition, the origin of the cow and how and where it was processed will be traced as part of an investigation into any possible spread of the disease, he said.
Alberta is Canada's main cattle province, with almost 40% of the industry.
Canada has notified the agriculture secretaries of the U.S. and Mexico. Mr. Vanclief said U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman assured him the ban would be lifted as quickly as possible, and that the beef industry of the two countries is "very much integrated."
Ms. Veneman said she spoke with Canadian officials and the situation "appears to be an isolated case.''
"Information suggests that risk to human health and the possibility of transmission to animals in the United States is very low," she added.
The disease can't be transmitted from cow to cow. But Alberta Agriculture Minister Shirley McClellan admitted that it was too early to guarantee there were no other cases. She said all necessary precautions are being implemented.
"We have been hiding nothing," Mr. Vanclief stressed at a noisy news conference in Edmonton, during which reporters interrupted explanations with demands for assurances that the food supply hasn't been tainted.
Updated May 20, 2003 3:19 p.m.
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