CANADA-BSE TESTING.
The Alberta government is trying to boost the number of cattle being sent for bovine spongiform encephalopathy tests after submissions plunged last year.
The federal and provincial governments changed the BSE surveillance program last July, limiting the age of eligible animals to between 21/2 and just under nine years. The change was based on international scientific guidelines for BSE surveillance, which focus on collecting samples from the highest risk cattle populations.
By aggressively targeting these populations, Canada could more precisely verify that the level of BSE in the national herd continues to decline, officials said.
The government expected the program change to cause about a 50-per-cent drop in the number of animals submitted, said Dr. Gerald Hauer, chief provincial veterinarian with Alberta Agriculture.
"What we found is that it dropped more than what we anticipated."
Hauer said he didn’t have the exact numbers available.
Alberta Agriculture stopped posting numbers on their surveillance program website last July. At that point, only 373 animals had been submitted.
In July 2007, 1,073 were submitted.
In January, requirements for proving the age of the animal were eased. Previously, veterinarians could use the teeth to verify the age on animals aged 30 to 60 months in cases where farm records weren’t available. This has now expanded to include animals in the full range of 30 to 107 months.
"We need to test enough animals to demonstrate to the rest of the world that the BSE we have here is at a very low level, and that the measures we have in place to control BSE are effective," Hauer said.
"We want to have a surveillance program that makes sense from a scientific perspective, but we also want to make sure we’re not cutting our numbers too drastically because, to be honest, it sends alarm bells up to potential international customers."
Hauer doesn’t have the numbers for January and February yet, but said he wants to wait until March to judge if the change to the program is successful.
Producers are reimbursed $225 for each eligible sample.
Reynold Bergen, animal health and welfare manager with Alberta Beef Producers, said he isn’t sure whether or not the change will help.
Another requirement instituted last summer was for a vet inspection of the animal to decide whether or not it’s eligible for BSE testing. That hasn’t changed.
"So you might just get stuck with a vet bill for a vet coming out to your place and saying, ’No, I’m not testing this,’ " Bergen said.
