Canada cow diagnosed with mad cow disease

EDMONTON, Alberta, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- Canadian officials say a 50-month-old Alberta dairy cow contracted bovine spongiform encephalopathy -- or mad cow disease -- from contaminated feed.

The animal was the youngest in Canada ever diagnosed with BSE, which is a fatal brain wasting illness. Previous cases involved older animals that contracted the disease before feed restrictions were enacted.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says a commercial feed facility "may have permitted contamination of a single batch of cattle feed with prohibited material." It didn't identify the manufacturing facility or farm involved, but said the entire batch of contaminated feed was shipped to the infected cow's farm, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Inspectors said they believe the incident may have occurred because the feed facility failed to thoroughly clean equipment between processing runs.

It's been found cattle most often contract mad-cow disease by ingesting ground-up remains of infected animals.

The latest discovery might impact an expected U.S. Department of Agriculture decision to allow imports of cattle more than 30 months of age to be considered at minimal rise for the disease, the Journal said.