Canadian authorities have confirmed the discovery of a new case of mad cow disease in its western Alberta province - the 12th case in Canada since the disease was first discovered there in 2003.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced Tuesday that a six-year-old dairy cow had been diagnosed with bovine spongiform encephalopathy - the disease known as mad cow.

Authorities said no part of the cow's carcass had entered the human food or animal feed chains. The agency also said that it expects to continue finding periodic cases of the disease as Canada works to eradicate it.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.