Books published recently that may be of interest to
people working on BSE
This is an attempt to keep a list of the books that are mainly
involved with BSE or the closely related SEs
The latest publication is before all the
others.
For a quick turn to the recent
publications which are after publications
as of 1994
Prions Molecular and Cellular Biology. Edited by David Harris.
Horizon Scientific Press (0044-1953 601106 or
mail@horizonpress.com). ISBN 1-898486-07-7.
This is a book absolutely the number one when it comes to having
a good source of data on the molecular biology of prion disease.
Each of the chapters, running from PrP structure to genetically
modified mice contains the latest information in the subject
that would be of value. Eath of the authors is one of the top in
the field and there is little missing from it. One of the worst
articles is about the treatment perspectives by the Italian
group and this includes almost solely their own work on
iododoxorubicin. So some degree this is true about many of the
authors, who have stuck to their own research paths rather than
taking this an opportunity to do a review. The book is a must
for researchers and I have been waiting for it for some time.
Cannibals, Cows and the CJD Catastrophe Jennifer Cooke. Random House Publications. Australia. ISBN 0 09 183691 3. This is an excellent book that tells the story of spongiform encephalopathies in an entertaining but scientific manner. The individuals involved have been interviewed and their ideas on the subject asked, the paitents and relaives have been brought forward, and the sheer errors that were made are explained. This is a book for everyone in the field and it worth reading by all the scientists so that they understand the personal factors that are invovled.
Poison on a plate. Richard Lacey. Metro Publishers
1998. ISBN 1 900512 46 7, 12 pounds and 99 pence This follows
up the other book by the same author looking into the way in
which changes in the food manufacturing industries and farming
processes give rise to increased infection in the consumer. He
goes quite directly into the ways in which poor action by
Government committees and departments led to these risks being
permitted officially. The book is well written and extremely
entertaining in that he does not hide his thoughts or his words.
What has happened of course is that Lacey has been ridiculed in
the past because of his dire warnings of what could happen if
Government did not act. In the end he turned out to be largely
correct but that has not made him any friends high up in power.
The book goes over the science of various problems with the
industry, concentrating on BSE and prion disease as his main
topic and how it was the management of the industry that gave
rise to such a calamity (this has been the biggest single cost
of a disaster in the UK since the second war). He shows how
they could have realised what was going on and refused to accept
information or advice from external sources. His book comes out
in the middle of the Phillips Inquiry in the UK that is looking
into the BSE epidemic and failure of the UK management system
that permitted the disaster.
Fatal Protein: The Story of CJD, BSE and Other Prion
Diseases. Ros Ridley, Harry Baker. Oxford University Press
1998. 25 pounds, 47.5 dollars.
Reviewed in Nature by
Adriano Aguzzi as an attempt to put in everything about the
diseases since the beginning of scrapie to nvCJD but also trying
to give the information to the man in the street. It takes
Ridley and Baker's position as being correct and that of the
others as being less so when it comes to controversial issues
and leaves out any attribute to the finders of the prion
protein. Aguzzi says that the book will probably sell to only
the others in the scientific field because it is so difficult to
read but does contain certain data that is not easily
retreivable elsewhere.
Risky Business: Mad Cows and Mothers Milk Douglas
Powell, William Leiss. McGill-Queens University Press. 1997.
55 dollars. ISBN 0 7735 1619. Although the book is mainly about
BSE as an examply of how a particular risk can appear, many
others are considered. The aim of the book seems to explain how
risks are taken and risks are assumed not to be there (even if
they really are) for political and economic reasons. The
aspects of poor risk communication, always lead to a loss in the
credibility of the agency that has not communicated them. It is
thought to be rarely the scientists part that gets you into
trouble but the communicators.
TSE Agents: Safe working and the prevention of infection
The latest information is in a document from the Advisory
Committee on Dangerous Pathogens in the UK and is available from
the Stationary Office.
ISBN 0-11-322166-5
Not bad and full of useful data. However it crosses its fingers
and says that there is no risks from an person in the UK without
symptoms...when in fact there may be a lot that are infected and
simply pre-symptomatic.
Prions and Brain Diseases in Animals and Humans Edited by
Doug Morrison from CERN. Published by Plenum Publishing Co, at
90 pounds and 90 pence, New Loom Ho, 101 Back Church La, London
E1 1LU, 0171 264 1910 or Plenum:Compuserve.com ISBN
0-306-45825-X. It is part of the NATO ASI Series (Life Series
Vol 295), and follows the meeting at Erice in 1996 that they
sponsored.
This is immediately seen as a major scientific book on the
subject that, although several months out of date, must be seen
as a very useful book for scientists but of little value to
non-scientists. Individual speakers at the meeting were asked
to write specific chapters about their work and have done so
excellently. Many books of this type are by groups of
researchers that all agree with each other's hypotheses but this
one contains a wider viewpoint of the TSE and a good insight
into what is actually going on. A fuller review will follow.
Anatomy of a health disaster IW Books. Box 71 Rotherham
UK, S60 1SU. ISBN 1 873045 52 2. copies from Mehring sales 0114
244 0055 or sales@mehringbooks.co.uk or look on www.wsws.org
This is the book of submissions by speakers at the Workers
Inquiry that came as a major meeting in Rotherham in 1997.
There is a minor tendency to left wing jargon in the book but
the information that it puts across is probably important. Jean
Shaoul, an economic lecturer explains how the economic set up of
the various industries in the UK was likely to lead to the
problems that were seen and she is quite convincing in that she
says the selfishness that was required of farmers to keep prices
down were likely to lead to risks being taken. Lacey tells how
the human risk has largely been taken for many years and that
the UK Government should have known about it but had given major
cuts in the research aspects of agriculture. Several of the
relatives tell of the way that they were not told of the illness
that was taking place and how attempts were made not to carry
out post mortems. The book is an opportunity to look on the
reasons behind the BSE epidemic with an explained political and
economic slant. Narang's chapter title 'the Government has
deliberately sabotaged science' is interesting in that it puts
over how he feels his research has been prevented. This story
is not available elsewhere yet.
Mad Cow USA. Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber. The book
has now arrived in the UK. It is easy to read and is an
excellent source of information particularly about the rendering
industry techniques that were basically exported over to the UK
in the 1970/80s.
publications as of 1994, latest book is lowest
in the list
Publications as of 1994
Food 'scares' in the media. Glasgow University Media
Group 1994. ISBN 0 9521669 4 1
Food and the media: Reporting health scares in S. Henson
and S. Gregory (eds) The Politics of food, 1994. Proceedings of
an interdisciplinary seminary held at the Univesity of Reading
7th July 1993. Reading: Department of Agricultural Economics,
Reading Univesity. ISBN 0 704905 38 X
Making an Issue of Food Safety: the media pressure groups and
the public sphere. In Donna Maurer and Jeffrey Sobal (eds)
food Eating and Nutrition as Social Problems: constructivist
Perspectives, NY Aldine de Gruyter 1995. ISN 0 202 30507 4.
Mad Cow Disease: The history of BSE in Britain. RW
Lacey. Ipsela Press, Jersey. 1995 ISBN 1 899516 00 X.
Contains a lot of information showing that much of what has come
from the UK government has been misinformation.
Lethal Legacy. BSE - the search for the truth. SF
Dealler. Bloomsbury Press, Soho, UK. 1996 ISBN 0 7475 2940 X
goes through BSE from the is appearance to the day that cases
are presumptively announced in humans. Written as a story but
with large amounts of information for the scientist. Paperback.
Slow Virus Diseases. Zeman, Lennette, Brunson (Eds) The
Williams and Wilkins co, Baltimore, USA 1974. ISBN 0 683 09368 1
Spongiform encephalopathies. I.V. Allen ed. Published
for the British Council by Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh
ISBN 0 443 04928 9. Contains large amounts of data from
specific invited authors about various TSEs. Notably nobody
that did not agree with SEAC got a look in the door as an author
but, although the book is relatively one sided the information
given is useful and I would recommend it as a source of data,
particularly about BSE.
Planned beef production and marketing. David Allen. BSP
Professional Books, Oxford, UK. ISBN0 632 02611 1 A useful book
to work out what is going on.
Rinderwahnsinn, BSE: die neue Gefahr aus dem Kochtopf
Koester-Loesche, Kari: Muenchen 1995, ISBN 3-431-03415-2. This
book informs of the Mad Cow Disease, its origin and
dissemination, it demonstrates how the hazards are
played down and denied by authorities and politicians, it
describes how
infected beef can get into the shops in spite of all efforts, it
explains why
the BSE agents have to be kept out of the kitchen by all means.
The author,
Dr. med. vet. Kari Koester-Loesche, born in Luebeck, is a
veterinarian and
has published numerous scientific works, among other things,
""Disease with
long-term effect. Documentation on Mad Cow Disease" (1994), "Fit
against
viruses and bacteria" (1995), and "The great epidemics, from
Plague to Aids"
(1995).)
'BSE - The Facts', Brian Ford. ISBN 0 552 14530 0,
208pp, 4.99, London:
Corgi Books. This is a sharp book aimed at explaining about TSEs
and BSE. It is aimed at the general population and has been
very popular because it has been well written and well
published. The complexities of the disease and the politics
that have gone with it are gone over and it is likely that this
will be republished should further information appear.
Prion Diseases of Humans and Animals. Meeting at the
Royal Institute of British Architects September 1991. Eds
Prusiner, Collinge, Poell, Anderton. Published 1992
Prion diseases. Part of the series; Methods in Modern
Medicine. Editors Baker and Ridley. Humana Press, New Jersey
1996.
Public Risk Perception. Lynn Frewer. Institute of food
Research. No further details.
Prions Prions Prions. Edited Prusiner. Seems to be a
fairly complex book that is difficult to read by people in the
street. 1996. It was almost certainly written in 1994 or
slightly afterwards. As a result, because of the time in coming
to press it is missing a number of important findings from 1995
and 1996. Obviously it follows the prions hypothesis and treats
it as being totally certain at times. However, the science that
is put forward is strong stuff and the prion argument is
difficult to get around if all you read was this book. Full
marks to the authors and editors for doing their best. The
subject is, however, so wide now that it is difficult for a
relatively small and expensive book like this to come into the
market and find a niche except in the expanding scientific
groups that are interested.
Das BSE - Kartell. Die Vertuschete Gefahr und wie man
sich schutzen kann. Publishers Rohwolt. ISBN 3-499-13898-0 By
Kay Dethlefs and Norbert Dohn. A small and relatively cheap
paperback aimed at the german-speaking population and looking
from the European point of view. The baddies in this one are
the UK Government members that spent their time telling us that
everything was OK and the scientists that did not stand up and
shout that we were being lied to. An overview with some good
statistics. .
Mad cows and Milk Gate Virgil Hulse MD, MPH, FAACPM.
Mable Mountain Publishing box 668, Phoenix, Oregon, 97535. USA.
ISBN 0-9654377-0-1 BSE makes up only half of a 280 page book
but the information it contains is useful and runs over the
course and relavence of the disease in the USA as well as the
UK. Various pieces it contains I did not know; for instance I
had not realised that two holstein steers had been inoculated
with TME and developed BSE as a result. I knew that the USA had
followed up all the British cattle that it could in the USA but
I didn't realise that they had found all of them but 35. The
reason being that a single case of BSE in the US herd would have
flattened it fairly quickly. The book contains large amounts of
news flashes from around the world concerned with the horror
that associated the UK government's admission that humans may
actually have been infected with BSE. The book is worth getting
hold of to realise the political shock that took place and the
paucity of science that had been carried out.
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy. The BSE dilemma.
Edited by Clarence Gibbs.Springer Publishing Jr. A powerful
scientific book going through the subject of the science in a
complex way. This is likely to be quoted for many years to
come. However, the science is moving on so fast now in the
laboratory that many of the pieces of research quoted now seem
out dated and some of the information still seems a bit of a
cover-up on behalf of the MAFF in the UK. Some of the authors
used are now known to have misled (but not lied to) the EC and
so their scientific articles are tarnished in some way. One
major article by Richard Johnson into the Real and Theoretical
threats to human health posed by the epidemic of BSE is
particularly interesting in that only one other public health
expert has actually ever written on the subject (Will Patterson)
and that was followed by stony silence from his peers. An
important book as a report of the 6 International Workshops on
BSE. Some of the previous ones were minimal in size so this was
the major one. In fact a much more important book will come
from the meeting at Eriche in Sicily in 1996 and Gibb's advice
to the various groups in the past of BSE not being a risk to
humans has not done his image any good as an editor or a picker
for people to speak at his international meeting..
BSE and Public Health. Perspectives from Agriculture, Food
Policy and Epidemiology Edited by Karen Tocque and Mark
Bellis, Publication of the NW Public Health Association in the
UK. ISBN 1 901452 00 X Available directly from Karen Toque as
the easiest source: CDSC North West Public Health Lab,
Fazakerley Hospital, Lower Lane, Liverpool, L9 7AL. This is an
amazing item because the Public Health Service in the UK was
largely told not to deal with BSE at all and hence the editors
of this book were sticking their necks out. The book is a
review of a meeting in the Summer of 1996 in which various
groups put forward their opinion. Most interestingly much of the
information is not out of date because the debate was not just
on the errors made concerning BSE but also the errors that are
currently in progress concerning food policy and public health.
BSE: For Services Rendered? The Drive for Profits in the Meat
Industry This document is available from Dr. Jean Shaoul at
the Department of Accounting and Finance, University of
Manchester, M13 9PL, UK. It is clearly a post doctoral research
thesis and looks into the validity of the accounting and
economics that justified the way in which the meat industry was
being run. A very interesting part concerned the position of
the MAFF with Prosper de Mulder, with the Monopolies and Mergers
Commission. In this apparently MAFF supported the idea that PdM
should be allowed to take up most of the industry. Reading the
document, which one cant help say is extremely well written with
large amounts of data, the impression comes out that MAFF had
acted badly over many factors (and not just BSE) and much of
what we see were just covering up. Jean is willing to forward
copies.
UK
Government documents The only problems with these is
that unless you know what is actually going on you may not be
able to fully understand the limitations of the information that
is being given.
Prion diseases Edited by Collinge and Palmer. ISBN 0 19
8547897. A heavy scientific book. Available for 29.95 pounds
from STM books, 2 Castle Mews, Castle Rd, N. Finchley. London
N12 9EH. Relatively simplistic compared with some of the other
books but it is more up todate. It has various chapters on
specific scientific directions and is worthwhile for someone
starting in the field to get an idea on how the diseases work
and can be investigated.
Deadly Feasts by Richard Rhodes, Simon & Schuster (c)1997
ISBN 0-684-82360-8
The book is about the Transmissible Spongiform
Encephalopathies, written for the general public.
The first part goes into quite a bit of detail on Dr. Carleton
Gajdusek's
work with kuru in the Fore of Papua New Guinea, then discusses
cases of
Creutzfeldt Jakob disease, research into scrapie and
transmissible mink
encephalopathy. It then describes the transmission experiments
of kuru and
CJD to monkeys and primates (chimps) that took place starting in
the 1960s.
The second part details the BSE epidemic in the UK and Europe,
and some of
the recent research and theories on the nature of the TSEs and
the infective
agent.
It is only partly about BSE.
Red, Yellow and Blue makes White Richard Lacey, Local
publishers in Leeds,
quicker to write to him at Chapel Allerton Hospital, Leeds, UK
LS7 and ask for a copy at 9.99 pounds.
It is a fact-fiction story about a journalist that is married to
a Green Party member and is being continuously told over his
mobile phone by some kind of 'terrorist', that many of the
apparently natural disasters taking place in the UK (in 1999)
are in fact caused by humans...gradually the plot thickens.
I found this a really entertaining book, but I was involved in
the subject for a long time and so understand many of the
technical words used. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it is
turned into a TV program.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and the link with BSE. Scrapie;
from sheep to cow to man. The manufactured disease Harash
Narang, 1997, 30 pounds and obtained relatively quickly from
the author at Ken Bell International, 22-40 Brentwood Ave, West
Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyune, NE2 3DH. 0191 281 5311.
The book is clearly not holding anything back in that the
introduction makes it absolutely plain that the disease was a
result of agricultural activity and ineffectiveness to act
against it. He makes it plain that a TSE in chickens has
appeared and that we should not assume that blood transfusions
are safe. He claims that the disease is derived from scrapie,
is a Nema virus and that he has been deliberately put down by
the administration because he would have found out which cattle
were infected and which were not (i.e. lost them large amounts
of money).
The book is quite determined to write down all of the
information that Narang has available and to do this in as
scientific a form as can be done without losing track of the
ordinary reader. Journalists should have wide eyes when reading
it as it is determined to make the incompitence of the
administration as plain as possible.
An Unplayable Hand? BSE, CJD and the British Government
Robert Maxwell, published by the Kings Fund. ISBN
1-85717-153-5.
A thoroughly entertaining book going through the political
reasons why the scientists were ignored, why the MAFF took so
long in doing things about the disease, why Major's Government
made such a mistake in preventing work to be carried out by the
EC, and why this was involved with the demise of the Tory
Government in May 1997. A very well written book with little
science but an interesting insight into the way in which
Governments think when confronted with serious problems. It
suggests that things could have been done much better.
Review:
This is a facinating book which quickly
reviews the scientific data concerning BSE and then goes on to
explain the mis-handling of the situation by UK politicians.
Most of the information presented seems to have been drawn from
official documents put out by the UK Government and from the UK
media. It explains why specific action taken by the politicians
was chosen and how this fitted in with the way in which the
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food was set up to be
both the guardian of the consumer and responsible for creating
an agricultural industry that produced cheap food. As a result
of these factors it was initially desired that BSE would
represent no, or minimal risks to humans. Indeed, the reports
by the Southwood Committee in 1988 and the feelings of the
advisory scientific (Tyrrell) committee that followed it,
suggested that this would be so.
At that point I felt that the author is rather kind to the
scientific community over the errors made. For instance
scientists were well aware that we were eating large numbers of
infected cattle, many had given up eating UK beef and my own
experience with US and European scientists is that in general
they were highly worried that the risks taken were unaccepable.
The medical scientists that were involved at the Central Public
Health Laboratory were told not to carry out any further
research, and independent scientists found it impossible to be
funded. The determination of MAFF to remain in charge of much
of the laboratory research left its own researchers in a
terrible position; they knew that many official statements were
untrue and could not speak. Scientists remained largely silent
and the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee was
considered by the politicians (and indeed by the author) to
represent the scientific thought of the moment; a mistake. The
political problem of avoiding whistleblowers when 'skating on
thin ice' was solved by MAFF by preventing any research that
might produce unwanted results and by keeping it in-house. What
MAFF forgot was that scientists are just as honest as anyone and
talked to their freinds outside it's walls.
The author is not so kind to the politicians about their
acceptance of scientific data. It was extremely difficult
before March 1996 for anything but optimistic information to
reach Government circles from independent scientists and the
politicians at the time looked on the 'chosen few' of SEAC as
being all that was necessary to seek full advice. Science is
sometimes too complex for this and the arrival of Professor
Pattison as the chairman of SEAC in late 1995 swept away the
inward viewpoints of the members that preceded him. Pattison
took on new experts, including one from Public Health that
should have been present from the beginning, and invited advice
from many other sources. This broke the determination of MAFF
to sit on data and the reports that then reached the politicians
made it clear that things were not so happy as Tyrrell's
committee had suggested. The politicians had accepted Tyrrell's
reports and looked little further. Similarly the author looks
at the way in which the House of Commons Select Committee on
Agriculture and Medine in April 1996 asked for advice from
external source; the questions put to Professor Lang, one of the
major critics of the handling of BSE, were in such a way as to
be almost insulting to him. I was handled in a similar way and
the author points out that bad news is often not wanted when
large numbers of jobs are at risk and costs may be high.
He describes how the Thatcher then Major Governments were in
fact playing political Russian roulette with BSE. They wanted
to hear that the risks taken were zero. But the scientists
could not say that. They wanted to demonstrate to the
electorate that they could manipulate the EU into accepting the
'minor' risks of BSE; but the European populus were horrified
and the political image of the UK Government was, and remains,
largely ruined.
The last chapter explains how things could be done better;
through the alteration of MAFF so that it was not in its
interest to prevent research or information reaching the public,
through the treating of the EU as proper trading partners, and
through the assessment of human risk in other ways so as to
permit the people of the country to accept Governmental advice.
One of the most important pieces of advice put forward by the
author is that BSE is one example of a food problem. The way in
which we manufacture our food will mean further crises and
political alterations have to be made in order to avoid the
results debacle we have seen with BSE. The hand was playable
but to do it you must have a different MAFF, open science and a
realisation that the shooting of bearers of bad news may not
help.
BSE. The Welsh Dimension Edited by Bristow J. Published
by the Institute of Welsh Affairs in Cardiff in 1997 and by the
Welsh Institute of Rural Studies. ISBN 0-902-124-57-9. A review
of the biology and the agricultural effects.
The Silent Ark By Juliet Gellatley and Tony Wardle.
Publishers: Thorsons. ISBN 0-7225-3162-1 published in the USA
in 1997. This is a personal story about political protection,
public relations glitz and disinformation concerning the risks
associated with the with new methods of food manufacture and
agriculture. It contains a very minor section concerning BSE
but it more interesting in its description of how BSE could have
appeared.
Mad Cow Disease: Could the Nightmare Happen Here? by
Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber. Common Courage Press, USA
published in September 1997 at 24.95 dollars. I have not yet
managed to get hold of a copy but the review from Anne Maddocks
says that it is an excellent insight into the inner world of
American farming procedures that have led it to be a highly
profitable industry over the last 100 years. Particularly
useful for information about the rendering industry in the USA
and how this what modified to fit the costs of the day. Further
details are on their internet site at http://www.prwatch.org/ It
is published by Common Courage Press with ISBN 1-567511112. The
importers into the UK say that it will be here in middle to late
February. In the USA it has gone into its second printing.
The Mad Cow Crisis. Health and the Public Good Edited by
Scott Ratzan from the University of Emmerson, Boston. Published
in 1998 by UCL Press , UK. ISBN 1-85728-812-2 (paper back).
This is an academic book looking initially at the disease itself
with data concerning the numbers of cattle, how they became ill,
what kind of effect it had on the farming industry, and
Government. Then it goes on to discuss the way in which Public
Health involvement must be taken into account when dealing with
BSE type problems. Good chapers: Can the spread of BSE and CJD
be predicted? (Dealler) Chronic uncerntainty, and BSE
communications: Lessons from (and limits of) decision theory
(Anand), The politics of BSE: negotiating the public's health
(Goethals, Ratzan, and Demko). This type of chapter heading
indicates the status of the book as an academic source, not just
looking at the biology of the disease but also into how
decisions could be made to handle BSE-like illness. A major
book in the field.
Death on the Menu: CJD Victims Diagnosis and Care. by
Harash Narang. Published by HH Publishers, 40 Brentwood Ave,
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK NE2 3DH. 0044 191 281 5311 (or fax: 281
0611). This can be obtained directly from the publishers at 25
pounds. ISBN 0-9780953764-1-3. It is the best book so far in
which the individual patient's clinical, psychological and
personal conditions are layed out in a way that has been
permitted by their relatives. It is difficult to put this sort
of thing in the way of a non-medical text book but this has done
its best. It should be noted that a number of the CJD patients
involved were not those that had been stated to be nvCJD by the
CJD Surveillance Unit in Edinburgh. Narang claims that they
probably missed these cases and puts the story over well.
e-mail to
Articles for publication should be sent to me at: The Pathology
Laboratory, Burnley General Hospital, Burnley, UK BB10 2PQ