Indiana ensures beef safety
By Steve Hurry
Staff
Writer
Purdue University veterinary authorities ensure
that examination of suspect cattle and feed monitoring are being conducted
in Indiana to prevent mad cow disease from becoming an issue here.
Mad cow disease, technically known as bovine spongiform
encephalopathy, is a lethal central nervous system disease of cattle
that has caused problems for countries around the world, mainly in the
United Kingdom.
The disease has been linked to a terminal disease
in humans known as Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. There has been
debate on the origins of the disease, but scientists agree that the
most likely link to humans came from people eating infected meat.
The disease has now killed 80 people in Britain
and infected at least five more. Both disorders are fatal brain diseases
with long incubation periods measured in years and are caused by an
unconventional transmissible agent.
In the U.K., the risk of acquiring Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease from eating beef appears to be extremely small, about one case
per 10 billion servings. Milk and milk products from cows are not believed
to pose any risk for transmitting the disease agent.
Studies suggest that mad cow disease comes from
cattle feed prepared from carcasses of ruminants, which are cud-chewing
animals such as cows, goats and sheep. The Food and Drug Administration
banned the practice of feeding ruminant proteins to cattle and sheep
in 1997.
According to Bob Geiger, feed administrator for
the Purdue-based office of the Indiana state chemist, Indiana farmers
and feed manufacturers support the ban on feeding ruminant proteins
to cattle and realize the devastating effects an outbreak would have
on the cattle industry in the United States.
"The (mad cow disease) epidemic in Great Britain
hasn’t had any major impacts on the cattle market here in the U.S."
said Geiger. "But it has raised the awareness of the cattle industry
and consumers."
As of December 2000, there have been about 182,000
cases of mad cow disease in cattle worldwide, with a great majority
of them residing or stemming from the U.K. So far there hasn’t
been a case of the disease in the United States, but the situation in
the U.K. has raised concerns.
Simon Kenyon, a Purdue Cooperative Extension Service
Veterinarian, said controls are in place that would prevent the epidemic
from becoming a problem here. "We need to educate the public and
figure out how we would react if (mad cow disease) were found here and
avoid the panic reaction many of the European countries are having,"
said Kenyon.
There is no research being done on the disease
at Purdue, but any cows that die of neurological disease in Indiana
are examined at Purdue’s Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory.
Heads from the diseased cows are sent to the laboratory, where pieces
of the brain are examined for possible signs of the disease.
Leon Thacker, director of the Animal Disease Diagnostic
Laboratory, said there is a low probability of the epidemic showing
up here. "We have learned a lot from the epidemic in England,"
said Thacker. "And if it does show up here, we will be able to
isolate the incident and eliminate it from the food chain. The (mad
cow disease) epidemic in the U.K. has put the country on alert and changed
our cattle practices."
Some of the controls put in effect to prevent the
disease from coming to the United States include the 1997 FDA ban of
feeding ruminant proteins to cattle and sheep and banning cattle imports
from any country that has had outbreaks.
"We’re not sweeping the (mad cow disease)
issue under the rug," said Thacker. "We’re in surveillance
mode and actively looking for it."
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