August 31, 2006

Canadian BSE case may indicate testing regimes are missing infections

The 50-month-old dairy cow dairy cow found on a farm in Alberta evidently showed prion development months earlier than could have been expected, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency report on its investigation of the case.
"The staining pattern from the confirmatory IHC tests supported the notion that this animal seemed to have been detected at an earlier stage of BSE incubation," the report states. "Had the animal succumbed to BSE and not to an unrelated disease, it may have been some time before BSE symptoms would have been noted."
USDA and other experts have contended that prion formation dangerous to humans takes place only shortly before the onset of BSE symptoms, and USDA has concentrated until very recently on animals exhibiting symptoms of BSE and elderly cattle most likely to have the disease. CattleNetwork.com