- USDA Testing Changes Ordered After US Mad
Cow Case
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- By Donald G. McNeil, Jr.
- NY Times
- 6-26-4
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- Substantial changes in the nation's mad cow testing system
were ordered yesterday after British tests on a cow slaughtered in November
2004 confirmed that it had the disease even though the American "gold
standard" test said it did not.
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- "The protocol we developed just a few years ago
to conduct the tests might not be the best option today," Agriculture
Secretary Mike Johanns said in making the announcement. "Science is
ever evolving."
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- At an afternoon news conference in Washington, Mr. Johanns
described serious errors in the testing in the United States on the animal,
the 2nd one found with mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform
encephalopathy. But he also defended the safety of American beef, reminding
reporters that the animal had been incinerated rather than being ground
into hamburger, as the 1st one was in late 2003.
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- The head of the testing laboratory in Weybridge, England,
who joined the news conference by telephone, said he was "pretty confident"
that the incidence of mad cow disease in American herds was "very
little indeed." Of 388 000 tests in the last year, only 3 positive
rapid tests have been found, and only this one has been confirmed.
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- Until yesterday, the Agriculture Department used a rapid
test called an Elisa [ELISA, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay] and confirmed
any positives with a slower immunohistochemistry test, which it calls the
"gold standard."
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- The Europeans and the Japanese use those tests, but routinely
add a confirmatory western blot test, which is more sensitive. The Agriculture
Department asked the English laboratory, regarded as one of the world's
best, to retest the samples.
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- In response to questions, Dr. John Clifford, the Agriculture
Department's chief veterinarian, revealed another surprise: the animal's
disease strain did not closely resemble the British-style strain found
in the 1st mad cow, which was born in Canada and raised in Washington State.
Instead, it was closer to a strain found in France -- a result, another
scientist said, that suggested that the infection had come from a different
pool of infected feed, possibly imported from France.
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- Mr. Johanns refused to give details about the animal,
other than to repeat that it was born before the 1997 ban on feeding ruminant
protein to ruminants, that it was raised for beef, not dairy, and that
it was too crippled to walk when it was killed. There was "no evidence"
that it was born outside the United States, Mr. Johanns said, and its brain
was sampled for tests at a plant specializing in diseased and dead animals.
Most beef animals are slaughtered when they are less than 3 years old.
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- DNA tests will be started to find the herd it was raised
with, Mr. Johanns said. Normally, an infected animal's whole herd is slaughtered
on the assumption that all ate the same feed.
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- He described several errors in the testing process in
the United States: (1) The brain samples were frozen, which makes some
tests harder. (2) Parts from 5 carcasses were temporarily mixed up. (3)
No written records were kept.
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- Also, after the animal tested positive on 2 rapid ELISA
tests and then negative on the slower, "gold standard" test,
another "experimental" test was done that came up positive.
Mr. Johanns would not describe it, but an Agriculture Department Web site
said it was an enhanced version of the "gold standard" test.
Ed Loyd, an Agriculture Department spokesman, said yesterday's announcement
that all positive rapid tests would now be confirmed both with the immunohistochemistry
test and a western blot "took care" of such complaints and showed
that the department was not complacent.
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- Mr. Johanns also ordered the Agriculture Department's
national laboratory in Ames, Iowa, to reassess the antibodies in its immunohistochemistry
test, because the British laboratory's antibodies attached to the misfolded
brain proteins, called prions, that cause the disease, while the American
laboratory's apparently did not. The test is not purchased off the shelf,
he said, and every laboratory must make its own. Mr. Johanns said that
the animal did not have many prions and that they were concentrated in
unusual areas of the brain, so one laboratory's test might miss the infection
while another caught it.
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- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/25/national/25cow.html
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- ProMED-mail
- promed@promedmail.org
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- The non-contributory remarks and comments have been deleted.
Last week I asked a senior colleague in Austin, Texas whether he could
confirm that this was a Texas cow, to which he replied, "No comment,"
so we can, I believe, safely assume that it was. Where it was raised as
a calf is another question awaiting answers. - Mod.MHJ
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- ******
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- Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy In The US
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- Information received on 27 Jun 2005 from Dr Peter Fernandez,
Associate Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS),
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Washington, DC:
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- Report date: 27 Jun 2005.
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- A non-ambulatory or "downer" cow tested "inconclusive"
for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) when tested by a rapid screening
test in November 2004 but was confirmed positive in June 2005 using western
blot test and an immunohistochemical test carried out at the OIE Reference
Laboratory for BSE in Weybridge, United Kingdom.
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- As a downer, the cow was prohibited from entering the
human food supply. The carcass of the animal was incinerated.
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- Source of outbreak or origin of infection: unknown or
inconclusive. The affected cow was born before the United States instituted
a ruminant-to-ruminant feed ban in August 1997. The USDA has initiated
an investigation to determine the animal's herd of origin.
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- ******
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- Canada Exceeds BSE Testing Target for 2005
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- Cattlenetwork
- 6-24-5
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- Canada has surpassed its testing target established for
2005 for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) surveillance. The target
for this year was 30 000 cattle and, as of 17 Jun 2005, there have been
32 363 samples collected and tested through the provincial and federal
laboratory network in Canada.
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- The level and design of BSE testing in Canada is in full
accordance with the guidelines recommended by the World Organisation for
Animal Health (OIE). The samples collected target the highest-risk cattle
within the national herd. This includes all animals over 30 months of age
that are dead, down, dying or diseased, and clinical suspects of any age.
This targeted surveillance program is crucial to defining the level of
BSE in Canada and to confirming the effectiveness of the suite of measures
in place to protect human and animal health from the disease. Based on
the intensity and sensitivity of the testing program and the information
collected in Canada's BSE investigations, the evidence continues to demonstrate
that the prevalence of BSE in Canada is extremely low and continuing to
decline.
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- "Surpassing this surveillance target at the mid-year
point illustrates the effectiveness of the national BSE surveillance program
and the high level of commitment from Canadian producers to finding the
disease," said Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Andy Mitchell.
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- In 2004, a BSE Surveillance Reimbursement Program was
implemented that provides payments to producers for their services when
eligible samples are submitted to the national program. These payments
assist producers in covering a portion of the veterinary examination fees
and carcass disposal costs. Many provinces have also demonstrated their
commitment by providing additional support to the reimbursement program
through increased laboratory capacity, education and awareness campaigns,
sampling assistance and financial supplements to the federal payments.
This collective effort is critical to a successful national surveillance
program and to the continued demonstration of vigilance in animal and public
health and food safety in Canada.
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- http://www.cattlenetwork.com/content.asp?contentid=5479
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- ProMED-mail
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- 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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