Ottawa ? The United States said Thursday it would dispatch a specialist to help investigate Canada’s latest case of mad cow disease, but that Washington did not expect the new finding to hurt trade between the two countries.

On Wednesday, Canada confirmed its ninth case of mad cow disease since 2003, in an Alberta bull that died on a farm last week. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said a mature bull tested positive for mad cow, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

Dr. George Luterbach, the agency’s senior veterinarian for Western Canada, said the animal’s death caused the farm to identify it as an “animal of interest” as part of a national surveillance program.

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

No human deaths as a result of mad cow have been reported in Canada.