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Creekstone BSE case: Latest rulings and a ‘new test' develop

flounder

Well-known member
Creekstone BSE case: Latest rulings and a ‘new test' development

By DARYLL E. RAY
Friday, October 10, 2008 4:30 PM CDT







The discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), often referred to as Mad Cow Disease, in the U.S. cattle herd in December 2003 resulted in precipitous drop in U.S. beef exports. In order to reclaim its share of those export markets, Creekstone Farm Premium Beef decided in early 2004 to test each cow it slaughters for BSE.

Creekstone ordered the test kits from Bio-Rad Laboratories only to be told that USDA approval was needed for the sale of the kits. Creekstone then contacted the USDA to obtain permission to purchase the test kits, only to be denied.

The USDA wrote, “allowing a company to use a BSE test in a private marketing program is inconsistent with USDA's mandate to ensure effective, scientifically sound testing for significant animal diseases and maintain domestic and international confidence in U.S. cattle and beef products.”

The USDA claimed its authority to deny Creekstone permission to use the tests comes from a 1913 law, the Virus-Serum-Toxin Act (VSTA), which makes it “unlawfulŠto prepare, sell, barter, or exchangeŠor to ship or deliver for shipmentŠany worthless, contaminated, dangerous, or harmful virus, serum, toxin, or analogous products intended for use in the treatment of domestic animals.”



The USDA contends that the rapid BSE test Creekstone wanted to purchase is an analogous product.

Creekstone filed suit against the USDA in district court on three counts: 1) the USDA had no authority to make regulations restricting the use of products, 2) BSE testing is not being used in the treatment of domestic animals because they have already been slaughtered when the test is used, and 3) the USDA denial is arbitrary and capricious, a violation of the Administrative Procedures Act.

The district court ruled against Creekstone on the first count agreeing with the USDA that it had the authority to make the regulations it used in denying Creekstone's request. With regard to the second count, the court agreed that the USDA cannot regulate BSE testing because there is no known cure for BSE and the testing can only be done post-mortem. No decision was made on Creekstone's third argument.

Both sides appealed the district court's March 29, 2007 ruling to the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals. Seventeen months later on Aug. 29, 2008, the appeals court released its opinion ruling that the district court was correct in affirming the USDA's rule making authority in this instance. As to the second count, the appeals court overturned the district court's reasoning that, given its use is targeted testing of high risk animals, the USDA authority to regulate the test kits is reasonable and can restrict their use.

The case was then sent back to the district court to rule on the third count to determine whether or not USDA's actions were arbitrary and capricious.

In the same time period that this ruling was promulgated by the appeals court, Canadian researchers, Sharon LR Simon et. al., announced the discovery that BSE can be detected in live animals using urine to detect the presence of BSE in an animal and the length of time the animal has been infected. The results of their research have been published in Proteome Science in an article titled, “The identification of disease-induced biomarkers in the urine of BSE infected cattle,” www.proteomesci.com/contents/6/1/23.

If their preliminary findings result in a test that can be made on live animals, it seems likely that some beef producers would want to use it to certify that their herd is BSE-free.

With that news and the ruling of the appeals court, it would seem that the issue of BSE testing of animals, alive or dead, is alive and well.

The next two things to watch for are, 1) the district court judgment on Creekstone's “arbitrary and capricious” argument, and 2) whether or not the Canadian researchers can transform their laboratory analysis into a reliable and economical test that can be put on the market.

(Daryll E. Ray holds the Blasingame Chair of Excellence in Agricultural Policy, Institute of Agriculture, University of Tennessee, and is the Director of UT's Agricultural Policy Analysis Center (APAC). (865) 974-7407; Fax: (865) 974-7298; [email protected]; http://www.agpolicy.org. Daryll Ray's column is written with the research and assistance of Harwood D. Schaffer, Research Associate with APAC.)



http://www.farmandranchguide.com/articles/2008/10/17/bullseye/letters_editorial/letter11.txt



The identification of disease-induced biomarkers in the urine of BSE infected cattle
Sharon LR Simon1 , Lise Lamoureux1 , Margot Plews1 , Michael Stobart1,2 , Jillian LeMaistre3 , Ute Ziegler4 , Catherine Graham5 , Stefanie Czub5 , Martin Groschup4 and J David Knox1,2

1Prion Diseases Program, Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, R3E 3P6, Canada

2Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, R3E 0W3, Canada

3Department of Pharmacology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, R2H 2A6, Canada

4Institute for Novel and Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Friedrich-Loeffler Institut, 17493 Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany

5Animal Diseases Research Institute, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Lethbridge, T1J 3Z4, Canada

author email corresponding author email

Proteome Science 2008, 6:23doi:10.1186/1477-5956-6-23

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.proteomesci.com/content/6/1/23

Received: 9 May 2008
Accepted: 5 September 2008
Published: 5 September 2008


© 2008 Simon et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract
Background
The bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) epidemic and the emergence of a new human variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) have led to profound changes in the production and trade of agricultural goods. The rapid tests currently approved for BSE monitoring in slaughtered cattle are all based on the detection of the disease related isoform of the prion protein, PrPd, in brain tissue and consequently are only suitable for post-mortem diagnosis. Objectives: In instances such as assessing the health of breeding stock for export purposes where post-mortem testing is not an option, there is a demand for an ante-mortem test based on a matrix or body fluid that would permit easy access and repeated sampling. Urine and urine based analyses would meet these requirements.

Results
Two dimensional differential gel eletrophoresis (2D-DIGE) and mass spectrometry analyses were used to identify proteins exhibiting differential abundance in the urine of BSE infected cattle and age matched controls over the course of the disease. Multivariate analyses of protein expression data identified a single protein able to discriminate, with 100% accuracy, control from infected samples. In addition, a subset of proteins were able to predict with 85% ± 13.2 accuracy the time post infection that the samples were collected.

Conclusion
These results suggest that in principle it is possible to identify biomarkers in urine useful in the diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring of disease progression of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy diseases (TSEs).



http://www.proteomesci.com/content/6/1/23



Matt wrote on Nov 10, 2008 7:04 AM:

" I do not understand why the USDA would not want to permit the use of a test that would help insure meat safety..."

IF you don't look, you don't find. The USDA has been covering-up (by ignorance and the don't look, don't tell policy) BSE and other TSE in the USA bovine for a decade or better. THIS has been proven. plus, with a disease with such a long incubation, 'joe cue public', just does not care, until they are too old to know better, by then it's too late. ...TSS

and with a USDA BSE/TSE testing program such as this ;

Owner and Corporation Plead Guilty to Defrauding Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Surveillance Program

PLEASE SEE FULL TEXT ;

Monday, June 16, 2008 Mad Cows and Computer Models: The U.S. Response to BSE

http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/

Owner and Corporation Plead Guilty to Defrauding Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Surveillance Program

An Arizona meat processing company and its owner pled guilty in February 2007 to charges of theft of Government funds, mail fraud, and wire fraud. The owner and his company defrauded the BSE Surveillance Program when they falsified BSE Surveillance Data Collection Forms and then submitted payment requests to USDA for the services. In addition to the targeted sample population (those cattle that were more than 30 months old or had other risk factors for BSE), the owner submitted to USDA, or caused to be submitted, BSE obex (brain stem) samples from healthy USDA-inspected cattle. As a result, the owner fraudulently received approximately $390,000. Sentencing is scheduled for May 2007.

snip...

Topics that will be covered in ongoing or planned reviews under Goal 1 include:

soundness of BSE maintenance sampling (APHIS),

implementation of Performance-Based Inspection System enhancements for specified risk material (SRM) violations and improved inspection controls over SRMs (FSIS and APHIS),

snip...

The findings and recommendations from these efforts will be covered in future semiannual reports as the relevant audits and investigations are completed.

4 USDA OIG SEMIANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS FY 2007 1st Half

http://www.usda.gov/oig/webdocs/sarc070619.pdf

snip... please see full text ;

http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2008/06/mad-cows-and-computer-models-us.html

http://downercattle.blogspot.com/

what more could one expect, God save the industry at all cost, including human life $$$

http://madcowtesting.blogspot.com/

TSS
 

burnt

Well-known member
It makes one wonder what might have been if the U.S. would have used the same transparent approach as employed by Canada to its BSE problem. Just how far ahead would everyone's industry be now?

But no, that would have been too easy. Instead, the U.S has steadfastly proclaimed its herd to be clean. Kinda like a ho wearing a white wedding gown! :lol: :lol: :lol:

I guess your credibility isn't important when you carry the biggest stick . . . :roll:
 

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