Canadian BSE Case May Indicate Testing Regimes Are Missing Infections

August 31, 2006

The 50-month-old dairy cow dairy cow found on a farm in Alberta evidently showed

prion development months earlier than could have been expected, according to the

Canadian Food Inspection Agency report on its investigation of the case.

" The staining pattern from the confirmatory IHC tests supported the notion

that this animal seemed to have been detected at an earlier stage of BSE

incubation, "

the report states. " Had the animal succumbed to BSE and not to an unrelated

disease, it may have been some time before BSE symptoms would have been noted. "

USDA and other experts have contended that prion formation dangerous to humans

takes

place only shortly before the onset of BSE symptoms, and USDA has concentrated

until

very recently on animals exhibiting symptoms of BSE and elderly cattle most

likely

to have the disease.

Other experts, such as Michael Hansen of Consumers Union, have argued that

infectivity

could be present much longer before the onset of symptoms.

Bill Bullard, chief executive of Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, charges

that

the discovery upsets the apple cart of traditional scientific thinking about the

disease. " The revelation that a rapid BSE test can detect infected animals

up to eight months before the animal would have fit the criteria for targeted

testing

is not only new news, but groundbreaking news, " he said in a statement.

CFIA, in its introduction to its report, downplayed that possibility, saying

that

the variance of when BSE was detected compared to when it was expected to be

detected

" is not significantly different from that of previous cases and indicates

exposure

to only a very low dose of BSE infectivity. "

The animal died of complications due to mastitis, a disease of the udder in

cattle.

Source: Pete Hisey, Meatingplace.com

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