Animals > Animal Diseases > Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy  

Explanation of Terminology

Abattoir: An establishment where animals are slaughtered.

Agri-Traçabilité Québec (ATQ): The agency established by the province of Quebec in 2001 to establish agricultural product traceability for crops and livestock.

Animal Disease Surveillance and Traceability: A key component of the CFIA’s National Animal Health Program. It is carried out in co-operation with provincial regulators, with assistance from identification programs managed by provincial governments (ATQ) or the animal agribusiness community (CCIA and CLIA). Surveillance acts as an early warning system for reporting changes to the animal health status of farmed populations.

Animal Identification: Cattle and sheep, bison and other wild ungulates raised under domestic conditions that move beyond their herds of origin in Canada are required to bear approved ear tags showing numbers that are unique to each animal and recorded in a database. The numbers are maintained up to the point of carcass inspection and final disposition at packing plants, departure from the country or the animal’s demise via other means.

Birth Cohort: Typically, the birth cohort consists of those animals born in the same herd within the 12 months preceding and the 12 months following the birth date of an affected animal. The animals born in this time period are considered by international standards to be of equivalent risk for contracting BSE because they may have been exposed to the same contaminated feed as the affected cow.

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE): BSE is a fatal disease that affects the nervous system of infected cattle. It belongs to a group of diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). Other TSEs include scrapie in sheep, chronic wasting disease in deer and elk, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. A particular type of CJD, called variant CJD (vCJD), is accepted as being caused by the same agent that causes BSE in cattle.

BSE Enhanced Surveillance Program: Canada implemented a BSE surveillance program in 1992. In January 2004, the Government announced that the number of annual BSE samples tested through this program would be increased, targets were established at the provincial level to ensure sampling levels were a true reflection of the national population and revised case definitions were incorporated to reflect ongoing advances in international standards. The level and design of BSE testing in Canada has always been, and continues to be, in accordance with the guidelines recommended by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).

BSE Reimbursement Program: A CFIA program launched in 2004 whereby producers and veterinarians receive reimbursement when services are provided to the CFIA. Payment is only available to producers who report high-risk animals that yield an eligible brain sample. To be eligible for payment, producers must meet all the terms and conditions of the National Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Surveillance Program Agreement and sign the Agreement Form. In provinces where there are joint agreements or top-ups on reimbursement amounts, the reimbursement program details may be modified.

Calf starter: Calf starter is nutrient rich dry-feed that is fed to calves in the early stages of weaning them off liquid feed.

Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA): The agency that oversees the CCIP.

Canadian Cattle Identification Program (CCIP): This program is an industry-led initiative designed to improve the efficiency of tracing animal movements and assists the CFIA in tracing and eliminating disease sources. Within Quebec, it is delivered by the ATQ. The CCIP has been in place since 2001, is mandatory for all provinces and is regulated and enforced by the CFIA.

Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA): The agency responsible for delivering all federal inspection services related to food, animal health and plant protection in Canada.

Canadian Livestock Identification Agency (CLIA): A federally incorporated, industry led, not-for-profit umbrella organization whose mandate is to further multi-species animal identification and traceability initiatives across Canada by coordinating the existing activities of the bison, cattle and sheep sectors with the emerging programs of other sectors that include, but are not limited to, swine, horses and goats.

Dairy Ration: A high-energy diet that includes hay and supplements, which is fed to milk-producing cows to maintain their energy levels.

Dairy Supplement: Carbohydrates, protein, minerals and vitamins that are added to the feed of milk-producing cows.

Epidemiology: Epidemiology is the branch of medicine dealing with the occurrence, transmission and control of infectious and epidemic diseases. Its veterinary equivalent, epizootiology, is frequently replaced by the same term.

Farm of Origin: Farm where an animal was born.

Feed Ban: Canada implemented the feed ban in August 1997 under the Health of Animals Regulations. It prohibits certain materials from being included in feed for all ruminant (cud-chewing) animals, such as cattle, sheep, goats, deer, elk and bison.

Feed mill/manufacturer: This is where feed products for cattle and other animals are formulated.

First generation BSE in Canada: The Canadian-born cattle that are hypothesized as having become affected with BSE as a result of eating feed that had been contaminated by one or more U.K. animals that had not yet begun to display clinical symptoms of the disease when rendered into feed before 1994.

Herd of Origin: The flock or herd of which an animal was a member for not less than 60 days immediately preceding its importation into Canada or, in any other case, the herd in which it was born.

Index Animal: An animal that was confirmed to be infected with BSE and became the focus of an epidemiological investigation.

Index Farm: The farm where a case animal was residing at the time it was identified.

Index Herd: A herd that is being examined as part of a BSE investigation by virtue of the infected animal’s presence within it at the time of diagnosis.

MBM:Meat and bone meal (MBM) is derived from animal tissue and bones cooked at high temperature. Within Canada, these materials are produced in federally registered establishments inspected by the CFIA. Virtually all MBM imported into Canada comes from the United States, from establishments similarly regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Since MBM may contain specified risk materials (SRM), the feeding of MBM derived from ruminant animals to other ruminants has been prohibited in Canada since the feed ban was implemented in August 1997.

North American Cattle Cycle: Refers to the sum total of the husbandry, nutrition, reproduction, production and marketing steps which comprise the life cycle of cattle in Canada and the United States. The high degree of integration between the two countries that existed before the first case of BSE was identified in Canada in 2003 was characterized by a predictable intensive trade of cattle and cattle by-products and feed across their shared international boundary.

OIE: Established in 1924, it is the oldest science based international standard setting organization. The World Organisation for Animal Health was known until recently as l’Office International des Epizooties (OIE). The acronym OIE has been maintained. The OIE is an intergovernmental organization with 167 member countries which collaborate in the interest of decreasing zoonotic and animal disease and the ensuing human health and economic losses through timely and transparent disease reporting and the establishment of standards for disease control and certification norms for international movement of animals and animal products.

Poultry meal: Poultry meal has been used as a substitute for MBM following the 1997 feed ban because poultry-based feed products are deemed to be free of the BSE agent.

Premises: A parcel of land defined by a legal land description or, in its absence, by geo-referenced coordinates, on which or on any part of which, animals regulated under the Health of Animals Regulations are kept, assembled or disposed of.

Prion Protein: Normal prion protein is found in many body tissues and the highest levels are found in the brain. The TSE diseases are characterized by the accumulation of abnormal forms of the prion protein in the brain of affected animals. A unique characteristic of the abnormal prion protein is its ability to act as a template in the conversion of normal prion protein to the abnormal form. The cellular function of normal prion protein is poorly understood.

Protein supplement block: A solid block of feed material, containing protein, minerals, and vitamins, which provides cows with additional nutrients.

Rendering: Rendering is the production of processed animal protein and fat by-products, such as meat and bone meal (MBM). These products, which are produced through high temperature cooking, have been used for decades as supplemental sources of high-quality nutrients to the grains and forages that make up the majority of livestock feeds. Rendered material is produced in Canada in federally registered establishments inspected by the CFIA. The importation of rendered material or feed containing it is regulated by the CFIA.

Reportable Diseases: These diseases are listed in the Reportable Diseases Regulations under the Health of Animals Act and are diseases that the CFIA is mandated to control or eradicate. Owners of animals, or anyone caring for or having control over animals, including veterinarians or laboratories having knowledge of a reportable disease, are required to report the presence of a reportable disease to a CFIA veterinarian or official. Due to the restrictions on animal movement and other disease control measures that are outlined in the Health of Animals Act, which come into effect when a reportable disease is present, confirmation of these diseases requires that there be some immediate and significant action on the part of the CFIA.

Ruminant animal: A ruminant animal has a four-chambered stomach and chews its cud (e.g. cows, sheep, goats, elk, camels, and deer). Non-ruminant animals have one stomach (e.g. swine, horses, and poultry).

Second generation BSE in Canada: The SRM from one or more of the first generation animals is believed to have re-contaminated the feed cycle between 1996 and 1998. The BSE cases that were diagnosed from May 2003 to January 2005 are animals believed to have consumed feed contaminated by the first generation animals. For this reason, these BSE cases are referred to as the second generation of BSE in Canada.

Specified Risk Material (SRM): Research has shown that BSE concentrates in certain parts of infected cattle. These tissues, known as SRM, include the brain, trigeminal ganglia (nerves attached to the brain), eyes, spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia (nerves attached to the spinal cord) of cattle aged 30 months or older as well as the tonsils and distal ileum (portion of the small intestine) in cattle of all ages.

Traceability: The ability to follow the movement of an animal, fish, plant, food, feed, agricultural input or other substances intended to be, or expected to be incorporated into a food or feed, through specified stages of production, processing and distribution.

Trace-in (or trace-back): Identifying the origin of all epidemiologically significant animals, animal products, things, people, vehicles, etc. that have been imported onto an infected property, to establish the primary source of the infection.

Trace-out (or trace-forward): Identifying all epidemiologically significant animals, animal products, things, people, vehicles, etc. that have left an infected property and could have possibly carried infection to new properties.

Tracing: Tracing is the process of locating animals, persons or things that may be implicated in the spread of disease, so that appropriate action may be taken.

Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs): This group of fatal neuro-degenerative diseases includes BSE in cattle, scrapie in sheep and goats, chronic wasting disease (CWD) in cervids (elk & deer), Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) and variant CJD (vCJD) in humans.

Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD): vCJD, a rare human disease that affects the central nervous system, was first diagnosed in the United Kingdom in 1996. Scientific evidence indicates that vCJD is caused by the same agent or prion that causes BSE in cattle. It is now widely believed that humans can contract vCJD by eating cattle tissues infected with the BSE agent.