| Panel suggests changes at animal disease lab | | Posted Sunday, November 19, 2006 1:07:31 PM by Blog57 Team | | An independent panel today suggested changes in the way the National Animal Disease Center treats its sewage to protect Ames residents from exposure to mad cow and related diseases. The panel decided that the lab had posed little if any risk to the public, determining that it is unlikely any infectious agents survived even treatment at the plant, let alone the Ames city treatment that comes after. Nevertheless, members suggested that the disease lab incinerate solid material from necropsy labs, or send the material through a chemical process before the heating that already takes place in the center's sewage plant. That's just as a safety measure and is common at other labs. A lab spokesman said the mad cow experiments will not be rescheduled until the city of Ames and lab officials can decide how to respond to the panel's findings.... | |
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| | | Japan's farm ministry confirms country's 30th case of mad cow disease | | Posted Wednesday, November 15, 2006 7:08:04 AM by Blog57 Team | | TOKYO -- Japan's Agriculture Ministry said Monday it confirmed the country's 30th case of mad cow disease. Tests on the 5-year-old dairy cow performed at the National Institute of Animal Health confirmed that the cow, which died at a ranch on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, was infected with the fatal illness. The animal will be destroyed and incinerated so its parts will not be circulated for consumption or used as feed, the ministry said. Japan has now confirmed 30 animals infected with the fatal illness -- known formally as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE -- since the first case in Japan was detected in 2001. The degenerative nerve disease found in older cattle has been linked to the rare but fatal human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Japan initially banned U.S.... | |
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| | | Book Review: Faillace finds hope in writing | | Posted Saturday, November 04, 2006 11:36:07 AM by Blog57 Team | | When Linda Faillace started writing an account of her family's fight to save their sheep from seizure by the U.S. Department of Agriculture because they were suspected of carrying a disease in the same family as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (or "mad cow"), it was largely just a form of therapy. "I've always been very optimistic," she said recently, "but when the sheep got taken away I got very depressed ... . I thought, I'll do this because it'll be healing. I'll do it for the kids. It'll be good for the community." The process of writing her first 600-page draft, she said, accomplished that goal: "It gave me back hope. Instead of being on the defensive, I was on the offensive." She also realized, she said, that the book "could be a lot bigger than that." Thanks to the detailed notes taken by Linda, her husband, Larry, and a friend throughout the whole experience, Faillace was able to compile a thorough and compelling report that interweaves the political, scientific, legal and personal aspects of their story.... | |
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| | | Mad cow case reported in Russia's Baltic exclave | | Posted Tuesday, October 24, 2006 11:06:42 AM by Blog57 Team | | KALININGRAD, October 17 (RIA Novosti) - A case of mad cow disease has been registered in a village in Russia's exclave on the Baltic Sea, the Kaliningrad regional branch of the country's consumer rights watchdog said Tuesday. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative condition in cattle that can cause a brain-wasting illness in humans. "Two people have been in contact with the cow, and are now undergoing a course of anti-rabies vaccination," a spokesman for the Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare said. He said samples from the animal have been sent to a regional veterinary laboratory for further testing. "Measures are being implemented to eliminate the source of infection in the village," he said.... | |
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| | | Local company sued over mad-cow | | Posted Thursday, October 19, 2006 11:09:21 AM by Blog57 Team | | A QUEBEC farmer has asked a court for permission to launch a class action suit against the Canadian government and an Australian-owned feed producer, saying their negligence sparked a recent mad cow crisis in Canada. If approved, the case would be the first in Canada since a case of mad cow disease was discovered there in May 2003, prompting more than 30 countries to ban Canadian beef imports. It could also lead to similar lawsuits across the country. Rancher Donald Berneche said in court documents that embargoes on Canadian beef cost him about $C100,000 ($116,000). Some 20,000 Quebec farmers likely to be represented in the suit could claim as much as $C20 billion. Mr Berneche blamed Canada's agriculture ministry and Ridley Inc, which makes animal feed from bone meal and brain meal in North America and is a subsidiary of Australia's Ridley Corporation, for "their inaction and their negligence".... | |
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| | | Genesis Bioventures Announces Agreement to Manufacture Mad Cow ... | | Posted Wednesday, October 18, 2006 1:10:11 PM by Blog57 Team | | NEW YORK, Oct. 10, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Genesis Bioventures, Inc. (GBI) (OTCBB:GBIW) announced today that Prion Developmental Laboratories ("PDL"), its minority owned subsidiary company, entered into a contract manufacturing agreement with InBios International, Inc. ("InBios"), a leading biotechnology company in Seattle, Washington, to manufacture PDL's Mad Cow Disease ("BSE") and other TSE Rapid Diagnostic Tests. .... | |
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| | | Chronic wasting disease found in elk s heart muscle for first time | | Posted Saturday, October 14, 2006 11:04:45 AM by Blog57 Team | | JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) Researchers in Wyoming have found chronic wasting disease in the heart muscle tissue of infected white-tailed deer and elk, the University of Wyoming has announced.UW researchers say the discovery marks the first time that the disease has been found in the heart tissue. The discovery is important because some hunters eat meat from the heart of animals they kill.The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization recommend against eating any animals that test positive for CWD. However, other officials also say there's no scientific evidence that humans can contract the disease from eating infected animals.The disease is found in elk and deer populations in southeastern Wyoming and in several other states. Chronic wasting disease is in the same family of fatal brain illnesses as mad cow disease and its human equivalent.... | |
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| | | FINDINGS | | Posted Monday, October 09, 2006 3:09:02 AM by Blog57 Team | | Deer afflicted with chronic wasting disease (CWD), a cousin of mad cow disease that has not been found in humans, can pass the disease to one another through saliva and blood, researchers report. The finding, published today in the journal Science, may explain why CWD spreads more readily than related diseases, said researcher Edward A. Hoover, of Colorado State University's veterinary school. The researchers recommend caution for people handling deer blood or saliva. .... | |
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| | | Japan confirms 29th mad cow case | | Posted Wednesday, October 04, 2006 7:04:54 AM by Blog57 Team | | TOKYO - Japan on Thursday confirmed its 29th case of mad cow disease, a month after resuming imports of US beef that had been blocked due to concerns over the brain-wasting illness. Tests confirmed the 75-month-old Holstein cow from a farm on the northern island of Hokkaido was infected with mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the agriculture ministry said. The cow will be incinerated so that it will not be used as fodder or food for human beings, the ministry said in a statement. Japan in August ended a rift with its closest ally by resuming US beef imports, which had been suspended for most of the previous two and a half years due to mad cow disease. Japan, the only Asian country to have confirmed BSE in its herd, runs mad cow tests on all animals to be slaughtered for consumption, unlike the United States.... | |
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| | | Japan Confirms 29th Case of Mad Cow | | Posted Friday, September 29, 2006 11:13:08 AM by Blog57 Team | | Japan's Agriculture Ministry said Thursday it confirmed that a cow from northern Japan had the country's 29th case of mad cow disease. Tests on the 6 year-old dairy cow performed at the National Institute of Animal Health confirmed that the cow, which died at a ranch on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, was infected with the fatal illness. The animal will be destroyed and incinerated so that any parts from it will not be circulated for consumption or used as feed, the ministry said. Japan has now confirmed 29 animals infected with the fatal illness -- known formally as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE -- since the first case in Japan was defected in 2001. Since then, Tokyo has begun taking steps to check every cow that is slaughtered or dies at ranches before it enters the food supply.... | |
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