News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Canadian officials today reported the country's 11th case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, but said it will not affect Canada's BSE risk status as defined by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).

(CIDRAP News) – Safety inspectors still write their reports by hand, food processing plants are inspected once every 10 years at best, only two people work full-time on pet-food safety, and critical information is locked up in piles of warehoused paper documents.

(CIDRAP News) – Two months from now, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) plans to open the US border to older Canadian cattle and beef for the first time since bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, emerged in Canada in 2003.

Following through on plans announced in January, the USDA said last week it would lift the restriction on older cattle and beef, along with certain other cattle parts, on Nov 19.

(CIDRAP News) – Canada broadened its safeguards against bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, yesterday by banning the use of cattle brains, spinal cords, and certain other body parts from all animal feeds, pet foods, and fertilizer.

(CIDRAP News) – Canada recently confirmed its tenth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease—its second of 2007.

(CIDRAP News) – Canada recently released a report on the investigation of its ninth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, the first case of 2007.

(CIDRAP News) – Health officials in the United Kingdom have found a probable fourth case of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) associated with a blood transfusion from someone who unknowingly had the disease.

The case was diagnosed in a patient who received blood 9 years ago from a person who later was found to have vCJD, the UK Health Protection Agency (HPA) said in a Jan 18 statement.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) yesterday proposed to reopen the US border to older Canadian cattle and beef for the first time since bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) cropped up in Canada in 2003.