CALGARY – Ranchers in Alberta are on high alert as regulators have confirmed a single beef cow has been infected with mad cow disease, which could hurt efforts to improve the global health risk rating of Canadian cattle and the demand for domestic beef in key export markets.
Canadian ranchers still harbour painful memories of 2003, when regulators found a cow in Alberta was sick with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly called mad cow disease. At that time, 40 countries placed export bans on Canadian beef.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has confirmed the first new case of BSE in a cow since 2011 but said, “no part of the animal’s carcass entered the human food or animal feed systems.”
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