Press Association reports ending 19th April 2001
CROATIA PLANS PRION TESTS TO BOOST BSE-FREE STATUS
April 19, 2001
Reuters
ZAGREB - Croatia's agriculture ministry was cited as saying on Thursday i t
would launch prion testing of livestock to allay fears over mad cow disease
and raise the country's profile as a possible meat exporter.
Spokeswoman Sonja Nusinovic was quoted as telling Reuters that, "Croatiah as
a BSE-free status, which we want to keep. This is in line with our goalt o
be a producer of healthy food and we want to reaffirm it."
Prion testing on the brains of animals, which can detect the presence ofm ad
cow disease, is due to start within the next month, said Andjelko Gasparo of
the ministry's veterinary sector.
Tests will be conducted on animals older than 30 months killed at all major
slaughterhouses and meat packaging plants throughout the country.
MAD COW, FOOT-MOUTH CONFUSE U.S. CONSUMERS-SURVEY
April 19, 2001
Reuters
WASHINGTON - A telephone survey of 851 U.S. shoppers conducted by the public
relations firm Porter Novelli was cited as finding that 14 percent of
respondents said they had already changed their food purchase or eating
habits because of news reports about mad cow and foot-and-mouth disease.
The company was further cited as saying the survey showed consumers need
more help and education in understanding the difference between the two
diseases.
The diseases, which are unrelated, have been found in farm animals in
Britain and other European nations.
The survey also showed that 19 percent of consumers interviewed wrongly
believed that mad cow and foot-and-mouth were the same disease, while 27
percent believed the diseases were related.
Nearly half of the survey respondents said they believed that cows infected
with foot-and-mouth disease could infect humans.
The survey was conducted April 6-9 and has a margin of error of plus or
minus 3 percent, the company said.
BSE UPDATE (16) APRIL 2001
April 16, 2001
A ProMED-mail post
Australia: Traceback for possible BSE cattle
It has been revealed that 20 head of imported cattle which could be carrying
mad cow disease are missing in Australia. But the beef industry body,
Safemeat, believes it's unlikely that the stud cattle imported from Europe
in the late 1980s were ever exposed to BSE. Authorities have traced allU K
and European cattle that were imported before the cut-off date of 1992,a nd
found around 480 animals. Those which have died since have all tested
negative for BSE.
Safemeat spokesperson David Palmer says the industry is as confident asi t
can be that the 20 missing cattle are not carrying the disease: "The few
that haven't been traced at this stage, investigations continue. They have
been very successful to date, I'd say less than 20 are missing out of 500,
which has been a great effort, but above all, all those that have been
processed have been proved negative. There's no lineal transmission
suggested. There is a whole-of-life quarantine placed on those that are
currently still alive, and all in all, we think that the program has been
very well handled. There's been some buybacks over the years, but mainlyi t
is a whole-of-life quarantine remaining on farm."
[2]
New case in the Netherlands
A new BSE case has been confirmed in the Netherlands in the Province of
Gelderland, near the German border. The cow was born 19 Feb 1992; had
clinical signs, and was found positive after fast test and histopathology.
Other animals at the same farm (25 bovines, 4 sheep, 3 goats) will be
examined and culled.
This is the second clinical case [in the Netherlands] this year. The first
was confirmed in January after a random test of fallen stock in December
2000.
Since 1997, 15 cases of BSE have been detected in the Netherlands.
[3]
MADRID: The National Reference Laboratory for Bovine Spongiform
Encephalopathy confirmed on Wednesday a new mad cow disease case in Navarra,
northern Spain, bringing to 39 the total number of cases found in the
country. After symptoms of the disease were detected, the infected animal
was slaughtered and sent to laboratories in Madrid for analysis, said the
local food and agriculture authorities in Navarra. The farm where the case
was identified has 84 cows, all for beef production.
[4] Definition of Terms:
BSE and other prion diseases -- really infections?
I´m fully aware that I might be heavily attacked for my comments.
Nevertheless I think it´s worth initiating a discussion of whether or not
prion diseases fulfill the definition of infections, i.e., invasion of /
incorporation into a host followed by subsequent MULTIPLICATION.
Maybe researchers in the field have already abandoned this hypothesis,b ut
it´s a fact that in every posting we find the word "infection" used to
explain prion diseases, despite the fact that no nucleic acids (neitherD NA
nor RNA) could be found; that the "agent" "survives" usual methods of
disinfection and temperatures up to 600 degrees C; and the main
morphological finding is a just a change of the helix structure of a common
protein in the brain (PrP) or neural tissue. If we injected an aspirateo f
thyroid tissue containing radioactive iodide into the thyroid gland of
another person, this could lead to thyroid carcinoma -- nobody would call it
infection.
To change "infection" to "induction" is more than just a matter of
semantics. It might change public behaviour and our approach to the science.
CVM PROVIDES INFORMATION ABOUT RUMINANT FEED (BSE) INSPECTIONS
April 19, 2001
FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine
http://www.fda.gov/cvm/index/updates/bselistup.htm
A spreadsheet containing information about inspections conducted undert he
FDA's ruminant feed (BSE) rule has been posted on FDA/Center for Veterinary
Medicine's (CVM's) Home Page. This feed rule, that prohibits the use ofm ost
mammalian protein in feeds for ruminant animals, was implemented to prevent
the establishment and amplification of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
(BSE) through feed in the United States. The rule became effective on August
4, 1997.
Inspections of over 10,000 renderers, feed mills, ruminant feeders, and
others (such as protein blenders) have been conducted to determine
compliance with the BSE feed regulations. CVM has assembled informationf rom
the inspections that have been conducted, and this information is included
in the spreadsheet. The name, city, State, and type of facility are included
for each firm that has been
inspected. The dates of the inspections and the violations for each
inspection are also included. The listing is organized alphabetically byt he
State in which the inspected facility is located.
The information presented in the spreadsheet is from CVM¹s database of
inspectional information. This database is dynamic and changing frequently
as additional inspectional information is received by CVM and entered into
its database. Each entry represents an individual inspection. The
information being
presented may include some duplicates and differences in addresses andf irm
names. As CVM reviews the information, in addition to eliminating duplicates
and assuring addresses are entered consistently, any errors in the firmt ype
and spellings will be corrected as discovered. CVM hopes to be able to
update
the information posted on its Home Page on a monthly basis.
BSE: COMMISSION WORKING PAPER PROPOSING TO PROLONG MBM-BAN
April 20, 2001
European Commission DN: IP/01/581
http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=IP/01/581|0|RAPID&lg=ENBSE: Commission working paper proposing to prolong
MBM-ban
The European Commission services have submitted to the Member States a
working paper on the future strategy on the use of meat-and-bone meal (MBM)
in Europe which will form the basis of a discussion at the Agriculture
Council next week in Luxembourg. Based on the results of a series of
inspection visits of the Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) to the Member
States on the implementation of BSE safety legislation((1)) and a first
evaluation of the results of increased BSE-testing it is considered
premature to lift the temporary ban
which will expire end of June. Therefore the Commission suggests to keept he
ban in place until the adoption of the proposed legislation on animal by
products which is foreseen in the beginning of 2002
(http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/bse/bse18_en.pdf). This
proposal will establish rules for the production of feed ingredients of
animal origin exclusively from animals fit for human consumption. The
existing prohibition from 1994 to feed MBM to ruminants stays of coursei n
place. A formal legislative text of the Commission will be proposed int he
near future.
A permanent ban of feeding of MBM to non-ruminant species like pigs, poultry
and fish is not scientifically justified. The EU nevertheless decided tob an
all MBM feeding for a temporary time until the end of June after it became
apparent that the prohibition to feed MBM to ruminants was not fully
respected. The suspension gave time to evaluate the control systems inp lace
in Member States and to look at the long-term consequences of a permanent
ban.
The working paper of the Commission therefore suggests that it would be
appropriate to lift the MBM-ban on non-ruminant species when the following
conditions are fulfilled:
1. destruction of all remaining stocks of MBM
2. adoption of the legislation on animal-by-products which establishest he
following principles:
only animal-by-products derived from animals fit for human consumptionm ay
be used for animal feed
a complete separation of rendering plants dedicated to feed productionf rom
rendering plants processing other animal waste
stricter rules of traceability of animal-by-products
This approach would have the following advantages:
avoiding huge environmental consequences due to the destruction of 14 mio t
of
animal-by-products annually in Europe
avoiding animal health problems due to the substitution of animal proteins
by vegetable proteins since pigs and poultry are not "vegetarians"
it is scientifically justified and therefore defendable to WTO
taking into account the enormous economic impact of the ban on farmersa nd
industry
The Commission paper concludes: "A total permanent ban of the feeding of
animal proteins to farmed animals may be appealing from a political point of
view, but it would imply recognition of the failure of Member States,
industry and agricultural interests to implement basic Community
legislation. It would also surrender the benefits of all the efforts and
investments made by Member
States and the industry in the last 4 years to improve standards". For
example, all EU rendering plants are now equipped to operate the EU pressure
cooking standards for animal-by-products of 133°C, 3 bars for 20 minutes.
For example, Denmark, the Netherlands and Ireland have established a
production system of animal feed where cross-contamination can be avoided.
See also MEMO/01/122 (from 6 April, 2001) and
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/bse/index_en.html
(1)() -a ban on the feeding of mammalian meat and bone meal (MBM) to cattle,
sheep and goats, as of July 1994;-higher processing standards for the
treatment of animal waste (133°C, 3 bars of pressure for twenty minutes) to
reduce infectivity to a minimum, as of 1 April 1997;-surveillance measures
for the detection, control and eradication of BSE, as of 1 May 1998;-the
requirement to remove specified risk materials (SRMs like spinal cord,
brain, eyes, tonsils, parts of the intestines) from cattle, sheep and goats
throughout the EU from 1 October 2000 from the human and animal food chains.
The obligation is also mandatory for imports of meat and meat productsf rom
third countries into the EU except Argentina, Australia, Botswana, Brazil,
Chile, Namibia, Nicaragua, Norway, New Zealand, Paraguay, Singapore,
Swaziland and Uruguay since 1 April 2001;-the
introduction of targeted testing for BSE, with a focus on high risk animal
categories, from 1 January 2001;-a ban on the use of ruminant meat andb one
meal and certain other animal proteins in feedstuffs for all farm animals,
to avoid risks of cross-contamination, at least until end of June 2001;-the
testing of all cattle aged over 30 months destined for human consumption;-a
ban on the use of mechanically recovered meat derived from bones of cattle,
sheep and goats in feed and food.