- (AFP) -- British scientists have detected a previously
unknown brain condition, which caused paralysis and death in a young cow,
in a potential new blow to an industry badly hit by mad cow disease.
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- Britain's Department for Environment and Rural Affairs
says an investigation has been launched.
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- The investigation began after a white material was found
on the brain of a heifer, which died after suffering paralysis for around
five or six days.
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- A spokesman says the animals have been tested for known
bovine diseases but none have been detected.
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- "The Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) have recorded
possibly a new condition in cattle in the UK," he said.
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- "In layman's terms, a type of cattle polio was identified
which we haven't seen before."
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- A series of diseases have already been ruled out, including
louping-ill, a virus transmitted by ticks that causes inflammation of the
brain and spinal cord.
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- Tests for West Nile disease, a virus spread by mosquitoes
that has never been seen in Britain, and for bovine herpes 1 also came
up negative.
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- The spokesman says it is too soon to say whether there
was any potential risk to humans.
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- "The long-term risk to public health is not known.
It is impossible to make an assessment from a single case where the agent
responsible is not known."
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- Britain's beef industry has been severely hit since cases
of the human form of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy
(BSE), were first detected in 1996.
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- Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or vCJD, which causes
a spongy deterioration of the brain, has killed at least 141 Britons and
led to wholesale bans on British beef being exported.
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- © 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1127547.htm
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