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Tests Confirm Mad Cow Came From Canada
1 hour ago
By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Genetic testing confirms that the cow diagnosed with the first U.S. case of mad cow disease was born in Canada, agriculture officials said Tuesday.
The test results will allow investigators to intensify their search for the source of infection, most likely from contaminated feed, in Alberta, where the Holstein was born in 1997.
Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announced the mad cow diagnosis on Dec. 23, the first time the disease has been found in the United States since its discovery in Great Britain in the mid-1980s.
The DNA tests on the cow, on one of its offspring and on the semen from the cow's sire, as well as records that show the cow came from a dairy farm in Alberta, make 'us confident in the accuracy of this traceback,' said Dr. Ron DeHaven, the Agriculture Department's chief veterinarian.
Brian Evans, a Canadian agriculture official, said independent testing from a Canadian lab agreed.
Canadian officials had announced last May that a cow in Alberta had been diagnosed with the disease.
While no links have been found between the two cases, investigators now will focus on looking for common sources of feed, Evans said.
He added, 'We have not got sufficient evidence to make any feed link between the two farms.'
The U.S. Agriculture Department decided Monday to kill a herd of 450 calves in Sunnyside, Wash., because it included one that was born to the Holstein.
The U.S. Agriculture Department decided Monday to kill a herd of 450 calves in Sunnyside, Wash., because it included one that was born to the Holstein.
Officials said that particular calf was not tagged and could not be identified, necessitating the mass killing. They have said they can't rule out the possibility that mad cow disease can be transmitted from mother to calf.
Both federal and state officials have declined to disclose how the dead calves will be disposed of but have said the meat from the animals will be kept out of the food supply. The calves also won't be rendered for animal feed or other products.
The calves range in age from 1 month to several months.
The herd is one of three under quarantine in Washington because of ties to the infected animal, a 6 1/2-year-old Holstein dairy cow that was shipped to the United States from Canada in 2001. The other herds include cows that may have come from the same Alberta farm.
U.S. and Canadian investigators are trying to locate the other animals from the Canadian herd and trace the feed eaten by the sick cow to determine if it contained tissue that carried the disease.
Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, eats holes in the brains of cattle. The disease is a concern because humans can develop a brain-wasting illness, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, from consuming contaminated beef products.
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