Ottawa – Mad-cow disease has been a growing concern to all those who are involved in the process of getting beef and dairy from the source to the table. Although the disease has not been rampant in the United States like in parts of Europe and Canada, officials are working hard to find cause, and cure for this airborne culprit.
Recently Canadian officals have found 15 more cases of mad-cow disease. Although they say that this number is a great reduction from previous findings, it is still a concern, which they are working hard to eliminate.
Canadian officials have determined that non-ruminant feed containing organs and bones most likely containing BSE is the cause of the 15 cases of mad-cow disease most recently found in Canada. Since Canada does not test for the disease in older cattle slated for slaughter, the contaminated beef could be imported to the U.S. to be used in non-ruminant feed for cattle there, which leads one to wonder how hard they are really working to prevent this disease from spreading.
According to Bill Bullard, chief executive of the Rancher-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund of the United Stock Growers of America, the U.S. will not prohibit specific risk material such as organs and bones used in non-ruminant feed until April of 2009, which means that U.S. cattle could also be infected with mad-cow disease through cross-contamination. One way to eliminate this cross-contamination would be to stop importing beef and beef products from a country that has any cases of mad cow-disease.