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'Missing' report on CJD found in files

Econ101

Well-known member
'Missing' report on CJD found in files



UPI / UK



CARDIFF, Wales, June 5, 2006 (UPI) -- Two copies of a report on meat tainted with mad-cow disease at Welsh schools turned up in government archives after officials said all had been lost.



The ITV program "Wales This Week" used the Freedom of Information Act to find one copy in the archives of the National Assembly's agriculture division. The other was in the files of the Carmarthenshire County Council, the Western Mail reported.



Three people died of Creuzer-Jacob disease between 1999 and 2002. All had apparently been infected years earlier from eating meat served at their schools.



The missing document was known as the Keane report after the lawyer who headed a 1990 inquiry into conditions at the slaughterhouse where meat for the schools was butchered. The investigation found that a cattle dealer had paid the slaughterhouse to use the facilities to kill diseased animals.



The National Public Health Service plans to reopen its investigation into the deaths now that the Keane report has turned up, the report said.





upi.com
 

flounder

Well-known member
CJD WATCH MESSAGE BOARD
Anonymous
Re: Shock twist in Welsh CJD deaths
Mon Jun 5, 2006 08:58
70.110.87.201


22. I received a Memo from CEHA dated 11th December 1995 asking me to
respond to a
letter which he had received from Mr H. Lewis, Director of Housing and
Environment
for Lliw Valley Borough Council (YB 95/12.11/12.1). Mr Lewis wanted to know
the Welsh Office view on whether beef should be withdrawn from school lunch
menus
and whether the Welsh Office would be issuing a statement to that effect. I
wrote a
letter of reply to Mr Lewis on 12th December 1995 (YB 95/12.12/10.1) and
received a further letter from Mr Lewis dated 18th December 1995 (YB
95/12.18/10.1).



http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1995/12/12010001.pdf


http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1995/12/18010001.pdf


TSS



----- Original Message -----
From: "Terry S. Singeltary Sr." <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 8:46 AM
Subject: Shock twist in Welsh CJD deaths


##################### Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
#####################

Subject: Shock twist in Welsh CJD deaths
Date: June 5, 2006 at 6:13 am PST
Shock twist in Welsh CJD deaths

Jun 5 2006



Paul Rowland, Western Mail



AN OFFICIAL investigation into the CJD deaths of three Welsh people has been
reopened after new evidence was discovered in an unpublished report.

The report, written 15 years ago, offers crucial clues into how school meals
in West Wales may have been infected with the human form of mad cow disease.

But it has only been brought to light as a result of an investigation by ITV
current affairs programme Wales This Week.

The father of one of the three victims of the disease has described the
oversight as "incredible".

The 1991 Keane Report, as it was known, was discovered in the archives of
the National Assembly's agriculture division, and obtained under the Freedom
of Information Act. A second copy was later found in the archives of
Carmarthenshire County Council - even though an inquiry in 2004 by the
National Public Health Service for Wales failed to locate a single one.

Philip Davies, the council's head of public protection and also a member of
the team which investigated the CJD cases, had been unable to find a copy.


Marianne Harvey, 25, from Stepaside, near Tenby, Richard Cole, 30, of
Kilgetty, and Richard Roberts, 18, of Carmarthen, all died from the human
form of mad cow disease between 1999 and 2002.


The 2004 inquiry found they had all eaten school dinners in 1987 and 1988 -
Ms Harvey and Mr Cole at Greenhill School in Tenby, and Mr Roberts at
Johnstown Primary School in Carmarthen.


The inquiry suggested their deaths may have been linked to eating school
dinners after it was discovered the abattoir used to supply the schools they
attended was also being used to slaughter animals deemed unfit for human
consumption.


But the report decided there was no firm evidence to prove contamination.


Tonight ITV current affairs programme Wales This Week is set to reveal that
offal deemed unfit for human consumption could have been processed in
exactly the same area in which meat was being prepared for shipment to
schools at the Pwll Bach abattoir in Llanelli.


The programme will reveal the information from the newly-discovered Keane
Report, named after the barrister who chaired the inquiry way back in 1990.
And the National Public Health Service for Wales has confirmed that it is
now reopening the inquiry into the three deaths.


But Terry Roberts, a retired police officer whose son Richard died of CJD in
2002, is angry that the Keane Report, commissioned by Llanelli Borough
Council in 1990, has taken so long to surface.


He said, "The meat scandal was high profile at the time, and everyone knew
that Mr Keane QC had held an inquiry. We were able to obtain copies of many
of the statements, but not the report.


"It seems incredible that the inquiry team, with their access to all kinds
of public records, weren't able to find a copy.


"After all, ITV Wales found one in the Government's own records."


Mr Roberts added that he found news of the discovery of a second copy of the
report in the Carmarthenshire archives "absolutely amazing".


The schools attended by the three victims were all supplied by a wholesaler,
based at the abattoir, who held an exclusive contract to supply meat to
schools in the old county of Dyfed. There has never been any criticism of
the way in which the Thomas family, which ran the abattoir at the time,
performed its duties.


The 2004 investigation found that while the abattoir and wholesaler both
operated legally and produced high-quality meat, the facility was also used
by Cross Hands-based cattle dealer Philip Murrell, who may have been a
source of infection.


Mr Murrell was allowed to use the abattoir to slaughter fallen and casualty
animals, and was the subject of a police investigation over allegations that
he was dealing in unfit meat. The Crown Prosecution Service decided there
was insufficient evidence to bring charges.


It had previously been assumed that Mr Murrell's business was kept entirely
separate from the school meals contract, using different workers at
different times, but the Keane Report says Mr Murrell was paying the
abattoir owners partly in offal. The report goes on to suggest that some of
his animals were sick and diseased and not fit for the human food chain, and
suggests this meat could have been prepared in the same area as the school
meat.


A spokesman for the Thomas family told ITV Wales that Mr Murrell's offal
never went anywhere near the school meat contract. Mr Murrell was
unavailable for comment.


The abattoir, in Dafen, Llanelli, is still operating, but is now under new
management, and is one of the most modern slaughterhouses in Wales, with a
clean bill of health from the Meat Hygiene Service.


Wales This Week is on ITV Wales at 8pm tonight


Page 2 - Changes in tissue

Changes in tissue
Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob (vCJD) disease and BSE are new forms of a family
of diseases, known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs),
which have been recognised for hundreds of years.

TSEs are thought to be caused by the prion protein, which is found mainly in
the brain and spinal cord. In TSE-infected people or animals, these proteins
become abnormal and appear to trigger a gradual degeneration of brain
tissue, although it is not known why this change occurs.

There are three types of human TSE. Classical or "sporadic"
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is the most common and affects only one
person per million worldwide.

It is referred to as "sporadic" because there is no identifiable cause. It
was first identified in the 1920s and typically affects the elderly.

Familial CJD, in which there is a family history, occurs even more rarely,
in about one out of 10 of all CJD cases.

The first cases of vCJD occurred in 1995. It is thought that vCJD in people
has resulted from exposure to BSE - the most likely route being through
eating affected meat.


A major difference between the two main types of CJD is that vCJD occurs in
younger people - the average age of death is around 29 years, compared to 65
years for sporadic CJD - and the period of illness is longer.


On average, the disease claims the life of its victims a year after the
first symptoms appear.


(Source: Department of Health)



http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/health/tm_objectid=17176420%26method=full%26siteid=50082%26headline=shock%2dtwist%2din%2dwelsh%2dcjd%2ddeaths-name_page.html


http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/health/tm_objectid=17176420%26method=full%26siteid=50082%26page=2%26headline=shock%2dtwist%2din%2dwelsh%2dcjd%2ddeaths-name_page.html


MARCH 2005


http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_objectid=15251493&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=cjd-deaths-linked-to-school-meat-name_page.html


PAPERS OF INTEREST

CJD SURVEILLANCE 1990

http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1991/01/22003001.pdf

http://www.ucc.ie/acad/foodbus/FoodBusiness/DiscussionPapersPDF/paper21.pdf


TSS

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