First Canadian Dies of Human Mad Cow Strain

[Gauracandra]

First Canadian Dies of Human Mad Cow Strain

Thu Aug 8,12:00 PM ET

By Kanina Holmes

 

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - A Saskatchewan man has become Canada's first victim of the human strain of mad cow disease, but the patient probably contracted variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease ( news - web sites) (vCJD) in Britain rather than in North America, Health Canada officials said on Thursday.

 

The man, who has not been named, died in hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, one of Canada's key agricultural provinces, after contracting the lethal brain-wasting disease.

 

Provincial officials said they would not name him, or give his age, because of patient confidentiality rules.

 

"Health Canada has received confirmation of the first case of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease recorded in Canada," said Andrew Swift, a spokesman for the federal health department.

 

"However all evidence points to the patient having acquired the disease in the United Kingdom. There is no evidence to suggest that Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy ( news - web sites), commonly known as BSE ( news - web sites), has entered the Canadian food supply."

 

New variant CJD is a rare, degenerative, fatal brain disorder thought to be caused by eating meat from cattle infected with BSE, or mad cow disease.

 

No case of BSE has ever been identified in the United States or in Canada.

 

About 115 cases of vCJD have been reported in Europe, most of them in Britain, and British scientists warned last month that dozens of Britons will die from the disease this year.

 

Last April, U.S. health officials reported the first suspected case of vCJD in the United States, a 22-year-old British woman living in Florida. They said she most likely contracted the disease while living in Britain.

 

In the United States, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Thursday that it was waiting for official details from Canada before taking "appropriate action", if needed.

 

"It is too premature to say anything further until we get official notification from Canada on what the circumstances are," said Alisa Harrison, a USDA spokeswoman.

 

A spokesman with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said there was no indication that Canada's food supply was threatened because the "overwhelming probability" was that the man contracted the disease in Britain. "So far we have not found any BSE in Canada," he said.

 

The Saskatoon StarPhoenix newspaper quoted regional health officials as saying the victim had spent some time in Britain. There was an "extremely remote" chance that medical equipment used for tests on the victim might have been contaminated with vCJD, and 70 other patients had been warned about the risks.

 

"Because of medical procedure there's an extremely remote chance, a minute chance, that there could have been some contamination of the endoscope, that was then used for other people," said Dr. Stephen Whitehead, deputy medical health officer with a Saskatchewan regional health authority.

 

Agricultural futures traders in Chicago reacted with relief to the news that the victim had not contracted the disease at home.

 

"The only way that it would be a market factor was if he ate some beef in Canada and got sick," said Chuck Levitt, livestock analyst with Alaron Trading Corp.

 

Provincial and federal health authorities are scheduled to hold a news conference in Saskatoon at noon CST (1400 EST/1800 GMT).

[mahak]

Haribol. This mad cow stuff has a human counterpart, with exact symptoms. It is known as kuru, a common malady of cannibalistic tribes. The brain deterioration is displayed in old "b" movies about zombies.

 

Feed lot and other animals that are pumped up for pulp to increase "pounds on the hoof" are often fed animal bi-products of their own species, and this unintentional cannibalism produces the same result.

 

Dont eat human beings, and dont eat anything with animal bi-products (which is like saying "dont eat"), and the only kuru you will know is the dynasty of the mahabharata.

 

Sometimes I wonder how the name of this disease came to be kuru. Perhaps because of the great kuruksetra war, which was a cannibalism of sorts.

 

mudmon