News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Japan has lifted its ban on the importation of American beef, nearly 2 years after the discovery of the first US case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) triggered the boycott.

(CIDRAP News) – A second case of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) has been reported in a US resident, although American authorities said he is thought to have contracted the illness in his native Britain.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) plans to keep its expanded testing program for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) going indefinitely instead of scaling it back at the end of this year, according to recent reports.

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said he wants the department to continue testing about 1,000 cattle a day, according to a Nov 12 Associated Press (AP) report.

(CIDRAP News) – Chronic wasting disease (CWD), a prion disease that resembles bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), has been found in a wild moose for the first time, Colorado wildlife officials announced recently.

A bull moose that was killed by a bow hunter in September tested positive for the disease, the Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) announced Sep 29. Previously the disease had been found in the wild only in deer and elk.

(CIDRAP News) – The deaths of nine people in Idaho this year are being investigated as possible cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), a rare, fatal brain-wasting illness.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today proposed new animal feed rules to reduce the risk of spreading bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), but they don't go as far as some earlier FDA proposals.

(CIDRAP News) – The head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said this week the agency will soon align its rules on animal feed more closely with those in Canada and Europe, signaling a likelihood of new restrictions to prevent the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.

(CIDRAP News) – Meat companies are again free to use most of the small intestine of cattle to make sausage casings, following a change in a federal rule intended to protect people from exposure to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.

(CIDRAP News) – The federal government ended its investigation of the nation's second case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) without finding any more cases or learning exactly how the cow was infected, officials announced yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Scientists in Texas report they have found a way to detect abnormal prion protein in blood, an achievement that could lead to the first practical blood test for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and similar diseases in living animals.