Both U.S. and Canadian officials last week downplayed the impact that a new suspected case of mad-cow disease will have on the newly scheduled reopening of the border to live cattle exports.
"We don't expect this to have an impact on our final rule," said Jim Rogers of the American Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
The rule, released only hours before the new suspected Canadian case was publicly identified, will allow live cattle under 30 months old and meat from older cattle back into the U.S. after a 19-month ban stemming from the discovery of one Alberta cow infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
Rogers said the rule, which would open the border on March 7, was written with the likelihood of further cases being discovered in mind. "That's a probability we examined," Rogers said. "The key thing is the safeguards that Canada has in place."
The suspect 10-year-old Alberta dairy cow was more of a family pet and was not in commercial milk production, said Canadian Food Inspection Service (CFIA) veterinarian Keith Leahman.
"She was just kind of being kept on the farm," Leahman said from Ottawa.
The cow was first examined on the farm on Dec. 17 after she was identified as a "downer" - too sick to walk - said Gary Little, a CFIA senior veterinarian.
Tissue samples were tested twice in Edmonton and Winnipeg using two different quick tests. Results from all four of the preliminary tests failed to clear the cow.
Definitive diagnostic tests were being performed in Winnipeg. The results will be known early this week.
Little said none of the animal's parts made their way into the food or feed systems.
The preliminary results were passed along to American officials before they released their rule on the border reopening - news greeted with joy and relief across a cattle industry that has lost about $5 billion since the border closed.
Leahman said the farm where the purebred Holstein cow came from hasn't been quarantined. The other cattle on the farm are beef breeds and are neither as old nor from the same background as the suspect animal. "There are no equivalent animals of risk," Leahman said.
The cow's pedigree will make tracing her past movements easier if it becomes necessary, said Leahman.
Pedigreed cattle are tracked more closely. As well, the type of record-keeping needed to track cattle movements has been in place longer for dairy than for beef cattle.
However, Leahman acknowledged, some of the calves from the suspect cow have entered the food or feed chain.
Still, officials emphasize that it was recognized on both sides of the border that occasional cases of mad cow were still likely to emerge.
"In the extensive risk analysis conducted as part of the rule-making, we considered the possibility of additional cases of BSE in Canada," said Ron DeHaven of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "Because of the mitigation measures that Canada has in place, we continue to believe the risk is minimal."
If the U.S. decision stands, it would mean that about 95 per cent of the trade in beef and cattle could resume in the New Year.
BSE is a chronic, degenerative disorder affecting the central nervous system of cattle. Canadian experts believe the infected Alberta cows had probably been fed ruminant meat and bonemeal before the practice was banned in 1997.
It's believed humans can develop a fatal brain-wasting illness called new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease when they eat contaminated meat from infected animals. The World Health Organization has said the disease can't be transmitted through milk or milk products.
The beef industry has been struggling since May 20, 2003, when it was announced a single breeder cow in northern Alberta tested positive for BSE.
