When Western Canada's premiers meet this coming weekend, in preparation for the First Ministers' Conference in July, Premier Lorne Calvert wants food safety issues to be at the top of the agenda, as the investigation begins to wind down in tracking where a cow picked up the so-called Mad Cow disease.

As herds are being slaughtered and tested to find any other sign of BSE, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, no positive signs have yet been found, including two herds that have been tested from Saskatchewan.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 1,160 head of cattle had been tested with no sign of BSE in any of the animals, including those from the farm in northern Saskatchewan where the infected cow was thought to have been born. DNA testing of the bulls on that farm have returned and were inconclusive, said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

In the meantime, the U.S. border continues to be closed to all exports of Canadian beef, along with several other countries, like Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Premier Calvert said in spite of the high cost of this investigation for cattle producers, the food safety system has been shown to work in its response to tracking down the source of this disease.

"The Canadian food safety system is one of the strongest in the world. The system has demonstrated that it can react rapidly when an event occurs. Premiers must continue to work together to demonstrate to domestic consumers and our export trading partners that Canada remains committed to the highest standards in food safety," said the premier in a statement.

The issue of how the BSE case has been handled will also come under discussion by the Stock Growers Association as they meet later this week. A local cow-calf producer, Janet Ledingham, said last week cattle producers know there are risks involved in food production, and producers weren't really surprised when an instance of BSE was found; the system has to be allowed to work.

Weyburn veterinarian Carmen Langevin wasn't so sure the issue was handled correctly, however, and suggested the reason they can't track down where it came from is either the cow had a false positive, or the BSE has been here all along. She said the one good thing is this incident happened during a slow time for the industry, before this year's calves are ready to be moved out.

The Saskatchewan Party, meanwhile, tried to bring in an emergency motion in response to a suggestion by Ontario's agriculture minister Helen Johns that Eastern Canada ban exports of beef from Western Canada, so their cattle producers could resume exporting to the U.S. once again. The NDP would not allow debate on the emergency motion to proceed.

In spite of this, Weyburn-Big Muddy MLA Brenda Bakken feels it's important for all politicians of all stripes to unite in order to support this major part of the agricultural industry.

"We've supported the government to try and get a resolution of this issue. Our objective is the same as the government's, to get the border open. It's going to become critical in a matter of days if we don't get the border open," said Bakken. "This industry affects everyone in some way. They are a major contributor to the economy, so we have to all work on this together."

On one issue, they asked the government if they were going to send Labour minister Deb Higgins to Ottawa along with Alberta's to negotiate compensation, and Bakken said the minister didn't even answer the question.

"This isn't a time to be shrugging off questions. We asked questions we feel producers want answers to. We're holding beef to a standard higher than for any other product," said the MLA.

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture came out in support of western beef producers, saying they would not support regionalizing beef production as a way to address the BSE issue.

"Closing of specific regions may be an appropriate response to a contagious animals disease, but it is definitely not appropriate in this case," said CFA president Bob Friesen.

Saskatchewan and Alberta are the two main provinces where the BSE investigation is being held, and Saskatchewan is Canada's second-largest producer of cattle. Farm sales total over $1 billion with export sales of approximately $445 million, with 21 per cent of Canada's exports to the U.S. coming from Saskatchewan.

As a whole, Canada exports about $4 billion of beef and cattle, and imports about $1 billion.

"Our food safety system is working, we are addressing BSE and the U.S. should be able to open the border in the near future," said Premier Calvert.

There were indications Tuesday some beef exports, such as veal, might start to be allowed back into the U.S. soon, but there was no word on when the border will be reopened to all beef exports.

As the DNA testing from one farm showed no connection to the cow found with BSE, CFIA investigators have opened a second a line of inquiry to another farm, which will mean testing on 650 head of cattle from five farms.

Two farms were released from quarantine, with another herd of 140 cattle added, to bring the total number of quarantined farms to 15 as of Tuesday afternoon.

BSE, which is not contagious, is a progressive, fatal disease of the nervous system of cattle, similar to Chronic Wasting Disease in deer and elk, and is related to the human form of the disease, Creutzfelt-Jakob disease. The cause of BSE is unknown, but is known to be connected with an abnormal protein called a prion. There is no treatment or vaccine currently available for BSE.