re BSE, milk and Aussie/NZ cows

[Guest guest]

Hi Kala,

 

Apparently we have had people die here in Australia of CJD. I could not find

one memorable article I remember reading about a veggie girl who died here

of CJD.

Although there are USA statements on the internet saying " Milk and milk

products from cows are not believed to pose any risk for transmitting the

BSE agent because experiments have shown that milk from BSE-infected cows

has not caused BSE in cows or other test animals, " I would not be too sure

of believing that. If you see references below

you can see there are concerns about BSE occuring in milk and in milk

substitutes

including dried milk. Australia and NZ probably say they are BSE free but

you never

can tell. If no-one is looking for BSE in Aussie and NZ animals it will be

the old story

of " no evidence of BSE being reported " being used as evidence the disease

does not occur in Australia and NZ in animals. I am not a great believer in

what the authorities

say about the abscence of diseases in animals in general since the

authorities

are not out there looking for the diseases unless animals start dropping

dead

or showing obvious signs of disease (which has been reported by someone).

The meat and milk industry are money making

industries after all.

Kind regards,

Marguerite

 

CJD, RISK - AUSTRALIA*********************A ProMED-mail post

<http://www.promedmail.org>[see also:

New variant CJD, human infant (02) 20000309102031

New variant CJD, human infant? (03) 20000312222951

New variant CJD, human infant? (04) 20000314205622

New variant CJD, human infant? (05) 20000330231619][1]2 May 2000

M. Cosgriff <mcosgriff

Source: AAP, Published: Wednesday 3 May 2000 [edited]Via: The Age, 3 May

2000

Ten people may have contracted the [Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease] CJD as a

result of a serious breach of infection control at a Melbourne hospital,

the Victorian parliament was told today. Health Minister John Thwaites said

the breach involved a neurosurgeon at Royal Melbourne Hospital [RMH] who

treated a patient with dementia who may have CJD.

" I understand that equipment used on the patient was incorrectly allowed to

be reused in a clear breach of an established protocol, " he said. The

equipment was possibly re-used on 10 other patients. " The protocol that is

for any brain biopsy where there is a risk of CJD, equipment should not be

reused until a CJD diagnosis is excluded. " The equipment was sterilised but

the risk of CJD not eliminated by normal cleaning and sterilisation.

" I am advised by the RMH that while the risk to these patients is very low,

there is no test to determine whether a patient has caught CJD, " Mr.

Thwaites said.The hospital would launch an inquiry into the breach, he

said.--

***[2]5 May 2000Richard Bland <Richard.Bland

Source: news.com.au [edited]

Doctors yesterday defended a Melbourne hospital's decision to tell nine

patients they may have been exposed to a deadly condition, linked to mad

cow disease, saying the people had a right to know.

The Royal Melbourne Hospital made the decision despite a warning from a

Creutzfeldt-Jakob (CJD) disease expert that the information could cause

serious distress among some people, leading to suicide attempts. Colin

Masters, director of the National CJD Registry, advised the Royal Melbourne

Hospital against informing 10 patients of the remote risk of infection,

fearing it would cause unnecessary alarm. However, AMA [Australian Medical

Association] Victorian President Michael Sedgley yesterday disagreed,

saying he could see no reason for keeping the information secret. " I think

you can't keep things like this from people. The thing is to alleviate

their distress over time, " Dr. Sedgley said.

Ten patients were potentially exposed to the incurable disease between 20

April 2000 and 28 April 2000 after inadequately sterilised equipment was

used during neurosurgery. The equipment was used earlier on a dementia

patient, who had since been diagnosed as possibly suffering from CJD. One

of the 10 patients potentially exposed to CJD has since died of an

unrelated condition.

The other nine patients face a wait of up to 30 years to find out whether

they have contracted CJD because there is no accurate test for the disease

prior to symptoms surfacing.

Professor Masters said yesterday that while he accepted the hospital's

decision, he had recommended against notifying patients because of the

small risk of infection, lack of definitive tests and effective treatments.

The likelihood of the nine patients developing CJD has been put at one in 1

million.Professor Masters said the danger was that not all patients would

comprehend how remote the chances were of developing the disease, even with

extensive explanations and counselling. " There can be one person who does

not understand and becomes very distressed, and we have had people who have

committed suicide, " he said.

A hospital spokeswoman said the issue of telling the patients of their

potential exposure to the disease was a " difficult ethical question " . Each

year in Australia there are about 20 cases of CJD recorded. Victorian

Health Minister John Thwaites said yesterday the patients and the public

had a right to know about such breaches of infection control procedures.

" It was inevitable the information would have become public at some stage, "

Mr. Thwaites said. " If patients, staff and the public had heard of the

infection control breakdown by other means, they would have been extremely

concerned. It would have also led to a potential panic or fear among other

patients at the hospital. " --ProMED-maile-mail: promed

[This may be a tempest in a teapot, given that no definitive diagnosis of

CJD has been made on the " index case " . What is really instructive

(fascinating to me) is the contrast between the way the similar situation

in England was handled. The same reasons for withholding information

(potential for suicide among those warned, need-to-know basis for informing

patients who may have been exposed) were discussed and advice given to

withhold information from the patients. However, the President of the AMA

held sway and the patients have been informed; the ethical approach taken.

- Mod. CHC]......................................chc/ds

 

http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~comm/bsefaq.html

For travelers concerned about reducing their possible risk of acquiring vCJD

from food, CDC suggests:

 

when traveling in Europe, avoid eating beef and beef products or

 

when traveling in Europe, eat only select beef or beef products, such as

solid pieces of muscle meat (versus ground beef products such as burgers and

sausages that contain meat from various parts of the animal). Solid pieces

of muscle meat may have less opportunity for contamination with tissues such

as the brain or spinal cord that might harbor the BSE agent.

Milk and milk products from cows are not believed to pose any risk for

transmitting the BSE agent because experiments have shown that milk from

BSE-infected cows has not caused BSE in cows or other test animals.

 

http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/milk91501.cfm

BSE and milk

September 15, 2001 New Scientist by Adam Quantrill

I read with interest the news that BSE is detectable in cow's urine, and Bob

Jasper's subsequent letter expressing concern that pastures could be

contaminated by it and pass on the disease (18 August, p 52).

Urine is not usually a good source of protein, so finding BSE in it is quite

worrying. Milk, however, is replete with proteins, so it stands to reason

that the prion could be found more readily in it. This prospect is worrying

for those of us who abstained from eating beef but not dairy produce,

especially given that the very cows that would not be eligible for

consumption if slaughtered - older cows - supply the most milk, and also

given the pooling that happens with the milk supply, ensuring any infectious

agents get spread far and wide. Obviously, the experiment has to be done. I,

for one, will be crossing my fingers.

 

" Note that the concern over urine in pasture has been addressed in a letter

from Gino Miele of the Roslin Institute Midlothian (1 September, p 55) - Ed "

 

http://www.asahi.com/english/national/K2002051400539.html

 

Milk substitutes cited in BSE case

 

The Asahi Shimbun

 

SAPPORO-The farmer who raised the Holstein that tested positive for mad cow

disease over the weekend fed his livestock the same milk substitutes

consumed by three other cattle infected with the brain-wasting ailment.

 

The farmer, from Onbetsu, Hokkaido, said he used milk substitutes produced

at a plant in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture. The same plant, run by Scientific

Feed Laboratory Co., made milk substitutes fed to the three cows previously

confirmed to have bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow

disease.

 

However, the farmer said he is not sure if the Holstein, born in 1996, was

actually given the product. The other infected cows were also born in 1996.

 

The farmer's comments came up during a BSE investigation conducted by the

Onbetsu agricultural cooperative in Hokkaido, which sold the milk

substitutes to the farmer.

 

In September, when the first BSE case was reported, the Hokkaido government

asked all farmers about the conditions surrounding their livestock. At that

time, the Onbetsu farmer said no meat and bone meal (MBM)-the suspected

cause of mad cow disease-was being used at his farm.

 

The milk substitutes in question are solid feed consisting of artificial

powdered skim milk, cattle fat, sugar and other ingredients. Government

experts say these products could be another source of BSE because infected

cows have been found in European countries that have banned MBM.

 

Specialists suspect the culprit is tallow because fat for animal feed

usually comes from livestock bones and other parts, and the milk substitutes

are manufactured at the same plant where MBM is produced.

 

Fat does not contain the abnormal prions that cause BSE, leading specialists

to speculate that protein remains from MBM manufacturing process were mixed

into the fat used to make milk substitutes.

 

According to an investigation by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and

Fisheries, the Takasaki plant has been using cattle fat imported from the

Netherlands, a nation that has experienced an outbreak of BSE.

 

The ministry in March said it cannot rule out the possibility that the Dutch

fat was the source of BSE in Japan.

 

http://www.postnewspapers.com.au/20020511/news/002.shtml

Aussie woman fears CJD from hormones

 

http://www.mad-cow.org/~tom/more.html

Various mad cow info including a reminder of animal products imported

all over the world (we had a gelatine scare and beef cubes etc and a lot

of other things taken off the shelves here in Australia at one time).