A contagious disease that causes cows to spontaneously abort their calves has been detected in three B.C. animals sent to a U.S. slaughterhouse.
Rob McNabb, spokesman for the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, said Wednesday the cows that had brucellosis came from herds on two farms.
He said the last case of brucellosis, which is mostly transmitted from cows to calves through milk or birth fluids, occurred in Canada in 1989.
McNabb said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency will likely confirm the U.S. results, but extra testing is also being done because false positive tests have been a problem in the past.
Keith Lehman, a spokesman for the agency, said the unidentified farms have been quarantined and blood samples are being taken from the animals to determine if any of them have contracted the disease.
He said preliminary results could be completed by next week. But meanwhile, the agency continues investigating the movement of cattle off and on the farms in an effort to determine the origin of brucellosis.
It's not known why the disease would make a comeback after it was thought to have been eradicated 20 years ago.
"We worked very hard, probably in the mid-1900s to the later 1900s, at eradicating brucellosis from the Canadian herd and that was done through a slaughter and testing program," Lehman said.
People can contract undulant fever by drinking unpasteurized milk from infected cows or through contact with animal tissue during the slaughter process if good sanitary measures aren't used, he said.
Symptoms include joint and muscle pain.
