Animals > Animal Diseases > Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy > Safeguards  

Update - Contaminated Feed Investigation

News Release - 2006-11-18 | Update - 2006-11-30

Potentially contaminated feed recently distributed to farms in Ontario and Quebec posed, at most, a negligible risk to animal health, according to a risk assessment completed by veterinary experts in the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

The assessment determined that the probability of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) being present in the feed was extremely remote, making it highly unlikely that exposed animals could develop the disease in the coming years.

There is no food safety concern associated with any exposed animals. Canada requires the removal of all tissues known to harbour BSE infectivity from every animal slaughtered for human consumption. Furthermore, in the context of BSE, Canadian and international health experts agree that milk and milk products are safe. Consequently, these animals can enter slaughter streams and continue to be used for milk production.

All exposed animals will be permanently identified, which will enable Canada to continue to meet specific technical import requirements of certain trading partners.

Feed distributed to farms has been removed, disposed of and replaced. Feed that had not yet entered the distribution system has also been accounted for and disposed of under CFIA supervision.

This incident represents a violation of Canada’s feed ban, and the CFIA’s precautionary actions were taken to ensure the ongoing effectiveness of the ban and to limit the level of BSE in Canada. An enforcement investigation is underway.