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Animals > Animal Diseases > Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy > Safeguards  

Canada: a minimal BSE risk country

(Executive summary)

Full Report | Spanish version

December 2003

Although BSE has been detected in an indigenous cow (May 20, 2003), there are a number of compelling reasons to conclude that the incidence of BSE in Canada is equivalent to that of a minimal risk country as defined by the OIE’s Terrestrial Animal Health Code. The evidence supporting this conclusion is detailed in a Government of Canada statement, "Canada: a minimal BSE risk country". This statement compares the OIE criteria for a minimal risk country with the extensive risk mitigation measures that have been implemented in Canada for BSE over the last two decades and the response to the detection of BSE. In addition, considering that there are approximately 5.5 million adult cattle in Canada and that only one case of BSE has been detected in the last 12-month period, the incidence of BSE cases in Canada remains below one in a million. Accordingly, the appropriate sanitary measures for Canadian animals and products of animal origin are those contained in the OIE Code for a minimal BSE risk country.

The evidence supporting Canada as a minimal BSE risk country

Canada is able to demonstrate that it fulfills the OIE Code criteria for a minimal risk country as follows:

1. A risk assessment was undertaken by the Government of Canada in 2002 that discussed all the BSE risk factors identified in the OIE Code including the potential for the introduction and recycling of BSE agent through the consumption of meat and bone meal (MBM) of ruminant origin and the importation of cattle. The assessment demonstrated that:
  • Meat and bone meal (MBM) for livestock feed has not been imported from the United Kingdom or any other countries subsequently affected by BSE since 1978.
  • A ban on the feeding of ruminant derived MBM to ruminants has been in place since 1997. The level of compliance with the ban has been high as verified by routine inspections of both renderers and feed mills.
  • A small number of potentially infected cattle imported from the United Kingdom in the 1980s may have entered the animal feed system prior to 1993.
2. The following criteria, as stipulated in the OIE Code, have been in place for at least seven years:
  • Compulsory notification and investigation of all cattle showing clinical signs compatible with BSE.
  • An education and awareness program targeting veterinarians, producers and workers in the cattle industry.
  • A surveillance program for BSE, which has met or exceeded OIE targets.
3. A ruminant to ruminant feed ban has been in place for at least eight years
  • Although it has only been six years since the introduction of a feed ban in 1997, an equivalent level of assurance to the requirement that a feed ban has been in place for at least eight years can be provided on the basis that:
  • following the introduction of a feed ban it can be expected that the number of BSE cases remaining in the cattle population after eight years would be extremely low
  • the number of BSE cases remaining in the Canadian cattle population in 2003 would be extremely small as only a few animals are likely to have become infected prior to the feed ban and the majority of these would have already been culled, slaughtered or died.
  • The most likely source of BSE for Canada is associated with a limited number of live cattle imported from the UK in the 1980s. Only one or a few of these animals would have been potentially infected with BSE and introduced infectivity into the animal feed chain in the 1980s after they were slaughtered or died. Although the rendering and feeding practices at that time would have allowed BSE to cycle through cattle, considering the prolonged incubation period of BSE (average of 6 years), the amplification and spread of BSE would have been extremely slow reaching a peak in 1996-97, just prior to the introduction of a feed ban in 1997. The feed ban would have resulted in a dramatic reduction in exposure, effectively eliminating further spread and amplification of BSE.
4. All BSE cases as well as, if they are females, all their progeny born within the last two years together with all cattle reared with them during their first year of life that consumed the same potentially contaminated feed or all animals born in the same herd within 12 months of their birth, if alive are completely destroyed following their slaughter or death:
  • The BSE case detected in Canada on 20 May 2003 was a six year old cow born in March 1997. It had two calves born within the 2 year period prior to the diagnosis of BSE. Both were male calves, one born in 2001 and subsequently slaughtered as a steer in 2002 while the other, born in 2002, has been destroyed.
  • At the time of the diagnosis of the BSE case 38 cattle reared with it that consumed the same potentially contaminated feed during their first year of life were still alive (35 cows and 3 bulls). All of these animals were destroyed and tested for BSE as part of the investigation. All test results were negative

 


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