(CIDRAP News) The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) says it more than tripled the number of cattle it tested for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, in fiscal year 2002 and is making progress on other regulatory steps to keep BSE out of the country.
Federal health officials have announced plans to expand research on whether chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer and elk poses a threat to humans and other species.
(CIDRAP News) A Saskatchewan man who died earlier this summer was Canada's first victim of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), but he probably acquired the disease in the United Kingdom, Canadian health officials announced yesterday.
(CIDRAP News) The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced this week that it will begin using laboratory testing to ensure that beef products from mechanical "advanced meat recovery" (AMR) systems are free of spinal cord tissue.
(CIDRAP News) A British woman living in Florida has what appears to be the first case of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) reported in a US resident, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Note: This story was updated March 1, 2002, to include additional information about recent federal actions to prevent mad cow disease.
(CIDRAP News) A new study commissioned by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) indicates that the risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) occurring in the United States is extremely low, but USDA officials who released the study said they are considering taking steps to lower the risk further.
(CIDRAP News) – A new immunoblot method for detecting prion protein related to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is much more sensitive than existing bioassay techniques, according to a recent report in The Lancet. The new assay revealed significant amounts of prion protein in the eye tissue of vCJD patients, prompting researchers to suggest that ophthalmic surgical instruments may pose a risk of transmitting the disease.
