BSE cases

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DTN
"BSE Case Originated in Canada
03/19 18:12
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Canadian officials have traced to two mills the feed that probably caused North America's two cases of mad cow disease, one in Canada last May and the other in the United States in December.

The feed from the Canadian mills could have contained infectious protein from imported British cattle, said Dr. George Luterbach, an official of a mad cow working group in the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. He said Canadian law prohibits disclosing the identity of the mills.

Canada reported its only case of the brain-wasting disease in an animal on a farm in Alberta. The United States followed with an announcement that an animal in Mabton, Wash., had mad cow. Both animals had been raised on farms in Alberta. And both ate feed containing meat and bone meal while they were calves.

"Our best hypothesis was the animals were exposed by contaminated feed," Luterbach said. He said the two infected animals did not eat feed from the same mill.

In both cases, the feed was given to the animals as calves just before Canada and the United States banned the use of cattle tissues in feed intended for cattle in 1997.

Lauterbach said the feed could have contained tissue from infected cattle imported from Britain before Canada banned the importation of British cattle after a devastating outbreak of mad cow disease there."

So how many more cases are there?

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DTN;

"Meat Industry News
03/19
M E A T I N D U S T R Y N E W S

RAPID BSE TEST LICENSED BY GOVERNMENT

The government has licensed a mad cow test that gives fast results and can be analyzed at many locations, a key step in the plan to increase testing, the manufacturer of the test said Thursday.

Bio-Rad Laboratories based in Hercules, Calif., said its test could be used in the Agriculture Department's main animal testing laboratory as well as in a network of facilities around the nation that the department will approve, reports the Associated Press.

The department had said previously that it would expedite licensing of the tests, but it had no immediate comment on the company's announcement.

The test checks for the presence of misshapen proteins, called prions, that cause the brain-wasting disease. It can give results in four hours and is almost 100 percent accurate, said Brad Crutchfield, the Bio-Rad's vice president of life sciences.

If the rapid test results at regional laboratories do not rule out the presence of the prions, tissue samples would be sent to USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, for confirmation. The results of such examinations can take a week.

Department officials announced on Tuesday that they planned a 10-fold increase in the number of cattle tested for mad cow disease in response to discovery of the nation's first case of the disease last December. The use of rapid tests are crucial to expanding surveillance for mad cow.

Animals get the illness by eating feed that contains infected tissue from other cattle.

Before the discovery of the sick Holstein in December, only the department's laboratory in Ames could run tests. USDA used to target 20,000 animals a year for testing. The new target is 10 times higher -- at least 220,000 cattle, ages 1 to 18 months.

Officials are expanding surveillance for mad cow to determine if the disease remains in the United States and, if so, how widespread. Officials will focus on 201,000 or more animals that show signs of possible infection. Animals that the department deems as likely carriers include those that cannot stand at slaughter, are found dead on farms, or have nervous system problems.

As another precaution, the department plans to sample 20,000 cattle over 30 months of age that appear healthy, to see if the incurable illness is present in animals that do not show symptoms.

Mad cow is a health concern because people can get a similar brain-wasting illness, variant Creutzfeldt Jakob's disease, by eating meat that is contaminated with infected tissue. It, too, is incurable.

The newly licensed test can be sold to regional labs and to the USDA's laboratory in Ames, but the department will approve other tests, too, so the company expects competition, Crutchfield said.

Each test will cost $10, but the total cost of testing each animal probably will be around $20 when administrative costs such as labor are factored in, Crutchfield said. The company can ship tests within two days, he said."

THat sounds VERY good!

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Charlie etal;

I see this on DTN today;

"Kansas Scrambles to Find Cows
03/19 18:19
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- Days after the federal Agriculture Department unveiled its plan for expanded surveillance for mad cow disease, Kansas officials say they're scrambling to figure out how to find and test enough at-risk cattle.


...Teagarden said he did not know Kansas' share of the $70 million the Agriculture Department set aside for the national program. But he said such testing likely will cost far more than the money allocated, once his agency factors in staffing, travel and other costs.

What baffles many industry observers is that while the Agriculture Department spends millions for a government surveillance program, it continues to balk at letting Arkansas City-based Creekstone Farms voluntarily test every animal it processes for mad cow disease.

Creekstone said its customers have agreed to pay the added costs, though the nation's big packing plants have opposed the plan, worried that it could lead to false-positive results.

The Agriculture Department has yet to rule on Creekstone's request.

"The animals we want to test don't necessarily correspond with animals others want to test," Curlett said. "We are after a certain kind of animal - the population most likely to have (mad cow disease)."

One idea gaining support among livestock producers is adopting a financial incentive program so cattlemen will take in sick animals for mad cow testing.

"We also understand livestock producers would like to get international markets open - and we'll do whatever we can to help that cause," Teagarden said.

To Mike Callicrate, a St. Francis feedlot operator, the Agriculture Department's broadened testing is a "smokescreen" that was not going to work to reopen export markets. His suggestion: the government let slaughter plants such as Creekstone test all animals for the disease.

"This whole thing is such a bogus deal," he said."

Have any Alberta Packers tried to test animals like Creekstone has applied to do, for BSE?

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On DTN Today;

"BSE May Have Come From U.K.
03/22 10:32
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Canadian officials have traced to two mills the feed that probably caused North America's two cases of mad cow disease, one in Canada last May and the other in the United States in December.

The feed from the Canadian mills could have contained infectious protein from imported British cattle, said Dr. George Luterbach, an official of a mad cow working group in the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. He said Canadian law prohibits disclosing the identity of the mills.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Canadian investigators have identified 68 British cattle that died or were slaughtered in Canada more than 10 years ago as the probable source of recent cases of mad-cow disease in North America -- a conclusion that leaves open the possibility that more cases may be lurking in Canada or the U.S.

Luterbach said the cattle were among 192 animals that Canada imported from Britain between 1980 and 1989, before such imports were halted because of the mad-cow crisis in the U.K, the WSJ article said.

In 1993, after one of the British imports was diagnosed with mad cow disease, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency removed all British cattle from the Canadian herd, the article said. However, officials weren't able to locate 68 animals, most likely because they already had been slaughtered, Luterbach said. Some of their remains may have been processed into cattle feed in Canada.

Canada reported its only case of the brain-wasting disease in an animal on a farm in Alberta. The United States followed with an announcement that an animal in Mabton, Wash., had mad cow. Both animals had been raised on farms in Alberta. And both ate feed containing meat and bone meal while they were calves.

"Our best hypothesis was the animals were exposed by contaminated feed," Luterbach said. He said the two infected animals did not eat feed from the same mill.

In both cases, the feed was given to the animals as calves just before Canada and the United States banned the use of cattle tissues in feed intended for cattle in 1997.

Lauterbach said the feed could have contained tissue from infected cattle imported from Britain before Canada banned the importation of British cattle after a devastating outbreak of mad cow disease there."