Canada ? Canada confirmed a case of mad cow disease on Sunday at a farm in British Columbia – the country’s fifth case since May 2003, when the United States closed its border to Canadian beef.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced Thursday it had a suspected case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.

In humans, meat products contaminated with BSE has been linked to more than 150 deaths, mostly in Britain, from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a rare and fatal nerve disease.

The 6-year-old cow was identified on a Fraser Valley farm through the national BSE surveillance program. In a written statement, the inspection agency said the case would have no bearing on the safety of Canadian beef, because no part of the animal entered the human food or animal feed systems.

Inspectors have tested roughly 100,000 animals since Canada’s first case was detected in Alberta and have said they expect to find isolated cases of the disease.