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PROTEUS COMMENTARY: Bovine spongiform
encephalopathy
 | Starting with the UK in 1985, one country after another has stated (1) "It
can't happen here", (2) "You are not at risk", and (3) "Trust
us". In each case, sooner rather than later, an embarrassed
spokesperson, minister, or committee had to concede: it was in their country, and
they were at risk, (whereupon public trust evaporated unto the seventh
generation). To date, more than seventeen countries are reporting some degree of
BSE in their herds.
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| In the mid 1990s, a case of BSE was
found near Red Deer Alberta in an animal imported from the UK. It and its herdmates
were destroyed. since then more than 10
more cases of BSE in cattle have been found in the Canadian herd.
There will undoubtedly be more, though probaby not many. It is
under control here and because of the safeguards, we can predict from
the 10-year trend that the probability of causing many human cases is
very low. (Not zero, but low)
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| We in Canada have many long-standing trade and cultural ties with the UK (more
than the USA does). We import large quantities of European meat derivatives. We have
imported cattle from the UK (one of these was BSE +ve in 1993), and apparently
have imported (according to one source) substantial quantities of meat scraps, bone
meal, tallow, etc., from European countries; we are in the "group of 70" -
the seventy countries that apparently received meat and bone meal from the UK during the
height of the BSE epizootic.
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| Personally, I believe that we will confirm acquired
human TSEs in
N/America, though whether vCJD or vCWD, or through visits, blood, food, cosmetics,
pharmaceuticals or dietary supplements, is anyone's guess. The saga of BSE/vCJD has
been - and still is - characterized by more uncertainty than any other pathogenic
condition, and in the face of such uncertainty, no one has the right to encourage
complacency.
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| Yet we have seen the same denial that we saw in Europe. Case in point: Canada imported 125,000 kilograms of British
meat and bone meal in the 1990s after it had been identified as a likely cause of mad cow
disease. The figures from U.K. Customs and Excise contradict claims by Agriculture Canada
Minister Lyle Vanclief, who has categorically denied that Canada ever imported bone meal
from countries of the European Union. "Never," said Vanclief outside the Commons. "Canada has not imported meat and bone meal from the European
Union." However, The British Sunday Times reported that Prosper de
Mulder, Britain's largest rendering company, exported potentially contaminated material to
as many as 70 countries, including Canada. U.K. government figures indicate that
Canada received 30,000 kilograms of meat and bone meal in 1993; 22,000 in 1994; 31,000 in
1995; and 42,000 in 1996. In a worldwide alert last week, the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization reported that meat and bone meal from Europe was imported by more than 100
countries from 1986 up to today. All those countries are at risk, said the report.
"All countries which have imported cattle or meat and bone meal that originated from
Western Europe, during and since the 1980s, can therefore be considered at risk from the
disease."
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| There is no need for alarm, but there is room for concern,
caution, awareness, and an attempt to reduce any potential risk to the smallest reasonable
level. Before we find the first human case
contracted in North
America.
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| It now seems that another prion
disease, Chronic Wasting Disease, which affects
several species of deer, will fill the gap.
All indications
are that we are currently exactly where the UK was in early 1996 - we have
the disease spreading widely in animals but have not yet confirmed the first human
case. Keep watching, (and meanwhile best not to
accept that gift of venison sausage from a deer hunting friend of yours).
(Proteus....)
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