Alberta BSE investigators getting closer to source: Gerry Ritz
Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz says investigators are narrowing down how an Alberta cow was infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
The beef breeding cow was discovered last winter on a farm near Edmonton and was born on a nearby farm.
Another cow born at the same location in 2004 tested positive for mad cow disease in 2010.
Report due this summer
A final report by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is expected this summer.
Ritz says investigators are looking for other animals that might have been infected and any feed supplies that might be the cause.
He said it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.
"It's searching out the cohort animals, any feed supplies that might have moved to any other farms or anything like that," Ritz said Thursday at an event in Calgary.
"That's the minute needle in several haystacks that takes months to accomplish. CFIA has done this before and they'll probably do it again."
The majority of Canada's trading partners don't seem too worried about the two cases of BSE.
"We didn't see a hiccup at all from Japan... or China and those are phenomenal gains that we've seen as they recognize the science and the safety of our food supply."
An outbreak of BSE in 2003 cost the cattle industry billions of dollars in lost revenue when countries around the world shut the door to Canadian beef.
Canada 'driving the bus' in meat labelling dispute
Meanwhile, Ritz says it's time for the United States to come to terms with country-of-origin labelling rules.
The World Trade Organization ruled Monday that the U.S. labelling requirement, known as COOL, violates that country's trade obligations. It said the labels put Canadian and Mexican livestock at a disadvantage and rejected a U.S. appeal following a similar ruling last year.
"The rules have been adjudicated, the U.S. was found offside and now it's up to them to find the fix that makes us happy," Ritz said Thursday in Calgary. "We're now driving the bus. We're not under it anymore, so we'll see at the end of the day."
A committee of the U.S. House of Representatives has already voted to repeal the law, which requires labels that say where animals were born, raised and slaughtered.
