The latest twist in the detective work surrounding Canada's case of mad cow disease moved to the United States on Wednesday as investigators tracked five bulls to Montana from a farm involved in the Canadian probe.

U.S. officials said the finding would not likely prolong decisions about when to reopen the border to beef imports as Canada scrambles to find the cause of its single case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, and as a multibillion-dollar industry hangs in the balance.

The five bulls were born on a Saskatchewan farm in 1996, and were bought by a Montana rancher in April 1997. U.S. officials think the bulls may have since moved through stockyards in Montana and South Dakota, although they have just started their search.

"We don't anticipate that this investigation and our ability to trace (the bulls) to a final disposition would in any way inhibit any future action with regard to movement of (Canadian) animals and product over the border," said Ron DeHaven, deputy administrator of veterinary services with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's inspection service.

U.S. officials said the investigation of the bulls was precautionary and the risk of BSE was extremely low.

Since Canada reported its case of mad cow disease on May 20, the United States -- which buys 80 percent of Canadian exports -- and 21 other countries have banned Canadian beef.

That's cost the industry an estimated C$27.5 million ($20 million) a day.

The Canadian government is looking to put together an aid program to help the industry with cash flow problems, federal Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief said on Wednesday.

"The details of that will be discussed and developed in the very near future," he said.

Canada also took a symbolic step to help spur domestic demand by making it tougher to import some beef products.

TESTS ON NEARLY 2,000 CATTLE

By the end of the weekend, Canadian investigators will have slaughtered and tested about 1,950 cattle in their search for signs of the disease beyond the one confirmed case.

To date, all results have been negative, including all cattle tested on the farm where the five U.S. bulls were born.

Providing test results continue to be negative, Vanclief said he will make a case to the United States and international animal disease officials to allow Canada to resume cattle and beef exports, particularly of young animals and selected beef from cattle younger than 24 or 30 months.

Scientists believe it takes at least two and up to seven years for the disease to manifest itself in cattle.

In Washington, U.S. Deputy Secretary for Agriculture James Moseley said his department is working on beef import permits for "companies where the risk is extremely low," although he did not specify what products are considered to be low risk nor how soon U.S. regulators would reach a decision.

DeHaven refused to speculate on when U.S. restrictions might be lifted.

Lester Crawford, deputy commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, told reporters that the risk to human health from the five bulls is "immeasurably small" because only a single sick cow has been found.

"Only countries that have experienced large outbreaks of BSE in their cattle herds have experienced variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in people," Crawford said.

More than 100 people, mostly in Britain, have died from vCJD, or the human form of mad cow disease, believed to be caused by eating infected meat.

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