Canada Angry as U.S. officials claim BSE-infected cow came from Alberta

[kskiska]

Canadian officials have accused their American counterparts of jumping the gun in announcing at the weekend that an animal found suffering from BSE on a farm in Washington state had necessarily entered the United States from Canada.

Tensions between the two countries grew when it was revealed that Canada had been given just one minute's warning before American officials held a news conference on Saturday asserting that a ranch in Alberta had been the source of the infected cow.

Dr Ron DeHaven, the US Agriculture Department's chief veterinarian, said Canadian records indicated the sick Holstein was among 74 cattle shipped from Alberta, Canada, into the US in August 2001. The announcement last week of the first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in the US led to a freezing of 90 per cent of America's beef export markets.

The suggestion that the cow came from Alberta, instead of from a herd in the US, cheered the American beef industry. The National Cattlemen's Association said it should be enough to allow other nations to reverse their ban on American beef.

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