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Live test for BSE announced today

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Topper

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I see Vacci-Test Corporation announced today that they have a live test for BSE. Hope they have.
www.vacci-test.com
 
Wonder if the USDA will sit on their hands and wait 4-5 years before approving this test like they did the rapid tests? Wonder if they'll deny Creekstone these tests? Wonder if the Japs will recognize it?
Wonder, wonder wonder?

Other than that, this "sounds too good to be true". Hope it works.
 
Do you think a live test, shown to be accurate, could be used as a requirement for live cattle trade. Might even be less expensive than the requirements being proposed.
 
Murgen said:
Do you think a live test, shown to be accurate, could be used as a requirement for live cattle trade. Might even be less expensive than the requirements being proposed.

Murgen, If the test is accurate I think it WILL be used for live cattle trade. But then again..............you know how slow the USDA is?

I wonder will this test be "False Advertising" to SH too?
________________________________________________________
EFSA said this week that in the long term an accurate live animal test might offer the possibility to reduce the number of culled animals after the detection of one positive animal.

"A rapid BSE test for live cattle could be approved for the purpose of consumer protection, for epidemiological screening or for both. For the purpose of consumer protection any new rapid BSE test including tests for live animals should not be statistically inferior to that of the currently approved post mortem tests," said the Brussels-based agency, soon to move to Parma in Italy.

EFSA has come up with a protocol for the 'design of a field trial protocol for the evaluation of BSE tests for live cattle for the purpose of consumer protection only.'
European Food Safety Agency
 
I see the critics are already jumping all over this test even before it gets a chance to be proven. I guess if the powers that be don't want it then we won't get it. http://www.canada.com/news/agriculture/story.html?id=505d4e35-37cb-41d8-ae8e-ed3714131100
 
"One of the Vacci-Test directors, former federal Conservative cabinet minister Charlie Mayer, acknowledged selling the idea of the new technology to the United States is difficult."
_____________________________________________________

This statement really makes me feel confident our "USDA". They got caught with their pants down for using 1990 technology in the IHC test. They waited 4-5 years before approving rapid tests............now this. :???: :???: :???:
 
Of the 6 members of the scientific research team, 4 are from France and 2 are from Montreal, Canada.

Dr. Legastelois specialty in microparticle technology, fits snugly with something I'm investigating, and which Reader also mentioned which is "nanotechnology" ("nanoparticles").

This is not a BSE test. It is finding a protein marker associated with BSE (their words) and asssociated with brain injury or infection. That is why it is called BD, for bovine diagnostics.

Just some facts for now. My opinion on this will require alot more investigation. However, as this is not an immune response, (this statement was also made by the company), to name the product "Vacci-Test" is misleading. BSE has nothing to do with infection, as an infection would elicit an immune response of some sort.

One of the other French researchers, Dr. Louis Lery (listed as the inventor) also helped to found the Societe Francaise de Toxicologie. (French Society of Toxicology).

Copied From the companies webpage: (with emphasis [bold letters] added by myself):

Vacci-Test™ BD:

Ongoing endemics and epidemics of infectious diseases afflict several species of ruminants regularly consumed by humans. BSE is an infectious disease found in cattle, which are in the family known as Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies ("TSE"). These diseases are characterized by a long incubation period, a relatively short clinical course of neurological signs, and once in the final stages; the result is 100 percent mortality of the animal. In humans the disease is known as sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease ("CJD") and new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease ("nvCJD"). Both are a class of rare brain TSE diseases. Other TSEs in animals include: Scrapie in Sheep and Cervid Encephalopathy ("Chronic Wasting Disease") in elk and deer. All TSEs are associated with the accumulation of abnormal prion proteins in the brain.

BSE is a degenerative neurological disease in cattle that scientists believe is caused by misfolded and infectious proteins, called "prions" 1, which build up in the central nervous system ("CNS") tissues eventually killing nerve cells. The results are vacuums or holes in the brain. There is "no" immune system response to BSE. Current science indicates that BSE is "not" found in the meat we commonly eat, such as steaks, roasts and ground beef. Studies report that in naturally infected cattle the BSE agent has been found only in CNS tissue, such as brain and spinal cord as well as retina tissue. Scientists believe that BSE does not spread from animal to animal, only through feed containing ruminant-derived meat and bone meal ("MBM") from BSE-infected cattle. The use of ruminant-derived MBM as protein supplement in cattle feed was banned in Canada and the USA in 1997.

The discovery of BSE on May 20, 2003 in Northern Alberta, Canada and December 23, 2003 in a Washington State, USA was a wakeup call for North American producers and consumers in that the threat hanging over the herds might be transmittable to humans. The controversy surrounding that possibility was advanced significantly with the identification of Creutzfeldt-Jakob in a 155 people in the UK in the late 1990's.
Vacci-Test™ BD is the process methodology to detect if cattle have the "potential" to become infected with BSE. At this time, the only existing tests for BSE are post-mortem (performed on dead animals), requiring a specific animal tissue sample. Current testing of Vacci-Test™ BD is based in principle on the detection in the blood of a protein "marker" referred to as "Protein 14-3-3". The lab test results completed by Dr. Louis Léry & Dr. Jacques A. Mayet (the inventors of Vacci-Test™ BD) on 62 known BSE infected tissue samples verified that the Marker showed up each time. These results, along with the results obtained from the current testing of 300 "random" tissue samples, are expected to be completed and ready for publication in scientific journals in October 2004.

The Marker, which is not the infectious agent, is not only produced in the blood when BSE is present, but also in connection with brain tumors; brain trauma; and other infectious diseases of the brain. In fact, this Marker is applicable to all mammals.

A positive diagnosis result does not specifically indicate the presence of BSE, however, at the time of testing it does indicate that the animal is not completely healthy and could have either a brain tumor; brain trauma; or an infectious brain disease, which could potentially be the BSE infection. Animals with BSE would show a positive result for the Marker. Conversely a negative test result of the Marker would indicate that the animal "was healthy" in regards to a brain infection and would be safe for the human food chain.

As a result of the BSE crisis in Canada, with losses to date of approximately $1.6 Billion Cnd. to tax payers, there is an urgent need for a rapid, accurate and inexpensive diagnostic test that could detect the potential of BSE in a blood sample taken from pre-symptomatic cattle. Vacci-Test™ believes Vacci-Test™ BD will prove to be this diagnostic tool, which will create great demand from all producers and government regulators alike.

Vacci-Test™ Corp. is a private Alberta biotechnology corporation whose objective is to perfect, adapt and commercialize the patented Vacci-Test™ technology, that are rapid and economical diagnostic tests for identifying infectious diseases both bacterial and viral.

Intended for use in both human and veterinary medicine, Vacci-Test™ products were researched, developed and manufactured by partnered companies in Europe and will be commercialized by Vacci-Test™ corporation throughout the world.

Dr. Stephane Legastelois, Dr. of Biochemistry
Member Scientific Committee
Dr. Legastelois is President of Indicia Biotechnology ("Indicia"), a European based company from Ouillins, France, which specializes in microparticle technology. Indicia, under the guidance of Dr. Legastelois will focus its efforts on the development of the 2nd generation Vacci-Test™ kits ("Yes/No Cassette") thus integrating their microparticle technology and covering the entire R&D phase until the validation for the Vacci-Test™ "final cassette kit" is ready for regulatory registration. This process will significantly increase the shelf life of the Vacci-Test™ kit from 18 months up to 3-years.
------------------

The Marker, which is not the infectious agent

This statement absolutely makes me laugh, as there is no infectious agent to be found. Just a nucleating agent, which is a metal. (In my humble and educated opinion.)

Sounds like Dr. Vitaly Vodyanoy of Auburn University in Alabama, hit the nail on the head!
 
Murgen said:
Sorry, guys, but the link did not work for me, is there another one?

The Vacci-Test link didn't work for me in Firefox, so I opened it in Explorer.

The news link worked fine for me.
 
Nice to see a Canadian company stepping up to the plate and taking this on themselves, I bet the political hurdles will be great. I hope they get it done. At $20, it's the first step towards reassuring our customers that the product is safe. With a system like ViewTrak http://www.viewtrak.com/

This will all come together. Staff, there are other products out there that compare to yours. And no I do not work for ViewTrak.
 
taken from news article Topper listed:

As part of the scientific review, the test was used on samples of BSE-infected blood supplied by the French Food Safety Agency as well as the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, England.

The infected blood was tested along with samples of non-infected blood and the results were more than encouraging he said.


I'm having a problem with this statement. "Samples of BSE-infected blood"...

First, prions are not in blood. So, how do you get BSE infected blood?

Second, does this mean they took samples of diseased brain, isolated and concentrated the malformed prions, homogenized etc. and inserted a specific amount of homogenate into the blood? This sounds alot like the Pall Corp. news release. They added concentrated tissue into the blood sample, and then claimed they removed them from the blood, leading everyone to believe there are prions in blood.

Vacci-Test is at least admitting to only finding a biomarker of brain injury. However, there terminology is questionable: "infected blood" or more likely, "contaminated blood".
 
I would think that instead of crying about terminology that Vacci-Test use it could be quite easy to do a test of their system. If you put blood from a bse positive cow in thousands of samples and they could pick it out that would convince me they are on the right track. But I guess that would be too easy. It's easier to just call them a bunch of quacks and dismiss their work.
 
May I remind everyone that a German company and a US company were the first to have a live animal blood BSE test last YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!
 
PORKER said:
May I remind everyone that a German company and a US company were the first to have a live animal blood BSE test last YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!
I was waiting for somone to mention that. Until a test is accepted and put in use it is no more than research. I hope there is a live test at some time but the one recently announced is 97% accurate. Will that be high enough to gain gov't approval?
 
Alberta company says BSE test ready by fall

By Bill Graveland

CALGARY (CP) -- Using expertise developed in Europe, a Calgary-based research company said Thursday it expects to have a live-cattle test for BSE ready for market this fall.

But industry leaders say any such test for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease, faces large hurdles before acceptance.

Officials with Vacci-Test Corporation said their test evaluates the immune status rapidly through a simple blood test that looks for a protein marker that identifies brain infections such as BSE in cattle.

"From the science point of view the discoveries are there. We're over that end of it," said Bill Hogan, president and CEO of Vacci-Test.

"It's now finishing all the documentation. Once you get the validation you are in the market with the product. We expect that to be September or October of this year," he said.

As part of the scientific review, the test was used on samples of BSE-infected blood supplied by the French Food Safety Agency as well as the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, England.

The infected blood was tested along with samples of non-infected blood and the results were more than encouraging he said.

"Our tests with certainty picked out the BSE every time," said Hogan but he acknowledged it's not 100 per cent effective.

"Ninety-six, 97 per cent for sensitivity. Like in chemistry there is never 100 per cent but that is extremely high," Hogan said.

The next step is to transfer the final results to the European Food Commission and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. It should be validated and ready for market, at $20 per animal, this fall said Hogan.

But an official with the Canadian Cattlemen's Association doubts it will be quite that easy.

"Ultimately in order for it to have any validity it will have to be sanctioned by the World Animal Health Organization," said assistant general manager Rob McNabb.

"It's going to be of no value to us in the short-term until it becomes a validated test," he said.

Doug Fee of the Canadian Angus Association agreed the test, although positive, isn't going to be a cure-all.

"They've got a couple of hurdles to make. One is international assistance and until it gets that international acceptance I don't think it's going to do too well in the market," said Fee, the association's CEO.

"If this is going to be valid internationally the Americans are still our major trading partner and it's going to have to have American acceptance to be of any use."

One of the Vacci-Test directors, former federal Conservative cabinet minister Charlie Mayer, acknowledged selling the idea of the new technology to the United States is difficult.

"Sure we're going to run into some political issues but we'll deal with them," said Mayer.

"We feel this is a major step for the cattle industry and consumers and we're going to pursue it."

Canada's cattle industry has suffered greatly for two years since a single case of mad cow disease was diagnosed in an Alberta cow and international borders slammed shut to live cattle.
 
Bill said:
PORKER said:
May I remind everyone that a German company and a US company were the first to have a live animal blood BSE test last YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!
I was waiting for somone to mention that. Until a test is accepted and put in use it is no more than research. I hope there is a live test at some time but the one recently announced is 97% accurate. Will that be high enough to gain gov't approval?

From what I understand the live test will have a 97% accuracy meaning that 3% might have a false negative rate and will have a 100% rate for showing neurological (brain) dysfunctions. Please correct me if I'm wrong! Seeing as how such a small percentage of cattle actually have BSE there should be a very low number of animals that would slip through that 3% window. VERY LOW

In science there is little that is 100%.

I'm wondering at what stage of "BSE" will these live tests show results. Obviously, they can't have the "full blown" symptoms, but is it 2 days after
developing prions or is it 2 years?
 
Topper don't be so sensitive!

Would you want the CFIA, OIE, etc. to just approve products based on what the manufacturer claims?

My question here was did they use blood from naturally diseased animals, inoculated animals, or did they spike blood with prion particles?

Dr. David Brown's study "Metal imbalance and compromised antioxidant function are early changes in prion disease" (abstract):

The prion protein (PrP) has been shown to bind copper. In the
present study we have investigated whether prion disease in a
mouse scrapie model resulted in modi®cation of metal concentrations.
We found changes in the levels of copper and manganese
in the brains of scrapie-infected mice prior to the onset of clinical
symptoms. Interestingly, we noted a major increase in blood
manganese in the early stages of disease. Analysis of puri®ed PrP
from the brains of scrapie-infected mice also showed a reduction
in copper binding to the protein and a proportional decrease in
antioxidant activity between 30 and 60 days post-inoculation.
We postulate that alterations in trace-element metabolism as a
result of changes in metal binding to PrP are central to the
pathological modi®cations in prion disease.


This imbalance of metals could be a foundation for a pre-visible-clinical symptoms BSE blood-test kit too, but I would hope we understand the technology before we invest our lives, and life-savings into it.

I can't imagine that this new test will be ready for fall, considering the rate that approval systems work. This will require acceptance by OIE, USDA, CFIA and other UK and EU authorities before it is put into mass production.
 
Kathy, keep in mind that a whole lot of people want to see a light at the end of the tunnel and this could be it.

My guess is that this thing will be approved in record time. Let's hope so. This industry needs all the help it can get. Not that we want something that isn't reliable, but I would think that a lot of bureaucracy will be cut this time.

Woo-whoo, can you imagine the feathers that tthat would ruffle! :D
 

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