A case of Atypical BSE reported in an Alberta cow is not expected to have any impact on the domestic cattle market nor Canada’s official BSE risk status.
Alberta Agriculture Minister Nate Horner announced the case in a release Friday, noting Atypical BSE presents no risk to human health, is not transmissible, and is “not expected to have market impacts.”
BSE is not contagious and exists in two types - classical and atypical. Classical BSE is the form that occurred primarily in the United Kingdom, beginning in the late 1980s, and it has been linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) in people. The primary source of infection for classical BSE is contaminated feed. Atypical BSE is different, and it generally occurs in older cattle, usually 8 years of age or greater. It seems to arise rarely and spontaneously in all cattle populations.
According to Horner, Atypical BSE spontaneously happens at a rate of about one in one million cattle regardless of how well a producer takes care of their herd. It has been reported six times in the US, most recently in 2018, as well as a few other countries.