Song in my head: You’re face to face....with the man who sold the world.................David Bowie
MAD COW NEWS
Many of the articles are snipped from FSNet listserv, a food safety listserv, available by subscription. I try and provide links to articles if they are given or if I can find them.
Executive Summary: On June 24, 2005, USDA informed FDA that a cow in Texas tested positive for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). Information provided by APHIS was that the BSE positive cow was born and raised in a herd in Texas and was approximately 12 years old. The animal was sampled for BSE at a pet food plant in Texas on November 15, 2004, as part of USDA’s enhanced surveillance program. The animal was disposed of by incineration and did not enter the human food or animal feed chains. -LINK-
A paper to be published this Saturday in The Lancet was cited as claiming that the epidemic of mad-cow disease that struck Europe originated in exports of animal feed and bones from South Asia that included human remains scavenged from the Ganges.The story adds that the controversial hypothesis, published in one of the world's most prestigious medical journals, is made by a pair of British experts in health and veterinary science. -LINK-
South Korea announced that the United States had turned over all data requested concerning the investigation of the recent episode of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, but that they would have to be studied carefully and that it will take time to lift the ban on U.S. beef. -LINK-
Denmark on Friday was cited as confirming its 14th case of mad cow disease after a nine-year-old dairy cow in the northern Jutland region was found to have been infected with the brain-wasting illness. -LINK-
In May 2003, when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced that a six-year-old cow slaughtered in January 2003 was diagnosed positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or “mad cow disease,” the Canadian beef industry was decimated as exports, even to the United States, dried up. In a previous article by the author (Guest Editorial: BSE in the USA: How Mad Can We Get? Food Safety Magazine, August/September 2003), the history of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) in food animals was discussed and the Canadian case placed in perspective. The following U.S. responses were suggested as appropriate for immediate implementation: 1. Test all animals for BSE at slaughter that are older than five years, and exclude them from the food supply. 2. The specified risk materials (SRMs), or brain, eyes, spinal cord, small intestine, tonsils, etc., and advanced recovery meat (ARM) of cattle older than 30 months should be excluded from the food supply (bothanimal and human). 3. All “risk” (i.e., non-ambulatory) animals should be tested for BSE. 4. A system of positive ID tracking should be implemented. 5. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) budget for TSEs should be substantially increased. 6. All deer and elk should be excluded from the food supply. Unfortunately, little action took place by regulators in the U.S., who believed the problem still was confined to Canadian beef. -LINK- (.pdf)
A group representing 18,000 U.S. cattle producers has, according to this story, petitioned a U.S. court for a rehearing in a bid to close the border again to Canadian beef.R-CALF USA has requested that a group of 11 judges who sit on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals review a ruling made by a three-judge panel on July 14 that overturned a temporary ban on young Canadian cattle imports.Bill Bullard, chief executive officer of R-CALF, was quoted as saying from Billings, Mont. that, "The three-judge panel . . . missed or misunderstood numerous key aspects of this case. We are dealing with a disease that has devastated the cattle industries in other countries and that has already cost the U.S. cattle industry billions of dollars in lost beef exports."The story notes that since trade in live cattle resumed on July 18, Canadian producers have shipped more than 89,000 animals under 30 months of age to the U.S. -LINK-
Japan's food safety panel was cited as saying Monday that U.S. cows were exposed to a higher risk of mad cow disease infection than their Japanese counterparts due to insufficient feed control in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s, Kyodo News agency reported.
A German military airplane loaded with 15 tons of NATO rations meant for Hurricane Katrina victims was turned away by U.S. authorities because of worries about bovine spongiform encephalopathy, according to German news magazine Der Spiegel. Government sources confirmed to the Associated Press that one shipment was turned back, but other food shipments have since been approved. -LINK-
California lawmakers convened a special hearing with a panel of BSE experts recently who discussed the USDA's enhanced BSE surveillance program in light of a proposed state resolution, SJR 16. The state resolution asks the federal government to allow voluntary testing by private companies. Sen. Mike Machado's spokesman said the legislator hopes to encourage the federal government to improve its protections related to BSE. -LINK-
FDA commissioner Lester M. Crawford was cited as saying Monday the U.S. government will close a gap in the U.S. defense against the spread of mad cow disease by changing feed regulations to mirror those in Canada.In remarks to a food policy conference hosted by the Consumer Federation of America, Crawford was cited as saying the new regulations would be coming soon. But did not say when.The story says that Canada has proposed regulations banning at-risk tissues—brains, spinal cords and other parts that can carry mad cow disease—from feed for all animals, including chickens, pigs and pets. The new rules have not yet taken effect; current rules are the same as U.S. rules.However, the U.S. ban doesn't apply to feed for other animals, creating a potential pathway for the mad cow protein to be fed back to cattle.The story notes that Crawford did not say whether the new regulations would ban cattle blood and restaurant leftovers, also considered potential pathways for BSE, from cattle feed."Our regulations will mimic theirs," he said. -LINK-
UK to probe link between vCJD and dentistry
John GregersonBritain's Health Protection Agency said it is investigating whether variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human variant of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, can be transmitted through dental work. -LINK-
Sheep can pass BSE to their lambs
BSE has been shown to spread naturally between sheep for the first time. It passed from mother to lamb, before or during birth, in an experimentally infected flock. But if the study shows the infection spreads more generally within the flock, that means BSE could still be lurking in Europe’s sheep, possibly posing a greater health risk to people than that from “mad” cows. -LINK-
Theory links mad cow disease to funeral rites
Dead bodies washed ashore in India may have contaminated animal feed that was exported to the United Kingdom, triggering mad cow disease, scientists say.
The human remains would have floated downriver as part of Indian funeral ceremonies, the scientists write in The Lancet journal. -LINK-
Prions Rapidly 'Remodel' Good Protein Into Bad, Brown Study Shows
Two Brown Medical School biologists have figured out the fate of healthy protein when it comes in contact with the infectious prion form in yeast: The protein converts to the prion form, rendering it infectious. In an instant, good protein goes bad.
This quick-change “mating” maneuver sheds important light on the mysterious molecular machinery behind prions, infectious proteins that cause fatal brain ailments such as mad cow disease and scrapie in animals and, in rare cases, Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease and kuru in humans. -LINK-
Mad-Cow Related Ban to Be Tightened
The United States will close a gap in its defense against mad cow disease by changing feed regulations to mirror those in Canada, FDA Commissioner Lester M. Crawford said Monday.
In remarks to a food policy conference hosted by the Consumer Federation of America, Crawford said the new regulations would be coming soon. But he did not say when.
Canada has proposed regulations banning at-risk tissues — brains, spinal cords and other parts that can carry mad cow disease — from feed for all animals, including chickens, pigs and pets. The new rules have not yet taken effect; Canada's current rules are similar to U.S. rules. -LINK-
