- A ProMED-mail post
- ProMED-mail is a program of the
- International Society for Infectious Diseases
-
- In these updates:
- [1] UK - inquiry
- [2] France - multi-annual incidence
- [3]& [4] Switzerland - zoo zebu
-
- ******
- [1] UK - inquiry
- Date: Sat, 3 Jul 2004
- From: ProMED-mail<promed@promedmail.org
- Source: Meatnews.com, 1 Jul 2004 [edited]
- http://www.meatnews.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Article&artNum=7764
-
-
- BSE Inquiry
-
- -----------
-
- The British Food Standards Agency has appointed an independent
steering group to oversee an inquiry into recent failures to test some
cattle for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Earlier in June 2004,
the FSA announced an investigation into an apparent failure by the Meat
Hygiene Service to test some casualty cattle aged between 24 and 30 months
for BSE before they entered the food chain.
-
- Although the testing is required for surveillance purposes
and not as a public health protection measure, the FSA chair and board
requested that a full independent inquiry be carried out into the reasons
for this as quickly as possible.
-
- The steering group has been set up to oversee this inquiry
and to establish why these failures were not identified earlier. The chairman
of the group is Dr Patrick Wall, who is both a medical doctor and a veterinarian.
He is a professor of Food Safety in the Center for Food Safety in University
College, Dublin, Ireland, and the former chief executive of the Food Safety
Authority of Ireland. He is also a member of the management board of the
European Food Safety Authority.
-
- Wall will be joined by veterinarian Peter Jinman, a former
president of the British Veterinary Association and a member of the Spongiform
Encephalopathy Advisory Committee. He has 25 years of experience of handling
agricultural veterinary issues and is a member of the Royal College of
Veterinary Surgeons. The 3rd member of the group, Barbara Saunders, works
as a consultant in consumer affairs. She also served on the former FSA's
Food Advisory Committee. Independent expert auditors PKF will complete
the investigation on behalf of the steering group. Veterinary advice will
be made available to them.
-
- Following their inquiry, the group will make recommendations
on how best to minimise the risk of this problem recurring. It is due to
report back to the FSA Board by the end of September. The findings will
be published afterwards. Casualty cattle are animals subject to special
emergency slaughter, because of an accident or other serious condition,
or found sick or to have an abnormality at antemortem inspection.
-
- ******
- [2] France - multi-annual incidence
- Date: Sat, 3 Jul 2004
- From: ProMED-mail<promed@promedmail.org
- Source: Meatnews.com, 1 Jul 2004 [edited]
- http://www.meatnews.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Article&artNum=7775
-
-
- BSE study in France
-
- -------------------
-
- More than 300 000 cattle in France may have been infected
with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) since the disease first appeared
in the 1980s, according to an article in the scientific publication Veterinary
Research and reported in the French newspaper Figaro. Since the disease
was first discovered in France in 1991, to date 923 cases have been officially
reported.
-
- The French researchers -- Virginie Supervie and Dominique
Costaglio -- concluded that, between 1980 and June 2000, a total of 301
200 bovines were infected with BSE in France. They based their conclusion
on the amount of meat and bone meal from the United Kingdom used in France
during the 1980s, and the fact that most cattle are infected with the disease
between the ages of 6 to 12 months. The majority of beef cattle in France
are slaughtered before 24 months of age. The infected animals would have
been killed before the disease could have shown itself, because of BSE's
long incubation period.
-
- In 1990, France banned the use of meat and bone meal
in cattle feed. The law was modified in 1996 and 2000 to ban it from being
fed to all ruminant feeds. The researchers said that because a large amount
of British meat and bone used in France before the ban, it is reasonable
to assume that the disease was more widespread in the national herd during
the 1980s than first believed.
-
- ******
- [3] Switzerland - zoo zebu
- Date: Sat, 3 Jul 2004
- From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org
- Source: Office International des Epizooties (OIE) Disease
Information 2004;
- 17(27) 2 Jul [edited]
- <http://www.oie.int/eng/info/hebdo/AIS_38.HTM#Sec9
-
-
- Bovine spongiform encephalopathy in Switzerland in a
zoo zebu
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------
-
- [The regular-sized zebu is a type of Asiatic ox that
has a fleshy hump, floppy ears, a loose dewlap, and is highly resistant
to the effects of heat and insect attack. Ref: Webster's New Collegiate
Dictionary]
-
- This emergency report is based on nformation received
on (and dated) 2 Jul 2004 from Dr Hans Wyss, director of the Federal Veterinary
Office, Bern:
-
- The animal health incident was first detected on 7 Apr
2004. The estimated date of primary infection is unknown. The nature of
the diagnosis has been determined by clinical, postmortem, and laboratory
evidence.
-
- Outbreaks:
- Location / No. of outbreaks
- Basel / 1 (zoological garden)
- Description of affected population: a dwarf zebu (_Bos
primigenius
- indicus_), male, born on 24 Jun 1985.
-
- Total number of animals in the outbreak:
- species/ susceptible/ cases/ deaths/ destroyed/ slaughtered
- bov / 5 / 1 / 1 / 0 / 0
-
- Diagnosis:
- The diagnosis was made at the Institute of Animal Neurology,
University of Bern (OIE Reference Laboratory for bovine spongiform encephalopathy)using
histology; immunohistochemistry; ELISA (2 different kits); and western
blot. All tests gave positive results.
-
- Source of agent / origin of infection: probably feed
with meat-and-bone meal.
-
- Control measures: movement restrictions.
-
- ******
- [4] Switzerland - zoo zebu
- Date: Sat, 3 Jul 2004
- From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org
- Source: Toronto Star, 2 Jul 2004 [edited]
- http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/
- Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1088764235974&call_pageid=9683321888
- 54&col=968350060724&tacodalogin=no
-
-
- Mad cow disease case in a dwarf zebu
-
- ------------------------------------
-
- Swiss veterinarians said today that they have discovered
the world's first case of BSE in a dwarf zebu. The disease was found in
an 18 year old male dwarf zebu at a zoo in the northern city of Basel after
the animal began slipping and running into obstacles with its horns, the
Swiss Federal Veterinary Office said.
-
- The diagnosis was confirmed in an examination of the
zebu's brain after the animal was put down in April. BSE is linked to Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease, a similar fatal brain-wasting condition found in humans.
-
- While regular zebus are a type of domesticated cattle
found throughout Asia and Africa, the dwarf zebu is a distinct species.
The Swiss veterinarians said it was not clear how the animal became infected.
The disease was first detected in domestic cattle in Switzerland in the
1990s, and the last reported case in cattle was in December 2003.
-
- But "until now there was no evidence that (dwarf)
zebus could be affected by BSE," the statement said. Although there
has never been a BSE case reported in a dwarf zebu before, British zoos
have found the disease in other bovines, including kudus, bison, elands,
and nyalas. No case has ever been reported in the wild.
-
- --
- ProMED-mail
- <promed@promedmail.org
-
- [According to the OIE data, the current list of bovidae
susceptible to BSE
- -- to which the dwarf zebu [_Bos primigenius indicus_]
should now be added
- -- includes: domestic cattle, nyala [_Tragelaphus angasi_],
greater kudu
- [_Tragelaphus strepsiceros_] and presumed similar origin
for cases in
- gemsbok [_Oryx gazella_], Arabian oryx [_Oryx leucoryx_],
eland
- [_Taurotragus oryx_], scimitar-horned oryx [_Oryx dammah_]
and bison
- [_Bison bison_]).
-
- It would be interesting to note when this old animal
was last exposed to contaminated feed.
-
- Switzerland reported in November 1990 the first BSE case
on the European mainland which could not be attributed to an animal imported
from Great Britain. According to the official Swiss data, the infection
was presumably due to feed constituents that had been inadequately heated;
material which originated from Britain was most probably given new origin
labelling and then imported via an indirect route, as according to the
Swiss foreign trade statistics, only very small quantities of meat-and-bone
meal were imported directly from Great Britain.
-
- Since 1990, 453 BSE cases have been recorded in Switzerland
in indigenous cattle. Switzerland was the first country to introduce active
monitoring of BSE, in 1999; the Swiss prionic BSE test is used for the
systematic testing of groups of cows at risk. The annual BSE incidence
rate (number of indigenous cases per million bovines aged over 24 months)
during the years 1999-2003 was 58.7, 40.6, 49.1, 27.93, and 24.86, respectively.
- Mod.AS]
-
-
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at: http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?
Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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