• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

BSE prions in Blood- Test Possible

A

Anonymous

Guest
Blood test possible for mad cow disease



By Maggie Fox

Independent Online

July 06 2006



Washington - Tests in hamsters suggest it may be possible to develop a blood test for mad cow and related diseases in both humans and animals before they develop symptoms, researchers reported on Thursday.



The study, published in the journal Science, also suggests that the damaged brain cells may "leak" the infectious prions that cause the diseases, offering a chance to detect the disease in blood.



Such a test would allow animals to be checked before they enter the food supply. It could also screen people, including blood or organ donors, for the rare but devastating Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease or CJD, and its close cousin, vCJD, the researchers said.


Current tests require brain or other tissue samples.



Mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE, is part of the family of prion diseases which also includes scrapie in sheep, chronic wasting disease in deer and elk, and CJD in people.



BSE emerged in Britain in the 1980s and swept through dairy herds. Some people who ate infected beef products developed a form of CJD called variant or vCJD and at least 191 cases have been identified, mostly in Britain.



People can have CJD before they know it and in a few suspected cases, blood and organ donors may have unwittingly infected others.



Claudio Soto of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and colleagues infected hamsters with prions, the misfolded nerve proteins believed to cause the diseases, and then tested blood at various times.



They invented a technique known as protein misfolding cyclic amplification to accelerate the process by which prions convert normal proteins to misshapen infectious forms.



"With this method, for the first time we have detected prions in what we call the silent phase of infection, which in humans can last up to 40 years," Soto said in a statement.



Soto and his university have formed a company, called Amprion, to commercially develop the test.



The test may need to be used at precise times, they said. It worked best in hamsters 40 days after infection. It did not detect prions 80 days after infection.



Then at 114 days, after the hamsters started showing symptoms, the blood test again revealed prions. "It has been reported that large quantities of (infectious prions) appear in the brain only a few weeks before the onset of clinical signs," the researchers wrote.



A second study in Science showed that mice infected with prions developed heart disease similar to a type known as amyloid heart disease in people.



Dr Bruce Chesebro of the National Institutes of Health and colleagues said these diseases are marked by waxy protein deposits that stiffen the heart, limit its pumping ability and typically lead to fatal heart stoppage.



"Although several types of protein are known to form heart amyloid, this is the first time prion protein amyloid has been found in heart muscle and also found to cause heart malfunction," Chesebro said.





iol.co.za
 

Murgen

Well-known member
Mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE, is part of the family of prion diseases which also includes scrapie in sheep, chronic wasting disease in deer and elk, and CJD in people

I didn't know they changed the scientific name to the slang.
 

ocm

Well-known member
Murgen said:
Mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE, is part of the family of prion diseases which also includes scrapie in sheep, chronic wasting disease in deer and elk, and CJD in people

I didn't know they changed the scientific name to the slang.

I think you have confused the word "formally" with "formerly".
 

cowsense

Well-known member
OT: Perhaps it's time to borrow against your pension and mortgage the farm to support this new test. :? We've seen it for years now; first with CWD and now BSE; a company has the magic test and they only need a source of capital to further fund, develop and test their product! I'm not saying that they're not legitimate only that the lotteries offer better odds of a return on investment!
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
cowsense said:
OT: Perhaps it's time to borrow against your pension and mortgage the farm to support this new test. :? We've seen it for years now; first with CWD and now BSE; a company has the magic test and they only need a source of capital to further fund, develop and test their product! I'm not saying that they're not legitimate only that the lotteries offer better odds of a return on investment!

Actually cowsense this is the part that I thought most interesting- not the investment opportunity...

The study, published in the journal Science, also suggests that the damaged brain cells may "leak" the infectious prions that cause the diseases, offering a chance to detect the disease in blood.

This is what my old Vet buddy has been saying for the last couple years- that all the studies he had read showed that the prions were not only in the SRM's, but had been found in the nerves and blood which means they have to be in the muscle meat and thruout the carcass...Now heres another study that says prions are in the blood- BSE tester says they are found in urine....Kind of makes USDA's "SRM removal cures all ills" argument dubious-- except almost everything USDA has done or said for the last few years is dubious....

May be the reason my Vet has me selling him his fat beef....
 

bse-tester

Well-known member
If you consider that the reason that we are finding Prions in urine may have something to do with the fact that the kidney's filter the blood, it will all make perfect sense. We tried to tell the CFIA and the USDA but they seemed to think that the link for the blood, the urine and the kidneys made little sense. So much for their science relating to SRM's!!!! Ron.
 

mrj

Well-known member
The things I find most interesting in this piece are the use of words and phrases such as:

POSSIBLE
MAY be POSSIBLE
SUGGESTS
cells MAY leak
offering a CHANCE
COULD also screen
BELIEVED to cause
MAY need to be used at PRECISE times

OT, aren't you the lucky one! otc only gently reminded you that you apparently read a word incorrectly rather than castigating your reading comprehension.

BTW, What are you doing to guarantee all your cattle are BSE free for your vet? Do you send samples from ALL cattle that die unexpectedly in for BSE testing? Dol you test to insure that none are incubating the "spontaneous' form of BSE?
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
MRJ said:
The things I find most interesting in this piece are the use of words and phrases such as:

POSSIBLE
MAY be POSSIBLE
SUGGESTS
cells MAY leak
offering a CHANCE
COULD also screen
BELIEVED to cause
MAY need to be used at PRECISE times

MRJ- Thats the exact same words that make up all your NCBA's "sound science" or "best science available" or "ouija board science" or whatever they are calling it today :lol: :lol:
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
MRJ said:
BTW, What are you doing to guarantee all your cattle are BSE free for your vet?

He knows that mine don't come from Canada, or Mexico, or Timbuktu, haven't been fed any feed additives with cow parts that NCBA refuses to support removing from the feed chain, and haven't been fed Chicken Sh*t...

MRJ- Why isn't NCBA out their working to remove chicken litter from cattle feed? I know the members have opposed it...Or would that mean talking out against their Sugardaddy Tyson :???:
 

Big Muddy rancher

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
MRJ said:
The things I find most interesting in this piece are the use of words and phrases such as:

POSSIBLE
MAY be POSSIBLE
SUGGESTS
cells MAY leak
offering a CHANCE
COULD also screen
BELIEVED to cause
MAY need to be used at PRECISE times

MRJ- Thats the exact same words that make up all your NCBA's "sound science" or "best science available" or "ouija board science" or whatever they are calling it today :lol: :lol:


But but OT how do you guarantee your beef is BSE FREE
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Big Muddy rancher said:
Oldtimer said:
MRJ said:
The things I find most interesting in this piece are the use of words and phrases such as:

POSSIBLE
MAY be POSSIBLE
SUGGESTS
cells MAY leak
offering a CHANCE
COULD also screen
BELIEVED to cause
MAY need to be used at PRECISE times

MRJ- Thats the exact same words that make up all your NCBA's "sound science" or "best science available" or "ouija board science" or whatever they are calling it today :lol: :lol:


But but OT how do you guarantee your beef is BSE FREE

He's kind of like the rest of us-- has to gamble a little...But he likes the best odds he can get :wink:
 

Latest posts

Top