scholarly journals BSE in Finland and the rest of Europe

2001 ◽  
Vol 5 (50) ◽  
Author(s):  
G Bryant

Until 7 December 2001, Finland had enjoyed Category II status in the European Union assessment of geographical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) risk (GBR) when laboratory tests (Prionics Check test, immunocytochemistry and histopathology) confirmed the disease in a six year old cow that had been slaughtered after exhibiting typical symptoms of BSE (1).

2001 ◽  
Vol 5 (51) ◽  
Author(s):  
G Bryant

Austria (previously assessed as geographical BSE risk (GBR) category II) announced its first confirmed case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) on 6 December 2001. Therefore, since the report in last week’s issue of Eurosurveillance Weekly (1), Sweden is now the only country in the European Union not to have reported BSE.


2006 ◽  
Vol 60 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 249-254
Author(s):  
Ksenija Nesic

In the course of the last decades of the twentieth century, more than 30 new diseases were determined for the first time in history. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or "mad cow disease" is one of them. The disease implies the subacute neurodegenerative transmission of spongiform encephalopathy and it was diagnosed and described for the first time in Great Britain in 1986. A theory has been established that BSE is spread through feedstuffs, more precisely, meat-bone flour which contains infective proteins of ruminants, and legislature has been passed throughout the world with the objective of preventing the entry of meat-bone flour into the food chain. The complete ban of the use of meat-bone flour for all farm animals (with the exception of fish flour for non-ruminants) and an adequate thermal treatment in the production of meat-bone flour (133?C, 3 bar, 20 min) are the elements on which the European Union (EU) legislature is based. The regulations in our country include a ban on the use of meat-bone flour in cattle feedstuffs and a ban on imports of beef proteins. The implementation of this legislature throughout the world requires the corresponding analytical means. At the present time, there are several available possibilities: optic microscopy, PCR, immunoprobes, spectroscopic methods, and several others which are still being examined for use for this purpose. All the analytical methods are being applied with the objective of controlling the implementation of the current regulations, but also in order to discover possible cross contamination that could take place in factories of animal feedstuffs, during transportation, storage, or on farms, in particular when there are no separate lines for feedstuffs that contains meat-bone flour and others in which even its traces are banned. In order to secure the successful control and prevention of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in our country, as well as to secure the unhindered continuation of the integration processes with the European Union, it is necessary to create an adequate system for the monitoring of this disease, not only because of food safety as a precondition for the good health of people, but also for commercial reasons, as that is the only way to have an active role on the world market. .


2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angus Wear ◽  
Kirstine Henderson ◽  
Kath Webster ◽  
Indu Patel

In 1999, the European Union (EU) approved 3 rapid methods for the testing of bovine brain samples for the presence of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The evaluation that led to the approval did not include an analysis of autolyzed material. Member states of the EU have active surveillance programs for BSE, which target fallen stock as well as other categories of cattle. Autolysis is a common feature of fallen stock samples because there can be a considerable delay between death and collection of samples. Therefore, it is important to know whether these tests perform optimally on autolyzed samples. The Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) selected 250 positive fallen stock samples. These had been detected during routine testing using the Prionics®-Check Western blot and confirmed as BSE cases by immunohistochemistry or electron microscopy. Samples were graded according to the degree of autolysis and then tested by the 3 methods: Prionics®-Check Western blot, Platelia test, and Enfer test. All 3 methods correctly classified the samples as positive BSE cases, therefore alleviating doubt about their ability to do so. Subsequent EU validation exercises, such as those conducted in 2002–2003, have included the testing of autolyzed material. It is important that all new methods be evaluated on autolyzed tissue before approval for official use.


2017 ◽  
Vol 145 (11) ◽  
pp. 2280-2286 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. E. ARNOLD ◽  
R. R. L. SIMONS ◽  
J. HOPE ◽  
N. GIBBENS ◽  
A. L. ADKIN

SUMMARYOccasional cases of classical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) still continue to occur within the European Union (EU) for animals born after reinforced feed bans (BARBs), which should in theory have eliminated all risk of infection. The study aimed to determine (i) whether a common rate of decline of BSE infection was evident across EU member states, i.e. to determine whether control measures have been equally effective in all member states, (ii) whether there was any evidence of spontaneous occurrence of BSE in the data and (iii) the expected date for the last BSE case in UK. It was found that there was no significant difference in the rate of decline of BSE prevalence between member states, with a common rate of decline of 33·9% per annum (95% CI 30·9–37%) in successive annual birth cohorts. Trend analysis indicated an ultimate decline to 0 prevalence, suggesting that spontaneous occurrence does not explain the majority of cases. Projecting forward the trends from the back-calculation model indicated that there was approximately a 50% probability of further cases in the UK, and should the current rate of decline continue, there remains the possibility of further occasional cases up until 2026.


Author(s):  
Richard Pospíšil

Mad cow disease first appeared in the 80´s of last century and has gradually spread in series to high breeding countries, incurring major breeding and economic loses. In June of 2001, the disease was first doccumented in the Czech Republic and by year end 2006, there were discovered 26 cases. In accor­dance to the broader conception of the Common agricultural policy od the European Union, whose one pillar is pillar in the protection of agricultural industry, the European Union has paid breeders in particular EU states with financial compensation, which are the boundaries of the EU budget. For this purpose, there was established in the Czech Republic legal assignment for the distribution of this compensation, and this is reflected in act No. 166/1999, veterinary act and act No. 147/2006. Financial compensation will be paid by the Czech Republic´s Minister of finance after the proposed approval by the Minister of Agriculture and the State Veterinary Administration. Submitted work will deal the majority of compensation to breeders with the occurence of BSE in breeding cattle and with regards to their disbursement.


1997 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-52
Author(s):  
G. K. Bruckner

Mad Cow Disease or BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) became a household name internationally and also in South Africa. International hysteria resulted following reports of a possible link between a disease diagnosed in cattle in Britain and a variant of the disease diagnosed in humans after the presumed ingestion or contact with meat from infected cattle. The European Union instituted a ban on the importation of beef from the United Kingdom during March 1996 that had a severe effect on the beef industry in the UK and also resulted in a world wide consumer resistance against beef consumption.


Author(s):  
Richard Pospíšil ◽  
Zdeněk Pospíšil

Since 2001 when the first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was identified in the Czech Republic, a total of 27 infected cows have been detected. A single outbreak of BSE in 2007 confirms that, in the Czech Republic, the disease incidence has a decreasing trend, which is in agreement with the situation in other EU countries. In order to conrol the disease and in the interests of human health protection, the killing of infected animals and related cohorts (groups of potentially infected animals), as well as eliminaton of specified risk material (SRM) were commenced. To reduce the negative impact of these measures on agricultural production it was possible, on the basis of the Veterinary Act No. 166/1999, to compensate the relevant costs to the farmers involved; these were covered by the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic from the budgedary chapter „General Treasury Administration“. Between the outbreak in 2001 and 2007, a total of 1 181 296 cows were examined and, based on the finding of 27 BSE-positive animals, 3 994 cows were subsequently slaughtered. BSE exa­mi­na­tion, killing and decontamination costs amounted to 18.9 million CZK, compensation costs for killed animals reached almost 163.9 million CZK and compensation for unaccomplished production accounted for over 13.6 million CZK. Together with other additional costs, the total financial compensations paid out during the period of BSE presence were almost 197 million CZK. The findings of this study are discussed and compared with rather sparse information available on the costs related to BSE abroad. The available data suggests that the compensations for BSE-related costs paid to farmers in the Czech Republic were proportional to those in the European Union, USA or Canada.


2007 ◽  
Vol 88 (12) ◽  
pp. 3486-3492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darren M. Green ◽  
Victor J. del Rio Vilas ◽  
Colin P. D. Birch ◽  
Jethro Johnson ◽  
Istvan Z. Kiss ◽  
...  

Following the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) crisis, the European Union has introduced policies for eradicating transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), including scrapie, from large ruminants. However, recent European Union surveillance has identified a novel prion disease, ‘atypical’ scrapie, substantially different from classical scrapie. It is unknown whether atypical scrapie is naturally transmissible or zoonotic, like BSE. Furthermore, cases have occurred in scrapie-resistant genotypes that are targets for selection in legislated selective breeding programmes. Here, the first epidemiological study of British cases of atypical scrapie is described, focusing on the demographics and trading patterns of farms and using databases of recorded livestock movements. Triplet comparisons found that farms with atypical scrapie stock more sheep than those of the general, non-affected population. They also move larger numbers of animals than control farms, but similar numbers to farms reporting classical scrapie. Whilst there is weak evidence of association through sheep trading of farms reporting classical scrapie, atypical scrapie shows no such evidence, being well-distributed across regions of Great Britain and through the sheep-trading network. Thus, although cases are few in number so far, our study suggests that, should natural transmission of atypical scrapie be occurring at all, it is doing so slowly.


2007 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 986-990 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRANCESCO INGRAVALLE ◽  
MARIA CESARINA ABETE ◽  
MARIA INES CRESCIO ◽  
GIUSEPPE RU

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy is a prion disease of ruminants that was first recognized in 1986 in the United Kingdom. Early in the epidemic, it became obvious that the presence of meat and bone meal in feed rations was a common factor in all bovine spongiform encephalopathy cases. The first ban of derived animal proteins in feed was enforced in Europe in 1994 and implemented by Regulation 999/2001 that prohibited the feeding of animal-derived protein to farm animals. The only official method currently accepted by the European Union Commission for test for the presence of animal-derived proteins in feedstuffs is feed microscopy. In Italy, monitoring of feedstuff safety is provided by both the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture. The quality of official control, usually assessed by verifying the reproducibility and the accuracy of the testing method, is of fundamental importance for all laboratories and institutions using these results for comparative purposes. The aims of this study were to assess the reproducibility of the official method over all the Italian surveillance network and to provide a model for evaluating the performance of the monitoring system. The accuracy of the identification of the animal class of derived protein detected (avian, mammalian, or aquatic organism) was assessed. The interlaboratory agreement within the overall network reached 0.97 (95% confidence interval of 0.95 to 0.98) for determining the presence or absence of animal-derived proteins (e.g., for mammalian, avian, or aquatic species), and specificity of the identification of the animal class indicated that fish proteins are more easily recognized than are avian or mammalian proteins.


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