Officials of Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced Thursday they are testing a six year- old cow for mad-cow disease after preliminary test showed positive result.

The cow from a farm in the Fraser Valley in British Columbia was tested first by provincial authorities, but the checks failed to determine whether the animal had bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

Its samples were then sent to the National Center for Foreign Animal Disease in Winnipeg, where the second test showed "a preliminary positive result," officials said.

The agency is now conducting a third and final series of tests. The result is expected to come out on the weekend.

Officials stress there is no danger to anyone because no part of the dairy cow entered the human food or animal feed systems, and the animal's entire carcass has been placed under control.

The cow was being raised on a farm in the Fraser Valley when agriculture officials looked at it as part of the national BSE surveillance program. The program checks those cattle considered most at risk. About 100,000 cows have been tested since the program started in May, 2003. The program has turned up five possible cases.

Mad-cow disease has cost this industry of Canada heavily since it first turned up in the country in late 2002. The United States, Japan and other countries have banned imports of Canadian beef for long periods.

Source: Xinhua