Canada’s 17th BSE case discovered in six-year-old beef cow
By Sheri Monk
The Badger has learned a new case of BSE was discovered two weeks ago, but the public was not informed as part of the government’s new communication strategy.
The decision not to announce new cases of BSE was made in August of 2009 and the public was informed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) online.
“The CFIA is committed to providing all stakeholders, including the general public, media and trading partners, with timely information about disease detections in farmed animals. As such, we have revised how we report online for disease detections in farmed animals to provide a more comprehensive view of Canada’s animal health status. All confirmed cases of federally reportable diseases in farmed animals will be centrally located on our website. This information will be updated monthly,” explained CFIA spokesperson Jenn Gearey.
The new communication strategy means journalists will not be notified when any new cases of BSE are discovered.
The latest finding of BSE – Canada’s 17th domestic case – was announced to industry stakeholders such as processors on Feb. 25, but not to the media or general public. And while the CFIA claims its reportable diseases page will be updated monthly, no new information has been posted since Jan. 31.
The infection was detected through the national surveillance program in a six-year-old black angus cow in the same general area of Alberta home to most of Canada’s BSE activity.
The last case discovered in Canada was in May of 2009 – the only occurrence that year. In 2008, there were four incidents, in 2007, there were three and in 2006, there were five cases of BSE.
Canada’s international risk status has not been affected by the latest case.
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Yay Sheri – way to dig this up! No ORDINARY media would catch this, but extraordinary newshounds – er, newsbadgers – certainly have. Good on ya!
Sheri, I think you could put your investigative talents to better use in the U.S. Their Shoot, Shovel and Shut up program is much more effective than ours.
But what, exactly, is the point of reporting this? For whose interests do you work?
Hi John,
The interests of my readers and in keeping with the objectives of journalism – information and truth.
We’ve had how many cases now? And how many in 2008? Four or five? And hardly a blip on the screen in terms of demand, exports, etc.
So, it’s not like I was jeopardizing the industry through closed borders by reporting it.
And even if I was? I’d do it anyway – that’s my job. I noticed today the government updated the reportable diseases website and if I am not mistake, they stayed past five to do it.
We all need to be informed, especially those of us at the heart of the industry. And whether it’s cattle or healthcare (another topic which tends to be an issue around these parts) I go after with equal vigor.
There’s been many stories over the years I’d rather not have written, but this business just doesn’t work that way. I remember a couple of years ago, I had a credible tip about a load of livestock stopped at the border because of a specific disease and it would have been a disaster. And all day, while I was trying to look into it and get more information, my stomach was in knots and it was a dreadful experience. And no one was more relieved than I to find out it was BS, but I went after it all the same and I would have been first with it, had it been confirmed.
I guess it’s like highway accidents and covering fatals. It really sucks and it’s really hard to see, especially when it’s a child involved. But I still go, not because I like it, but because it needs done.
Anyway, I hope that answers your question and gives you a better understanding of my position – or the position of any other journalist.
As far as the U.S., yes, that would be an interesting investigation and one I’d be pleased to initiate, should I win the lottery or suddenly be able to charge a lot more for a copy of the newspaper. Investigative journalism, especially if you have to travel or use the freedom of information act, is so cost prohibitive, it’s amazing any of this work gets done at all.
Sheri
And you speak of “need”. I wonder you are confusing a personal “need” of yours with that of the public.
John, no offense – but you have no idea what you’re talking about.
I suppose you think we should have sat on the story and waited for the CFIA to update the website? And what benefit would that have been – to anyone? Would it erase the latest case? Would it reverse the trade disruptions which ummmm… never happened? Would it keep it out of the news forever? Or until last night, when the CFIA updated the website and the Canadian Press and Associated Press and the rest of the media had access to it? Would the two-day delay really have made your world a better place to live? And when the Canadian Press reported it, would you make the same insinuations to them?
Perhaps any other journalist on the planet would be able to explain it to you, but I will try again.
News is news. When you report news, you try to get it first. If you can’t report on it first, you try to do it better than anyone else. We are a regional, hyper-local newspaper. A lot of our readers are cattle producers and they have learned over the years to rely on me for cattle-related coverage. If I can give it to them before another media entity does, I will always take that opportunity. I am sorry that my readers, advertisers and subscribers in Saskatchewan and Alberta seem to offend your senses in – where are you located? Ontario?
If you’re irritated that Canada has had another case of BSE, I suggest you speak to your MP about the preventative action Agriculture Canada did not take between 1989 and 1995 or so.
Getting angry at a little Saskatchewan newspaper isn’t going to help. Mostly because all we’ve told is the truth.
Maybe John can be part of the Great Exchange and find out what it’s like out West
First, let me say “Bravo, Sheri” for uncovering this for us.
There are NO excuses that should make the Government seem “in the right” for not releasing this information AS SOON AS THEY WERE INFORMED of it. Knowledge is power, and when we are denied knowledge, we do not have the power to keep our families safe.
My greatest concern is that if the government hid this case of Mad Cow from us for so long (and don’t try to tell me that it wasn’t “hidden” – two weeks is a ridiculous amount of time to stall on a press release), how many other cases slipped by us before Sheri came along with the balls to do something about it.
I have to wonder if John is either a government employee, or if he simply is a vegetarian who wouldn’t be affected by such monumental “oversights” in the Canadian government’s laid back attitude about public health and safety and their lax quality standards.
So again, BRAVO Sheri on a job WELL DONE!
I love that “John from Ontario” reads our Badger!!!! Not impressed with his comments however.
To John: I PERSONALLY enjoy NEWS and the way Sheri reports it … namely first, we as producers have a right to know what is going on in our industry. We are not large producers but we don’t own cattle because they smell great or make nice pets, we own them to hopefully make a profit. I see more and more people supplementing by working another job when cattle ranching is a job in it’s self.
TO Sheri: Keep it up! I hate bad news but it is just that NEWS and the PUBLIC wants to know.
If Canada had adopted a test every bovine policy. BSE could have been stamped out.
Was there mention as to the source of the infection?
Well I can see that civility within the ranks does know bounds and that even objectivity can be blinkered when it comes too close to home!
Paul, your interesting question about the source deserves to have an answer.
So much so, in fact, that perhaps someone who has time to do a little digging could smoke out an answer for us. We hope this carrier was someone’s bottle calf.
Otherwise . . .
It’s funny, Dr. George Luterbach (I think that was how it was spelled, he’s not retired), said that milk replacement could be the culprit, but as far as I know, no one has said for sure if milk replacer prior to the feedban contained MBM. Otherwise, it could be caused by a case of cross contamination of feed, as this animal was born prior to 2007.
The CFIA investigations typically take three or four months and their completed investigations can be found on the website.
Canada and the U.S. are the only two countries that have experienced BSE that did not institute a period of blanket BSE testing.
Sheri- If the cattle industry does not award you a great big public service award for the work you are doing for the industry, they have the head of the cow headed the wrong way!
And – speaking of deja vu- do you have a feeling that the grain industry is attempting to commit the same hari kari? So far flax has been doing the “circle jerk” over the Triffid contamination and not a single representative of other crops has called for a similar test for GM contamination of their seed stocks.
A little whistling by the graveyard perhaps? Or just beans in our ears?
I think once you have GM contamination you’ll always have it. The trick is to get Europe’s flax crop contaminated so they have to climb down off their pious tower.
Thanks Blair.
I don’t know much at all about farming. I don’t even eat like… much that isn’t meat.
BUT, if you’re going to rope me in, it’ll be with GM crops, farmer suicides in India and pesticide contamination of honey bee hives. Oh and Monsanto. I was specifically warned never to look into them just last week. Which is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. (Though, apparently, the colour red has nothing to do with it, in the spirit of accuracy.)
So yeah, I have a lot to learn. But I can do it, I’ll just need a little tutoring.
Hello… I am confused how do we all know “John” is from “Ontario”?
Being from a ranching community,I have mixed feelings about the open reporting about BSE. Yes I want to know if we have trouble in our backyard. But,I don’t want the neighbors to know about it.
The cattle industry has not recovered from the last round of openness about our BSE problem. Prices for our cattle have not returned from the major hit created by BSE. The store price for meat has not gone down. As a result, someone is still making large amounts of cash off the BSE from before. And it is not the producer. And the low cattle prices are not pasted on to the consumer. Which leaves me wondering if we take another hit and the cattle price drops even lower, what is the impact going to be on our way of life?
The States do have alot of BSE down there and the media is told not to report it. Which is very wrong!
I do want to know so we as a collective can deal with the BSE and issues surrounding it. Through papers like this one, we can maybe keep our affairs in our own backyard. And not let the whole world know, I hope. Because I fear the rancher will be facing more hard times and many families will be forced to change their way of life forever.
And just so people know we have sold some cattle so I do know the cattle prices now and in the past. And even before BSE hit. But people must also remember that the cost of everything has gone up that a family may need to live. The cattle price does not reflect any “cost of living increase” or “wage increase” as the average person would get at a job at say a bank or retail store for example.
Yes I have mixed feelings on this whole BSE thing. And I am scared of what may happen.
Sheri:
One thing that you have achieved is to have brought a certain degree of honesty to the discussion of BSE.
Just a few short years ago the cry of the Cattleman’s Associations was for “Let the Science speak”. What they meant was for everyone to unquestioningly accept the CYA blatherings that are so frankly pointed out in the coverage of the Class Action Suit.
Opinion, prejudices,old wives tales maybe, but never science! Nevertheless, we have wasted over twenty years by adopting the “Ostrich Approach” that has only served to discourage scientific investigation. When Paul asks for the source of the infection, we could be asking for the specifics in this case OR the general source for this disease previously unknown in cattle. The answer has to be “nobody knows’, there may be possibilities but without real public pressure, there is little interest in finding answers.
Lots of pressure to hide the problem but so far no little red hen to get in there and find the answer.
PS- see you made the SK cattlemens paper-and they even brought in Roy Rutledge to show the error in your ways- teach you to cross Nilson Brothers!
@ My View,
I understand why you would hesitate to allow the BSE news out too far, but in my experience, transparency does eventually pay off – if only because hiding is equal to lying. And these are food consumers we’re talking about, which at least in my opinion, makes it different.
But as far as the belief that the U.S. media is told not to report something, I don’t believe it. Because I know journalists in the U.S. that would kill to break that story. And the idea that such a thing could be covered up so effectively, for so long, without significant leakage, is of a very low possibility.
The two domestic cases the country has detected were what appears to be the spontaneous variety.
I am almost certain that (if I had the financial resources) I could research it and find out one way or another.
@Blair,
Charlie Gracie would have supported blanket BSE testing – I wonder if Roy is aware of this? If Canada was at all as science-based as it likes to pretend, it would have done far, far more to prevent BSE and then restrict its spread.
I can hardly wait for my next go. Unlike the first, which was aimed at general readership, I think I’ll cook one up tonight, just for Roy.
That magazine is like a corporate big box insider piece – and then cleverly disguised and sold to the very shoppers coming through the doors!
What I found most surprising was that sharp, little mention with the condescending tone on page 10 or 11. First off, the Loblaw piece was unbiased and objective, I asserted absolutely no emotion whatsover. Secondly, if Canada’s beef producers and consumers are content for globalist business practices, why are there any Canadian programs at all? If the support base does not exist, why doesn’t Roy and his ilk come right out and tell the Canadian public to merely buy on price, ignore the label and ask not just for American beef, but also for South American beef? That little blurb, to me, is the most revealing clue as to just who and what that magazine represents.
Guess I better save the fire for the column.
I understand how cattle farmers would be worried and wouldn’t want to have the public made aware of BSE cases, and I do hope that they if they are affected, its to an absolute minimum. But can I be frank when I say that the health of the people who will be exposed to the unspoken cases should be far more important to everyone, including the cattle farmers. Let’s not put a dollar value on the safety (and in some cases the lives) of others.
Well… Did I hit a nerve on some folks. I know a few people too in this small world. So I guess my view is done have a good day
Oh no, I think ALL views are important. It’s the only way real discussion happens is to let it all hang out there.
Thank you for sharing yours.
Blair:
I was wondering what the officially announced source of the infection. they used to blame it on contaminated feed. No mention of what took the blame this time.
We won’t know for months. In fact, i don’t think they have the results yet of the suspected cause in the 16th case yet. But it’s been almost a year… I will look into that one.
Could not some of the cases have been spontaneous? Or does no one believe it happens spontaneously?
This latest probably wasn’t because of the age, but they will type the strain and know later. Our government treats both strains as the same because the OIE treats both strains the same, therefore, so do our trading partners. But to me, there is a massive difference, as there is to researchers. The LD50 is different, there is research happening to find out what the differences are in terms of transmission. Anyway, you have to ask the CFIA which strain it was, but spontaneous or Type H happens in older animals, as far as we know.
Canada has had one Type H (spontaneous) case and it was a Manitoban beef cow, charlais cross. She was born in 1989 or 1990 and died in 2006 – so a pretty old girl.
Reviewing my research, I wonder if there wasn’t another Type H case. There’s one I need to ask the CFIA id they typed it. When I talked to the CFIA BSE ramrod about the different types and the most recent research on them, he has no idea what I was talking about and just referred to what the OIE guidelines require.
The CFIA guy is a figure head then?
Retired now. And I just think maybe too closely adhered to OIE guidelines rather than independent thought and analysis.
Guidelines are different than policy or regulations. Guidelines are meant to be used with discretion of the regulators. They are not firm and are not law.
Paul, it would be helpful to the discussion to learn the meaning of, or your understanding of, the term “spontaneous”.
Could I suggest that “spontaneous” is the individual poisoning of animals due to heavy metal exposure and in the particular case of BSE, too much manganese and too little copper. As in the Mark Purdey theory.
I have to applaud you for your work as well Sheri and look forward to meeting up with you again in Red Deer on March 31st. Had a chat with Roy last night and asked him to pick you up on his way past Maple Crik. LOL
I’ve bin getting a few blast from fellow supporters of the Mark Purdey theory since I’ve jumped on the BSE Class Action band wagon myself and I would like to say that I still believe that Mark Purdey has things figured out.
However — proving Mark’s theory will take more time than I have left on this planet and I love my cows and my industry to much to wait. Thus we take the Feds (CFIA) to task on the theory that they support and the fact that they dropped the ball in their own little international sandbox. Should they bail and talk of spontaneous (their own definition of spontaneous) BSE; they are admitting ignorance either way.
The CFIA needs to be brought to task. These “button cops” not only allowed BSE to spread through Canada (if you believe the transmission theory) and have stuck their nose in trade issues by not allowing market access testing. I am personally proud to say that we have unprecedented health and safety standards in this country, but the collective ego that this has created in the CFIA is out of control.
Check into the “button cop” story Sheri. It’s gonna be a big one when we meet in Saskatoon in mid June for another BSE Class action rally….
All the best everyone
Randy Kaiser
John:
My definition of spontaneous is: The prion disease occurred without the animal consuming feed contaminated by other damaged animal prions.
Very glad to have found this article – thank you for continuing to pursue this type of story.
There’s something terribly wrong with our government’s priorities when strategies are implemented to bury information that might otherwise result in informed choice. Communication strategy my eye.
Sheri, likely you already know of Shiv Chopra. I bring to your attention this article by one of your colleagues on the east coast:
http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/health-canadas-rendered-food-policies/Content?oid=1104725 .
May I suggest a collaboration between you for the good of all Canadians. Note: despite searches I found the latest report of BSE strangly missing from large national papers – at least those centered in my home province of Ontario. Thank goodness for regional reporting.
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