2 replies to this topic

[bobdrake12]

http://news.bbc.co.u...lth/2521883.stm





Thursday, 28 November, 2002, 06:25 GMT

BSE linked to further CJD cases (excerpts)




The government has called the findings "potentially important"


The number of cases of CJD caused by eating BSE-infected beef may be higher than previously thought.

Scientists at the Institute of Neurology in London have found evidence BSE, in addition to causing so-called variant CJD (vCJD), may also be responsible for some cases of "sporadic" CJD.

So far, 117 people in Britain have died from the incurable brain disease variant vCJD.

Previously, the cause of cases of sporadic CJD - a different strain of the disease - was not known.

The strain, which has been identified for many years, tends to affect older people and a link with eating infected beef had never been made.

Now, however, researchers say some cases of sporadic CJD may have been caused by people eating BSE-infected beef in the late 80s and early 90s.

[bobdrake12]

http://news.bbc.co.u...ure/1749113.stm





Thursday, 10 January, 2002, 09:43 GMT

New BSE warning over lamb (excerpts)




There have been renewed calls for screening of sheep


Lamb poses a greater theoretical risk of spreading BSE to humans than beef, scientists have warned.

As many as 150,000 Britons could die from eating infected meat if sheep as well as cattle have the disease, say experts at Imperial College, London, UK.

[bobdrake12]

http://story.news.ya...s_proteins_dc_1


Nobel Laureate Warns of Prions in Animal Muscle (excerpts)

Mon Dec 2,10:24 AM ET

By Richard Woodman


LONDON (Reuters Health) - The scientist who won the Nobel prize for discovering prions, the abnormal proteins implicated in mad cow disease, has called for all Britons to be tested for the deadly brain ailment after finding surprisingly high prion levels in the muscles of mice infected with a similar illness, British newspapers reported Sunday.

Professor Stanley Prusiner of the University of California, San Francisco, told the Independent that the finding raised the "obvious worry" that cows and sheep could be similarly affected. Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (news - web sites) (BSE (news - web sites)), has been linked to a similar illness in humans who ate contaminated meat. Sheep can carry a related illness called scrapie.

Until now, levels of prions in infected cow and sheep meat and muscle tissue were always believed to be low enough not to pose a significant risk of transmission and the emphasis was to remove the brain and spinal cord, which harbor much higher levels.

However, according to the newspaper, new tests being pioneered at the University of California are far more sensitive and have discovered higher concentrations of prions in muscle than have previously been found.


Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited