News & Perspective

Feb 10, 2004 (CIDRAP News) – The United States stands by its plan to reopen the border to young Canadian cattle Mar 7 but will keep the border closed to meat from older Canadian cattle, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – To help prevent the spread of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) in the United States, a federal advisory committee recommended yesterday that anyone who received a blood transfusion in France after 1980 should not be allowed to give blood.

(CIDRAP News) – The recent prediction from a panel of experts that the United States is likely to see more cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) does not clash with a previous Harvard University study that described a low risk of the disease, according to a member of the panel.

(CIDRAP News) – A panel of experts that reviewed the US response to the nation's first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) says there are probably other cases in the United States and recommends increasing restrictions designed to keep BSE-infected materials out of human food and animal feed.

(CIDRAP News) – A herd of 450 bull calves that includes the offspring of the nation's first cow known to have bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) will be euthanized as a precaution against the disease, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – A team of experts who reviewed Canada's response to the recent mad cow disease case in Alberta recommended last week that Canada increase its efforts to ensure that high-risk parts of cattle do not end up in either human food or animal feed.

(CIDRAP News) – The hunt for additional cattle infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Canada is winding down after uncovering no evidence of the disease in about 2,700 cattle, Canadian officials announced yesterday.