A shortage of researchers has left Canada unprepared to deal with a widespread outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or other related diseases, an international conference in Edmonton has heard.

Canadian experts on prions – believed to cause BSE (or mad cow disease), chronic wasting disease and their human equivalents – say there are too few researchers to prevent a possible outbreak in this country.

The conference, which brought experts from Scotland, Austria, France and the United States, was organized to come up with a solution to the shortage of Canadian researchers and labs working on the disease.

"Very simply put there just aren't enough," said D. Michael Coulthart, one of the Canadians working in the field. "We have a lot of talented young people well trained in science but they haven't chosen prion research as their field."

Health Canada announced May 20 that a single case of mad cow disease had been found in Alberta. Thirty-four countries closed their borders to Canadian beef, costing the industry an estimated $11 million a day.

"If we want to understand and we want to avoid what has happened in the outbreak in Europe, we have to be prepared and put effort into this," said Dr. Bhagirath Singh. "We cannot just assume someone else will do the research."

"We have to have Canadian experts who will address the Canadian issues," he said.

Dr. Coulthart and Dr. Singh, who helped organize the international conference, also invited nine young Canadian scientists in an effort to convince them to join the Canadian prion research effort.

"It sort of provides you with an opportunity to see there are people doing this work and there's a lot of money at least for the time being, going into it," said Gerald Baron, one of the young Canadian researchers.

Baron, who is doing research at an American lab, said it's too early to say whether he'll return to Canada to help work on BSE research.