BSE News - Pigsite

[Mike]

They have more news about BSE than any cattle webpage I've seen:


http://www.thepigsite.com/LatestNews/Default.asp?AREA=LatestNews&Display=6823

 

[Bill]

An interesting article off that site.

BSE on the wane worldwide

3/23/2006, 12:44 AM CST

Cases of Bovine Spongiform Encepalopathy (BSE) or "mad cow disease" worldwide have dropped by 50% a year over the past three years, according to a statement today from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

In 2005, 474 animals died of BSE around the world, compared with 878 in 2004 and 1646 in 2003, and against a peak of several tens of thousands in 1992, according to figures collected by the World Animal Health Organization (OIE).

Five human deaths resulting from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), believed to be the human form of BSE, were reported worldwide in 2005. All of them were in the United Kingdom -- the country most affected by the disease -- where nine deaths were registered in 2004 and 18 in 2003.

"It is quite clear that BSE is declining and that the measures introduced to stop the disease are effective," said Andrew Speedy, an FAO animal production expert. "But further success depends on our continuing to apply those measures worldwide."

Also vital, he said, is a tracking system that allows animals to be identified from birth to shopping basket. This has been adopted across Europe but has yet to be implemented partially or fully in a number of other countries.

 

[flounder]

ALL CJD * As at 3rd March 2006 (see increase in sCJD)



http://www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/13/11/73/04131173.pdf




USA


notice steady increase, but also notice in 2005, # 7 the 38 pendings cases through Oct. and #8 includes 53 type pending, 1 type unknown.

if you look at 2003 there were 3 type unknown.

wonder if they were the same or different than the unknown in 2005?

considering the soup that has been brewing over here in the USA for years via the rendering of BSE and atypical TSE in cattle, CWD, Scrapie, a few TME cases (not too much due to scent gland, but there were a few rendered, but all this, and you have one hell of a recipe for a new strains of TSE in humans. then who knows what 'friendly fire' cases would look like from this soup via secondary transmission via medical/surgical/dental arena. ...TSS


National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center case exams...



http://www.cjdsurveillance.com/resources-casereport.html



snip...


The above results set the existing CJD classifications

into debate and introduce interesting questions about

human CJD types. For example, do human prion types

exist in a dynamic equilibrium in the brains of affected

individuals? Do they coexist in most or even all CJD

cases? Is the biochemically identified PrPSc type simply

the dominant type, and not the only PrPSc species?


Published online October 31, 2005




http://neurology.thelancet.com



BASE in cattle in Italy of Identification of a
second bovine amyloidotic spongiform encephalopathy: Molecular
similarities with sporadic

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease


http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0305777101v1


Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, or

"Mad Cow Disease"): Current and Proposed

Safeguards

Updated October 13, 2005

Geoffrey S. Becker

Specialist in Agricultural Policy

Resources, Science and Industry Division

Sarah A. Lister

Specialist in Public Health and Epidemiology

Domestic Social Policy Division



http://www.ncseonline.org/NLE/CRSreports/05oct/RL32199.pdf


EFSA Scientific Report on the Assessment of the Geographical BSE-Risk (GBR) of the United States of America (USA)
Last updated: 19 July 2005
Adopted July 2004 (Question N° EFSA-Q-2003-083)

Report
Summary
Summary of the Scientific Report

The European Food Safety Authority and its Scientific Expert Working Group on the Assessment of the Geographical Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Risk (GBR) were asked by the European Commission (EC) to provide an up-to-date scientific report on the GBR in the United States of America, i.e. the likelihood of the presence of one or more cattle being infected with BSE, pre-clinically as well as clinically, in USA. This scientific report addresses the GBR of USA as assessed in 2004 based on data covering the period 1980-2003.

The BSE agent was probably imported into USA and could have reached domestic cattle in the middle of the eighties. These cattle imported in the mid eighties could have been rendered in the late eighties and therefore led to an internal challenge in the early nineties. It is possible that imported meat and bone meal (MBM) into the USA reached domestic cattle and leads to an internal challenge in the early nineties.

A processing risk developed in the late 80s/early 90s when cattle imports from BSE risk countries were slaughtered or died and were processed (partly) into feed, together with some imports of MBM. This risk continued to exist, and grew significantly in the mid 90's when domestic cattle, infected by imported MBM, reached processing. Given the low stability of the system, the risk increased over the years with continued imports of cattle and MBM from BSE risk countries.

EFSA concludes that the current GBR level of USA is III, i.e. it is likely but not confirmed that domestic cattle are (clinically or pre-clinically) infected with the BSE-agent. As long as there are no significant changes in rendering or feeding, the stability remains extremely/very unstable. Thus, the probability of cattle to be (pre-clinically or clinically) infected with the BSE-agent persistently increases.







Publication date: 20 August 2004



http://www.efsa.eu.int/science/tse_assessments/gbr_assessments/573_it.html


http://www.efsa.eu.int/science/tse_assessments/gbr_assessments/573/sr03_biohaz02_usa_report_summary_en1.pdf


http://www.efsa.eu.int/science/tse_assessments/gbr_assessments/573/sr03_biohaz02_usa_report_v2_en1.pdf







TSS