Canadian inspectors are poring over records from several Alberta feed mills and rendering plants to try to trace the source of the latest case of mad cow disease, local media reported Thursday. 

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has said it was still awaiting DNA test results to determine if the infected cow found in Washington State in the United States last week had come from Canada.

Meanwhile, the agency said, it was "taking proactive steps" to trace both the animal and food distribution records.

The agency said it was too early to conclude that a plant in the western Edmonton city was the source of contaminated material that wound up in feed used by the Alberta farm at the center of the investigation into the latest infected cow as well as the Saskatchewan birth farm of May's diseased animal in Canada's first mad cow case.

The probe of the Edmonton plant, which provides material to feed mills, is part of a larger investigation covering feed records during 1996-98, the agency said. Investigator Cornelius Kiley said the agency is getting a jump-start in case testing that confirms the Washington cow came from Alberta.

"We could wait until next week until we know for sure, but we do have staff that can go out and do some preliminary investigative work, so that's what we're doing," he said.

The food inspection agency repeated its position that DNA tests would be the only definite proof the infected cow in the United States originally came from a Holstein herd in Alberta, as American officials say. Results from tests in US and Canadian labs are expected this weekend.

The Edmonton Journal Wednesday quoted agency official Tom Spiller as saying it was possible feed for both infected cows contained materials from one rendering plant in the Edmonton area. Company representatives said it was premature to link the cases of mad cow, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), to the plant.

"In regard to linking the animal to the Edmonton plant, I just think it's too premature in that first they should link (the animal) to Canada, then they can follow the feed through," said Barry Glotman, president of West Coast Reduction.

Glotman confirmed the agency has asked for records from the Edmonton plant outlining which feed mills bought its meat and bone meal before 1997. That's the year the ban on feeding such material to cattle went into effect because of fears of mad cow disease.

According to reports here, the US agriculture department's top veterinarian Ron DeHaven also said it was too soon to talk about links to a particular rendering plant.

Meanwhile, the Canada's agriculture department had located some of the 81 cows suspected of shipping to the United States from Canada with the infected cow. Nine of the cows are still on the farm in Mabton, Washington State, where the infected cow had lived.

(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2004)