Mad cow disease may be worldwide: report

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Mad cow disease may be worldwide: report

From AP

23dec00

 

03:40 (AEDT) MEAT and animal feed infected with mad cow disease may have

been sold across the globe, raising the possibility of outbreaks beyond

Europe, the World Health Organisation said today.

 

Maura Ricketts, a WHO specialist, said it was almost impossible to trace

where suspect meat or feed might have gone since mad cow disease, or bovine

spongiform encephalopathy, was first identified in Britain in 1986.

 

" How food is exchanged across borders isn't very transparent or easy to

understand, " she told reporters. " Neither is how cattle feed moves around

the world. "

 

Scientists initially were taken by surprise by the disease, which is

considered the likely cause of a new variant of the human brain-wasting

ailment, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.

 

" The incubation period for this is quite lengthy and the disease appears to

be a completely unexpected, novel agent, " Ricketts said. " We didn't think

that it would make human beings ill. "

 

Governments were slow to impose bans on the import of meat and bone meal and

other potentially risky animal products, and the goods were exported for a

long time after the disease was identified, she said.

 

 

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