Mystery cow

last updated 8 January 2015

Toronto

The lone Canadian cow stricken with mad cow disease may have come from the U.S., according to investigators. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued a report saying it had “looked under every stone” to determine where the animal came from, but could not track it to a specific herd. Agency officials said they remained 95 percent certain the cow was born in Canada, but it also could have entered the country in a shipment of 25,000 cows imported from the U.S. in 1998. Most of them were Black Angus, the breed of the animal in Alberta that was found to have the deadly brain disease in May. American agricultural officials said they had “absolutely no reason” to believe any U.S. cattle were infected.