Friday, April 17, 2015

Assessing Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Species Barriers with an In Vitro Prion Protein Conversion Assay

Assessing Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Species Barriers with an In Vitro Prion Protein Conversion Assay

 

Christopher J. Johnson1, Christina M. Carlson2, Aaron R. Morawski3, Alyson Manthei4, Neil R. Cashman5

 

1USGS National Wildlife Health Center, 2Department of Soil Science, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 3Laboratory of Immunology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, 4Merial Veterinary Scholars Program, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 5Department of Neurology, University of British Columbia

 

Summary

 

Measuring the barrier to the interspecies transmission of prion diseases is challenging and typically involves animal challenges or biochemical assays. Here, we present an in vitro prion protein conversion assay with the ability to predict species barriers.

 

Date Published: 3/10/2015, Issue 97; doi: 10.3791/52522

 

Keywords: Medicine, Issue 97, Prion, species barrier, conversion, immunoblotting, transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, interspecies transmission Cite this Article

 

Johnson, C. J., Carlson, C. M., Morawski, A. R., Manthei, A., Cashman, N. R. Assessing Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Species Barriers with an In Vitro Prion Protein Conversion Assay. J. Vis. Exp. (97), e52522, doi:10.3791/52522 (2015). Abstract

 

Studies to understanding interspecies transmission of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs, prion diseases) are challenging in that they typically rely upon lengthy and costly in vivo animal challenge studies. A number of in vitro assays have been developed to aid in measuring prion species barriers, thereby reducing animal use and providing quicker results than animal bioassays. Here, we present the protocol for a rapid in vitro prion conversion assay called the conversion efficiency ratio (CER) assay. In this assay cellular prion protein (PrPC) from an uninfected host brain is denatured at both pH 7.4 and 3.5 to produce two substrates. When the pH 7.4 substrate is incubated with TSE agent, the amount of PrPC that converts to a proteinase K (PK)-resistant state is modulated by the original host’s species barrier to the TSE agent. In contrast, PrPC in the pH 3.5 substrate is misfolded by any TSE agent. By comparing the amount of PK-resistant prion protein in the two substrates, an assessment of the host’s species barrier can be made. We show that the CER assay correctly predicts known prion species barriers of laboratory mice and, as an example, show some preliminary results suggesting that bobcats (Lynx rufus) may be susceptible to white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) chronic wasting disease agent.

 


 

 

>>> show some preliminary results suggesting that bobcats (Lynx rufus) may be susceptible to white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) chronic wasting disease agent.

 

 

AD.63: Susceptibility of domestic cats to chronic wasting disease

 

Amy V.Nalls,1 Candace Mathiason,1 Davis Seelig,2 Susan Kraft,1 Kevin Carnes,1 Kelly Anderson,1 Jeanette Hayes-Klug1 and Edward A. Hoover1

 

1Colorado State University; Fort Collins, CO USA; 2University of Minnesota; Saint Paul, MN USA

 

Domestic and nondomestic cats have been shown to be susceptible to feline spongiform encephalopathy (FSE), almost certainly caused by consumption of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)-contaminated meat. Because domestic and free-ranging nondomestic felids scavenge cervid carcasses, including those in areas affected by chronic wasting disease (CWD), we evaluated the susceptibility of the domestic cat (Felis catus) to CWD infection experimentally. Cohorts of 5 cats each were inoculated either intracerebrally (IC) or orally (PO) with CWD-infected deer brain. At 40 and 42 mo post-inoculation, two IC-inoculated cats developed signs consistent with prion disease, including a stilted gait, weight loss, anorexia, polydipsia, patterned motor behaviors, head and tail tremors, and ataxia, and progressed to terminal disease within 5 mo. Brains from these two cats were pooled and inoculated into cohorts of cats by IC, PO, and intraperitoneal and subcutaneous (IP/SC) routes. Upon subpassage, feline-adapted CWD (FelCWD) was transmitted to all IC-inoculated cats with a decreased incubation period of 23 to 27 mo. FelCWD was detected in the brains of all the symptomatic cats by western blotting and immunohistochemistry and abnormalities were seen in magnetic resonance imaging, including multifocal T2 fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) signal hyper-intensities, ventricular size increases, prominent sulci, and white matter tract cavitation. Currently, 3 of 4 IP/SQ and 2 of 4 PO inoculared cats have developed abnormal behavior patterns consistent with the early stage of feline CWD. These results demonstrate that CWD can be transmitted and adapted to the domestic cat, thus raising the issue of potential cervid-to- feline transmission in nature.

 


 

www.landesbioscience.com

 

PO-081: Chronic wasting disease in the cat— Similarities to feline spongiform encephalopathy (FSE)

 


 


 


 


 

PO-081: Chronic wasting disease in the cat— Similarities to feline spongiform encephalopathy (FSE)

 


 


 

Thursday, May 31, 2012

 

CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD PRION2012 Aerosol, Inhalation transmission, Scrapie, cats, species barrier, burial, and more

 


 

Monday, August 8, 2011

 

Susceptibility of Domestic Cats to CWD Infection

 


 

Sunday, August 25, 2013

 

Prion2013 Chronic Wasting Disease CWD risk factors, humans, domestic cats, blood, and mother to offspring transmission

 


 

Feline Spongiform Encephalopathy (FSE) FSE was first identified in the UK in 1990. Most cases have been reported in the UK, where the epidemic has been consistent with that of the BSE epidemic. Some other countries (e.g. Norway, Liechtenstein and France) have also reported cases.

 

Most cases have been reported in domestic cats but there have also been cases in captive exotic cats (e.g. Cheetah, Lion, Asian leopard cat, Ocelot, Puma and Tiger). The disease is characterised by progressive nervous signs, including ataxia, hyper-reactivity and behavioural changes and is fatal.

 

The chemical and biological properties of the infectious agent are identical to those of the BSE and vCJD agents. These findings support the hypothesis that the FSE epidemic resulted from the consumption of food contaminated with the BSE agent.

 

The FSE epidemic has declined as a result of tight controls on the disposal of specified risk material and other animal by-products.

 

References: Leggett, M.M. et al.(1990) A spongiform encephalopathy in a cat. Veterinary Record. 127. 586-588

 

Synge, B.A. et al. (1991) Spongiform encephalopathy in a Scottish cat. Veterinary Record. 129. 320

 

Wyatt, J. M. et al. (1991) Naturally occurring scrapie-like spongiform encephalopathy in five domestic cats. Veterinary Record. 129. 233.

 

Gruffydd-Jones, T. J.et al.. (1991) Feline spongiform encephalopathy. J. Small Animal Practice. 33. 471-476.

 

Pearson, G. R. et al. (1992) Feline spongiform encephalopathy: fibril and PrP studies. Veterinary Record. 131. 307-310.

 

Willoughby, K. et al. (1992) Spongiform encephalopathy in a captive puma (Felis concolor). Veterinary Record. 131. 431-434.

 

Fraser, H. et al. (1994) Transmission of feline spongiform encephalopathy to mice. Veterinary Record 134. 449.

 

Bratberg, B. et al. (1995) Feline spongiform encephalopathy in a cat in Norway. Veterinary Record 136. 444

 

Baron, T. et al. (1997) Spongiform encephalopathy in an imported cheetah in France. Veterinary Record 141. 270-271

 

Zanusso, G et al. (1998) Simultaneous occurrence of spongiform encephalopathy in a man and his cat in Italy. Lancet, V352, N9134, OCT 3, Pp 1116-1117.

 

Ryder, S.J. et al. (2001) Inconsistent detection of PrP in extraneural tissues of cats with feline spongiform encephalopathy. Veterinary Record 146. 437-441

 

Kelly, D.F. et al. (2005) Neuropathological findings in cats with clinically suspect but histologically unconfirmed feline spongiform encephalopathy. Veterinary Record 156. 472-477.

 


 

3 further cheetah cases have occured, plus 1 lion, plus all the primates, and 20 additional house cats. Nothing has been published on any of these UK cases either. One supposes the problem here with publishing is that many unpublished cases were _born_ long after the feed "ban". Caught between a rock and a hard place: leaky ban or horizontal transmission (or both).

 


 


 

YOU explained that imported crushed heads were extensively used in the petfood industry...

 


 

In particular I do not believe one can say that the levels of the scrapie agent in pet food are so low that domestic animals are not exposed...

 


 


 

on occassions, materials obtained from slaughterhouses will be derived from sheep affected with scrapie or cattle that may be incubating BSE for use in petfood manufacture...

 


 

*** Meldrum's notes on pet foods and materials used

 


 

*** BSE & Pedigree Petfoods ***

 


 

In 2003, Denver Post reporter Theo Stein interviewed scientists about CWD spreading though deer and elk in Colorado. Dr. Valerius Geist, who paradoxically has become a darling of anti-wolfers, made this assertion about the significance of wolves in containing CWD spread via proteins called prions.

 

“Wolves will certainly bring the disease to a halt,” he said. “They will remove infected individuals and clean up carcasses that could transmit the disease.”

 

Stein added that “Geist and Princeton University biologist Andrew Dobson theorize that killing off the wolf allowed CWD to take hold in the first place.”

 

Wolves aren’t alone. In a 2009 study titled “Mountain lions prey selectively on prion-infected mule deer,” researchers in Colorado discovered that “adult mule deer killed by mountain lions were more likely to be prion-infected than were deer killed more randomly … suggesting that mountain lions were selecting for infected individuals when they targeted adult deer.”

 


 

NO, NO, NOT NO, BUT HELL KNOW !!!

 

PLEASE be careful what you ask for.

 

recently, canine spongiform encephalopathy has been confirmed.

 

I proved this in 2005, with a letter from MAFF/DEFRA et al confirming my suspicions of the ‘hound study’ way back. this was covered up. see documents below.

 

also, recently, cwd to the domestic cat is a great concern.

 

even though to date, as far as I am aware of, the cwd study on the mountain lion has not produced any confirmation yet, we already know that the feline species is highly succeptible to the TSE prion. domestic cats and the exotic zoo big cats.

 

so in my honest opinion, any program that would use wild animals to prey on other wild animals, as a tool to help curb CWD TSE prion disease, would only help enhance the spread of disease, and it would only help spread the disease to other species. ...TSS

 

Monday, February 14, 2011

 

THE ROLE OF PREDATION IN DISEASE CONTROL: A COMPARISON OF SELECTIVE AND NONSELECTIVE REMOVAL ON PRION DISEASE DYNAMICS IN DEER

 

NO, NO, NOT NO, BUT HELL NO !

 

Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 47(1), 2011, pp. 78-93 © Wildlife Disease Association 2011

 


 

OR-09: Canine spongiform encephalopathy—A new form of animal prion disease

 

Monique David, Mourad Tayebi UT Health; Houston, TX USA

 

It was also hypothesized that BSE might have originated from an unrecognized sporadic or genetic case of bovine prion disease incorporated into cattle feed or even cattle feed contaminated with prion-infected human remains.1 However, strong support for a genetic origin of BSE has recently been demonstrated in an H-type BSE case exhibiting the novel mutation E211K.2 Furthermore, a specific prion protein strain causing BSE in cattle is believed to be the etiological agent responsible for the novel human prion disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).3 Cases of vCJD have been identified in a number countries, including France, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Canada, Japan, US and the UK with the largest number of cases. Naturally occurring feline spongiform encephalopathy of domestic cats4 and spongiform encephalopathies of a number of zoo animals so-called exotic ungulate encephalopathies5,6 are also recognized as animal prion diseases, and are thought to have resulted from the same BSE-contaminated food given to cattle and humans, although and at least in some of these cases, a sporadic and/or genetic etiology cannot be ruled out. The canine species seems to display resistance to prion disease and no single case has so far been reported.7,8 Here, we describe a case of a 9 week old male Rottweiler puppy presenting neurological deficits; and histological examination revealed spongiform vacuolation characteristic of those associated with prion diseases.9 Initial biochemical studies using anti-PrP antibodies revealed the presence of partially proteinase K-resistant fragment by western blotting. Furthermore, immunohistochemistry revealed spongiform degeneration consistent with those found in prion disease and displayed staining for PrPSc in the cortex.

 

Of major importance, PrPSc isolated from the Rottweiler was able to cross the species barrier transmitted to hamster in vitro with PMCA and in vivo (one hamster out of 5). Futhermore, second in vivo passage to hamsters, led to 100% attack rate (n = 4) and animals displayed untypical lesional profile and shorter incubation period.

 

In this study, we show that the canine species might be sensitive to prion disease and that PrPSc isolated from a dog can be transmitted to dogs and hamsters in vitro using PMCA and in vivo to hamsters.

 

If our preliminary results are confirmed, the proposal will have a major impact on animal and public health and would certainly lead to implementing new control measures for ‘canine spongiform encephalopathy’ (CSE).

 

References 1. Colchester AC, Colchester NT. The origin of bovine spongiform encephalopathy: the human prion disease hypothesis. Lancet 2005; 366:856-61; PMID:16139661; http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(05)67218-2.

 

2. Richt JA, Hall SM. BSE case associated with prion protein gene mutation. PLoS Pathog 2008; 4:e1000156; PMID:18787697; http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal. ppat.1000156.

 

3. Collinge J. Human prion diseases and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Hum Mol Genet 1997; 6:1699-705; PMID:9300662; http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ hmg/6.10.1699.

 

4. Wyatt JM, Pearson GR, Smerdon TN, Gruffydd-Jones TJ, Wells GA, Wilesmith JW. Naturally occurring scrapie-like spongiform encephalopathy in five domestic cats. Vet Rec 1991; 129:233-6; PMID:1957458; http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/vr.129.11.233.

 

5. Jeffrey M, Wells GA. Spongiform encephalopathy in a nyala (Tragelaphus angasi). Vet Pathol 1988; 25:398-9; PMID:3232315; http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/030098588802500514.

 

6. Kirkwood JK, Wells GA, Wilesmith JW, Cunningham AA, Jackson SI. Spongiform encephalopathy in an arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx) and a greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros). Vet Rec 1990; 127:418-20; PMID:2264242.

 

7. Bartz JC, McKenzie DI, Bessen RA, Marsh RF, Aiken JM. Transmissible mink encephalopathy species barrier effect between ferret and mink: PrP gene and protein analysis. J Gen Virol 1994; 75:2947-53; PMID:7964604; http://dx.doi.org/10.1099/0022-1317- 75-11-2947.

 

8. Lysek DA, Schorn C, Nivon LG, Esteve-Moya V, Christen B, Calzolai L, et al. Prion protein NMR structures of cats, dogs, pigs, and sheep. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2005; 102:640-5; PMID:15647367; http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0408937102.

 

9. Budka H. Neuropathology of prion diseases. Br Med Bull 2003; 66:121-30; PMID:14522854; http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bmb/66.1.121.

 


 

Monday, March 26, 2012

 

CANINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY: A NEW FORM OF ANIMAL PRION DISEASE

 


 

Monday, March 8, 2010

 

Canine Spongiform Encephalopathy aka MAD DOG DISEASE

 


 

=======================================

 

2013

 

Strain characteristics of the in vitro-adapted rabbit and dog BSE agent remained invariable with respect to the original cattle BSE prion, suggesting that the naturally low susceptibility of rabbits and dogs to prion infections should not alter their zoonotic potential if these animals became infected with BSE.

 

=======================================

 

Neurobiology of Disease

 

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Induces Misfolding of Alleged Prion-Resistant Species Cellular Prion Protein without Altering Its Pathobiological Features

 

Enric Vidal3, Natalia Fernández-Borges1, Belén Pintado4, Montserrat Ordóñez3, Mercedes Márquez6, Dolors Fondevila5,6, Juan María Torres7, Martí Pumarola5,6, and Joaquín Castilla1,2 + Author Affiliations

 

1CIC bioGUNE, 48160 Derio, Bizkaia, Spain,

 

2IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, 48011 Bilbao, Bizkaia, Spain,

 

3Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal, Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)-IRTA, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain,

 

4Centro Nacional de BiotecnologĂ­a, Campus de Cantoblanco, 28049 Cantoblanco, Madrid, Spain,

 

5Department of Animal Medicine and Surgery, Veterinary Faculty, UAB, 08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Barcelona, Spain,

 

6Murine Pathology Unit, Centre de Biotecnologia Animal i Teràpia Gènica, UAB, 08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Barcelona, Spain, and

 

7Centro de InvestigaciĂłn en Sanidad Animal-Instituto Nacional de InvestigaciĂłn y TecnologĂ­a Agraria y Alimentaria, 28130 Valdeolmos, Madrid, Spain

 

Author contributions: E.V., N.F.-B., and J.C. designed research; E.V., N.F.-B., B.P., M.O., M.M., D.F., and J.C. performed research; E.V., N.F.-B., B.P., and J.C. contributed unpublished reagents/analytic tools; E.V., N.F.-B., B.P., M.O., M.M., D.F., J.M.T., M.P., and J.C. analyzed data; E.V. and J.C. wrote the paper.

 

Abstract

 

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) prions were responsible for an unforeseen epizootic in cattle which had a vast social, economic, and public health impact. This was primarily because BSE prions were found to be transmissible to humans. Other species were also susceptible to BSE either by natural infection (e.g., felids, caprids) or in experimental settings (e.g., sheep, mice). However, certain species closely related to humans, such as canids and leporids, were apparently resistant to BSE. In vitro prion amplification techniques (saPMCA) were used to successfully misfold the cellular prion protein (PrPc) of these allegedly resistant species into a BSE-type prion protein. The biochemical and biological properties of the new prions generated in vitro after seeding rabbit and dog brain homogenates with classical BSE were studied. Pathobiological features of the resultant prion strains were determined after their inoculation into transgenic mice expressing bovine and human PrPC. Strain characteristics of the in vitro-adapted rabbit and dog BSE agent remained invariable with respect to the original cattle BSE prion, suggesting that the naturally low susceptibility of rabbits and dogs to prion infections should not alter their zoonotic potential if these animals became infected with BSE. This study provides a sound basis for risk assessment regarding prion diseases in purportedly resistant species.

 

Received January 18, 2013. Revision received March 7, 2013. Accepted March 23, 2013. Copyright © 2013 the authors 0270-6474/13/337778-09$15.00/0

 


 

2005

 

DEFRA Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

 

Area 307, London, SW1P 4PQ Telephone: 0207 904 6000 Direct line: 0207 904 6287 E-mail: h.mcdonagh.defra.gsi.gov.uk

 

GTN: FAX:

 

Mr T S Singeltary P.O. Box 42 Bacliff Texas USA 77518

 

21 November 2001

 

Dear Mr Singeltary

 

TSE IN HOUNDS

 

Thank you for e-mail regarding the hounds survey. I am sorry for the long delay in responding.

 

As you note, the hound survey remains unpublished. However the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC), the UK Government's independent Advisory Committee on all aspects related to BSE-like disease, gave the hound study detailed consideration at their meeting in January 1994. As a summary of this meeting published in the BSE inquiry noted, the Committee were clearly concerned about the work that had been carried out, concluding that there had clearly been problems with it, particularly the control on the histology, and that it was more or less inconclusive. However was agreed that there should be a re-evaluation of the pathological material in the study.

 

Later, at their meeting in June 95, The Committee re-evaluated the hound study to see if any useful results could be gained from it. The Chairman concluded that there were varying opinions within the Committee on further work. It did not suggest any further transmission studies and thought that the lack of clinical data was a major weakness.

 

Overall, it is clear that SEAC had major concerns about the survey as conducted. As a result it is likely that the authors felt that it would not stand up to r~eer review and hence it was never published. As noted above, and in the detailed minutes of the SEAC meeting in June 95, SEAC considered whether additional work should be performed to examine dogs for evidence of TSE infection. Although the Committee had mixed views about the merits of conducting further work, the Chairman noted that when the Southwood Committee made their recommendation to complete an assessment of possible spongiform disease in dogs, no TSEs had been identified in other species and hence dogs were perceived as a high risk population and worthy of study. However subsequent to the original recommendation, made in 1990, a number of other species had been identified with TSE ( e.g. cats) so a study in hounds was less

 


 

As this study remains unpublished, my understanding is that the ownership of the data essentially remains with the original researchers. Thus unfortunately, I am unable to help with your request to supply information on the hound survey directly. My only suggestion is that you contact one of the researchers originally involved in the project, such as Gerald Wells. He can be contacted at the following address.

 

Dr Gerald Wells, Veterinary Laboratories Agency, New Haw, Addlestone, Surrey, KT 15 3NB, UK

 

You may also wish to be aware that since November 1994 all suspected cases of spongiform encephalopathy in animals and poultry were made notifiable. Hence since that date there has been a requirement for vets to report any suspect SE in dogs for further investigation. To date there has never been positive identification of a TSE in a dog.

 

I hope this is helpful

 

Yours sincerely 4

 

HUGH MCDONAGH BSE CORRESPONDENCE SECTION

 

======================================

 

HOUND SURVEY

 

I am sorry, but I really could have been a co-signatory of Gerald's minute.

 

I do NOT think that we can justify devoting any resources to this study, especially as larger and more important projects such as the pathogenesis study will be quite demanding.

 

If there is a POLITICAL need to continue with the examination of hound brains then it should be passed entirely to the VI Service.

 

J W WILESMITH Epidemiology Unit 18 October 1991

 

Mr. R Bradley

 

cc: Mr. G A H Wells

 


 

3.3. Mr R J Higgins in conjunction with Mr G A Wells and Mr A C Scott would by the end of the year, indentify the three brains that were from the ''POSITIVE'' end of the lesion spectrum.

 


 

TSE in dogs have not been documented simply because OF THE ONLY STUDY, those brain tissue samples were screwed up too. see my investigation of this here, and to follow, later follow up, a letter from defra, AND SEE SUSPICIOUS BRAIN TISSUE SAF's. ...TSS

 


 

TSE & HOUNDS

 

GAH WELLS (very important statement here...TSS)

 

HOUND STUDY

 

AS implied in the Inset 25 we must not _ASSUME_ that transmission of BSE to other species will invariably present pathology typical of a scrapie-like disease.

 

snip...

 


 

76 pages on hound study;

 

snip...

 


 

The spongiform changes were not pathognomonic (ie. conclusive proof) for prion disease, as they were atypical, being largely present in white matter rather than grey matter in the brain and spinal cord. However, Tony Scott, then head of electron microscopy work on TSEs, had no doubt that these SAFs were genuine and that these hounds therefore must have had a scrapie-like disease. I reviewed all the sections myself (original notes appended) and although the pathology was not typical, I could not exclude the possibility that this was a scrapie-like disorder, as white matter vacuolation is seen in TSEs and Wallerian degeneration was also present in the white matter of the hounds, another feature of scrapie.

 

38.I reviewed the literature on hound neuropathology, and discovered that micrographs and descriptive neuropathology from papers on 'hound ataxia' mirrored those in material from Robert Higgins' hound survey. Dr Tony Palmer (Cambridge) had done much of this work, and I obtained original sections from hound ataxia cases from him. This enabled me provisionally to conclude that Robert Higgins had in all probability detected hound ataxia, but also that hound ataxia itself was possibly a TSE. Gerald Wells confirmed in 'blind' examination of single restricted microscopic fields that there was no distinction between the white matter vacuolation present in BSE and scrapie cases, and that occurring in hound ataxia and the hound survey cases.

 

39.Hound ataxia had reportedly been occurring since the 1930's, and a known risk factor for its development was the feeding to hounds of downer cows, and particularly bovine offal. Circumstantial evidence suggests that bovine offal may also be causal in FSE, and TME in mink. Despite the inconclusive nature of the neuropathology, it was clearly evident that this putative canine spongiform encephalopathy merited further investigation.

 

40.The inconclusive results in hounds were never confirmed, nor was the link with hound ataxia pursued. I telephoned Robert Higgins six years after he first sent the slides to CVL. I was informed that despite his submitting a yearly report to the CVO including the suggestion that the hound work be continued, no further work had been done since 1991. This was surprising, to say the very least.

 

41.The hound work could have provided valuable evidence that a scrapie-like agent may have been present in cattle offal long before the BSE epidemic was recognised. The MAFF hound survey remains unpublished.

 

Histopathological support to various other published MAFF experiments

 

42.These included neuropathological examination of material from experiments studying the attempted transmission of BSE to chickens and pigs (CVL 1991) and to mice (RVC 1994).

 


 

It was thought likely that at least some, and probably all, of the cases in zoo animals were caused by the BSE agent. Strong support for this hypothesis came from the findings of Bruce and others (1994) ( Bruce, M.E., Chree, A., McConnell, I., Foster, J., Pearson, G. & Fraser, H. (1994) Transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy and scrapie to mice: strain variation and species barrier. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 343, 405-411: J/PTRSL/343/405 ), who demonstrated that the pattern of variation in incubation period and lesion profile in six strains of mice inoculated with brain homogenates from an affected kudu and the nyala, was similar to that seen when this panel of mouse strains was inoculated with brain from cattle with BSE. The affected zoo bovids were all from herds that were exposed to feeds that were likely to have contained contaminated ruminant-derived protein and the zoo felids had been exposed, if only occasionally in some cases, to tissues from cattle unfit for human consumption.

 

snip...

 


 

NEW URL ;

 


 

Friday, March 8, 2013

 

Dogs may have been used to make Petfood and animal feed

 


 


 


 

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

 

Weld County Bi-Products dba Fort Morgan Pet Foods 6/1/12 significant deviations from requirements in FDA regulations that are intended to reduce the risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) within the United States

 


 

 Comment from Terry Singeltary This is a Comment on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Notice: Draft Guidance for Industry on Ensuring Safety of Animal Feed Maintained and Fed On-Farm; Availability

 

For related information, Open Docket Folder Docket folder icon

 

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Guidance for Industry Ensuring Safety of Animal Feed Maintained and Fed On-Farm Draft Guidance FDA-2014-D-1180 Singeltary Comment

 

Greetings FDA et al,

 

I wish to comment on Guidance for Industry Ensuring Safety of Animal Feed Maintained and Fed On-Farm Draft Guidance FDA-2014-D-1180.

 

Once again, I wish to kindly bring up the failed attempt of the FDA and the ruminant to ruminant mad cow feed ban of August 4, 1997. This feed ban is still failing today, as we speak. Even more worrisome, is the fact it is still legal to feed cervids to cervids in the USA, in fact, the FDA only _recommends_ that deer and elk considered to be of _high_ risk for CWD do not enter the animal food chain, but there is NO law, its only voluntary, a recipe for a TSE prion disaster, as we have seen with the ruminant to ruminant feed ban for cattle, where in 2007, one decade post August 1997 mad cow feed ban, where in 2007 10,000,000 POUNDS OF BANNED BLOOD LACED MEAT AND BONE MEAL WHEN OUT INTO COMMERCE, TO BE FED OUT. Since 2007, these BSE feed ban rules have been breached time and time again. tons and tons of mad cow feed went out in Alabama as well, where one of the mad cows were documented, just the year before in 2006, and in 2013 and 2014, breaches so bad (OAI) Official Action Indicated were issued. those are like the one issued where 10 million pounds of banned blood laced meat and bone meal were fed out.

 

What is the use of having a Guidance for Industry Ensuring Safety of Animal Feed Maintained and Fed On-Farm Draft Guidance FDA-2014-D-1180, if it cannot be enforced, as we have seen with a mandatory ruminant to ruminant feed ban?

 

I strenuously once again urge the FDA and its industry constituents, to make it MANDATORY that all ruminant feed be banned to all ruminants, and this should include all cervids as soon as possible for the following reasons...

 

======

 

In the USA, under the Food and Drug Administrations BSE Feed Regulation (21 CFR 589.2000) most material (exceptions include milk, tallow, and gelatin) from deer and elk is prohibited for use in feed for ruminant animals. With regards to feed for non-ruminant animals, under FDA law, CWD positive deer may not be used for any animal feed or feed ingredients. For elk and deer considered at high risk for CWD, the FDA recommends that these animals do not enter the animal feed system.

 

***However, this recommendation is guidance and not a requirement by law.

 

======

 

31 Jan 2015 at 20:14 GMT

 

*** Ruminant feed ban for cervids in the United States? ***

 

31 Jan 2015 at 20:14 GMT

 


 

19 May 2010 at 21:21 GMT

 

*** Singeltary reply ; Molecular, Biochemical and Genetic Characteristics of BSE in Canada Singeltary reply ;

 


 

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

 

FDA PART 589 -- SUBSTANCES PROHIBITED FROM USE IN ANIMAL FOOD OR FEED VIOLATIONS OFFICIAL ACTION INDICATED OAI UPDATE DECEMBER 2014 BSE TSE PRION

 


 

2013

 

Sunday, December 15, 2013

 

FDA PART 589 -- SUBSTANCES PROHIBITED FROM USE IN ANIMAL FOOD OR FEED VIOLATIONS OFFICIAL ACTION INDICATED OAI UPDATE DECEMBER 2013 UPDATE

 


 

DOCKET-- 03D-0186 -- FDA Issues Draft Guidance on Use of Material From Deer and Elk in Animal Feed; Availability Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 11:47:37 0500 EMC 1 Terry S. Singeltary Sr. Vol #: 1

 


 


 

PLEASE SEE FULL TEXT SUBMISSION ;

 


 

10,000,000+ LBS. of PROHIBITED BANNED MAD COW FEED I.E. BLOOD LACED MBM IN COMMERCE USA 2007

 

Date: March 21, 2007 at 2:27 pm PST

 

REASON

 

Blood meal used to make cattle feed was recalled because it was cross- contaminated with prohibited bovine meat and bone meal that had been manufactured on common equipment and labeling did not bear cautionary BSE statement.

 

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE

 

42,090 lbs.

 

DISTRIBUTION

 

WI

 

REASON

 

Products manufactured from bulk feed containing blood meal that was cross contaminated with prohibited meat and bone meal and the labeling did not bear cautionary BSE statement.

 

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE

 

9,997,976 lbs.

 

DISTRIBUTION

 

ID and NV

 

END OF ENFORCEMENT REPORT FOR MARCH 21, 2007

 


 

Terry S. Singeltary Sr.

 

*** See attached file(s) No documents available. Attachments View All (1) Guidance for Industry Ensuring Safety of Animal Feed Maintained and Fed On-Farm Terry Singeltary Comment View Attachment:

 


 

 

Sunday, April 5, 2015

 

*** Guidance for Industry Ensuring Safety of Animal Feed Maintained and Fed On-Farm Draft Guidance FDA-2014-D-1180 ***

 


 

 

Sunday, April 12, 2015

 

*** Research Project: Transmission, Differentiation, and Pathobiology of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies 2014 Annual Report ***

 


 

 

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

 

KURU Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopthy TSE Prion Disease VIDEO

 


 

 

Self-Propagative Replication of Ab Oligomers Suggests Potential Transmissibility in Alzheimer Disease

 

Received July 24, 2014; Accepted September 16, 2014; Published November 3, 2014

 


 

 

Singeltary comment ;

 


 

 

Saturday, December 13, 2014

 

Terry S. Singeltary Sr. Publications TSE prion disease

 

Diagnosis and Reporting of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

 

Singeltary, Sr et al. JAMA.2001; 285: 733-734. Vol. 285 No. 6, February 14, 2001 JAMA

 

snip...

 


 

 

 

TSS

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopthy TSE Prion Disease

Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopthy TSE Prion Disease

 

 *** Kuru Video

 

 Kuru: The Science and The Sorcery

 


 

*** Scrapie Video

 


 

*** Human Mad Cow Video

 


 

*** USA sporadic CJD MAD COW DISEASE HAS HUGE PROBLEM Video

 


 

2014

 

 ***Moreover, L-BSE has been transmitted more easily to transgenic mice overexpressing a human PrP [13,14] or to primates [15,16] than C-BSE.

 

 ***It has been suggested that some sporadic CJD subtypes in humans may result from an exposure to the L-BSE agent.

 

 *** Lending support to this hypothesis, pathological and biochemical similarities have been observed between L-BSE and an sCJD subtype (MV genotype at codon 129 of PRNP) [17], and between L-BSE infected non-human primate and another sCJD subtype (MM genotype) [15].

 

 snip...

 


 

Monday, October 10, 2011

 

 EFSA Journal 2011 The European Response to BSE: A Success Story

 

 snip...

 

 EFSA and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) recently delivered a scientific opinion on any possible epidemiological or molecular association between TSEs in animals and humans (EFSA Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ) and ECDC, 2011). This opinion confirmed Classical BSE prions as the only TSE agents demonstrated to be zoonotic so far

 

 *** but the possibility that a small proportion of human cases so far classified as "sporadic" CJD are of zoonotic origin could not be excluded.

 

 *** Moreover, transmission experiments to non-human primates suggest that some TSE agents in addition to Classical BSE prions in cattle (namely L-type Atypical BSE, Classical BSE in sheep, transmissible mink encephalopathy (TME) and chronic wasting disease (CWD) agents) might have zoonotic potential.

 

 snip...

 


 


 

Thursday, August 12, 2010

 

 Seven main threats for the future linked to prions

 

 First threat

 

 The TSE road map defining the evolution of European policy for protection against prion diseases is based on a certain numbers of hypotheses some of which may turn out to be erroneous. In particular, a form of BSE (called atypical Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy), recently identified by systematic testing in aged cattle without clinical signs, may be the origin of classical BSE and thus potentially constitute a reservoir, which may be impossible to eradicate if a sporadic origin is confirmed.

 

 *** Also, a link is suspected between atypical BSE and some apparently sporadic cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.

 

 *** These atypical BSE cases constitute an unforeseen first threat that could sharply modify the European approach to prion diseases.

 

 Second threat

 

 snip...

 




Tuesday, December 16, 2014

 

 Evidence for zoonotic potential of ovine scrapie prions

 

 HervĂ© Cassard,1, n1 Juan-Maria Torres,2, n1 Caroline Lacroux,1, Jean-Yves Douet,1, Sylvie L. Benestad,3, FrĂ©dĂ©ric Lantier,4, SĂ©verine Lugan,1, Isabelle Lantier,4, Pierrette Costes,1, Naima Aron,1, Fabienne Reine,5, Laetitia Herzog,5, Juan-Carlos Espinosa,2, Vincent Beringue5, & Olivier AndrĂ©oletti1, Affiliations Contributions Corresponding author Journal name: Nature Communications Volume: 5, Article number: 5821 DOI: doi:10.1038/ncomms6821 Received 07 August 2014 Accepted 10 November 2014 Published 16 December 2014 Article tools Citation Reprints Rights & permissions Article metrics

 

 Abstract

 

 Although Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is the cause of variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (vCJD) in humans, the zoonotic potential of scrapie prions remains unknown. Mice genetically engineered to overexpress the human ​prion protein (tgHu) have emerged as highly relevant models for gauging the capacity of prions to transmit to humans. These models can propagate human prions without any apparent transmission barrier and have been used used to confirm the zoonotic ability of BSE. Here we show that a panel of sheep scrapie prions transmit to several tgHu mice models with an efficiency comparable to that of cattle BSE. The serial transmission of different scrapie isolates in these mice led to the propagation of prions that are phenotypically identical to those causing sporadic CJD (sCJD) in humans. These results demonstrate that scrapie prions have a zoonotic potential and raise new questions about the possible link between animal and human prions.

 

 Subject terms: Biological sciences• Medical research At a glance

 


 

why do we not want to do TSE transmission studies on chimpanzees $

 

 5. A positive result from a chimpanzee challenged severly would likely create alarm in some circles even if the result could not be interpreted for man. I have a view that all these agents could be transmitted provided a large enough dose by appropriate routes was given and the animals kept long enough. Until the mechanisms of the species barrier are more clearly understood it might be best to retain that hypothesis.

 

 snip...

 

 R. BRADLEY

 


 

 Suspect symptoms

 

 What if you can catch old-fashioned CJD by eating meat from a sheep infected with scrapie?

 

 28 Mar 01 Most doctors believe that sCJD is caused by a prion protein deforming by chance into a killer. But Singeltary thinks otherwise. He is one of a number of campaigners who say that some sCJD, like the variant CJD related to BSE, is caused by eating meat from infected animals. Their suspicions have focused on sheep carrying scrapie, a BSE-like disease that is widespread in flocks across Europe and North America.

 

 Now scientists in France have stumbled across new evidence that adds weight to the campaigners' fears. To their complete surprise, the researchers found that one strain of scrapie causes the same brain damage in mice as sCJD.

 

 "This means we cannot rule out that at least some sCJD may be caused by some strains of scrapie," says team member Jean-Philippe Deslys of the French Atomic Energy Commission's medical research laboratory in Fontenay-aux-Roses, south-west of Paris. Hans Kretschmar of the University of Göttingen, who coordinates CJD surveillance in Germany, is so concerned by the findings that he now wants to trawl back through past sCJD cases to see if any might have been caused by eating infected mutton or lamb...

 

 2001

 

 Suspect symptoms

 

 What if you can catch old-fashioned CJD by eating meat from a sheep infected with scrapie?

 

 28 Mar 01

 

 Like lambs to the slaughter

 

 31 March 2001

 

 by Debora MacKenzie Magazine issue 2284.

 

 FOUR years ago, Terry Singeltary watched his mother die horribly from a degenerative brain disease. Doctors told him it was Alzheimer's, but Singeltary was suspicious. The diagnosis didn't fit her violent symptoms, and he demanded an autopsy. It showed she had died of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

 

 Most doctors believe that sCJD is caused by a prion protein deforming by chance into a killer. But Singeltary thinks otherwise. He is one of a number of campaigners who say that some sCJD, like the variant CJD related to BSE, is caused by eating meat from infected animals. Their suspicions have focused on sheep carrying scrapie, a BSE-like disease that is widespread in flocks across Europe and North America.

 

 Now scientists in France have stumbled across new evidence that adds weight to the campaigners' fears. To their complete surprise, the researchers found that one strain of scrapie causes the same brain damage in mice as sCJD.

 

 "This means we cannot rule out that at least some sCJD may be caused by some strains of scrapie," says team member Jean-Philippe Deslys of the French Atomic Energy Commission's medical research laboratory in Fontenay-aux-Roses, south-west of Paris. Hans Kretschmar of the University of Göttingen, who coordinates CJD surveillance in Germany, is so concerned by the findings that he now wants to trawl back through past sCJD cases to see if any might have been caused by eating infected mutton or lamb.

 

 Scrapie has been around for centuries and until now there has been no evidence that it poses a risk to human health. But if the French finding means that scrapie can cause sCJD in people, countries around the world may have overlooked a CJD crisis to rival that caused by BSE.

 

 Deslys and colleagues were originally studying vCJD, not sCJD. They injected the brains of macaque monkeys with brain from BSE cattle, and from French and British vCJD patients. The brain damage and clinical symptoms in the monkeys were the same for all three. Mice injected with the original sets of brain tissue or with infected monkey brain also developed the same symptoms.

 

 As a control experiment, the team also injected mice with brain tissue from people and animals with other prion diseases: a French case of sCJD; a French patient who caught sCJD from human-derived growth hormone; sheep with a French strain of scrapie; and mice carrying a prion derived from an American scrapie strain. As expected, they all affected the brain in a different way from BSE and vCJD. But while the American strain of scrapie caused different damage from sCJD, the French strain produced exactly the same pathology.

 

 "The main evidence that scrapie does not affect humans has been epidemiology," says Moira Bruce of the neuropathogenesis unit of the Institute for Animal Health in Edinburgh, who was a member of the same team as Deslys. "You see about the same incidence of the disease everywhere, whether or not there are many sheep, and in countries such as New Zealand with no scrapie." In the only previous comparisons of sCJD and scrapie in mice, Bruce found they were dissimilar.

 

 But there are more than 20 strains of scrapie, and six of sCJD. "You would not necessarily see a relationship between the two with epidemiology if only some strains affect only some people," says Deslys. Bruce is cautious about the mouse results, but agrees they require further investigation. Other trials of scrapie and sCJD in mice, she says, are in progress.

 

 People can have three different genetic variations of the human prion protein, and each type of protein can fold up two different ways. Kretschmar has found that these six combinations correspond to six clinical types of sCJD: each type of normal prion produces a particular pathology when it spontaneously deforms to produce sCJD.

 

 But if these proteins deform because of infection with a disease-causing prion, the relationship between pathology and prion type should be different, as it is in vCJD. "If we look at brain samples from sporadic CJD cases and find some that do not fit the pattern," says Kretschmar, "that could mean they were caused by infection."

 

 There are 250 deaths per year from sCJD in the US, and a similar incidence elsewhere. Singeltary and other US activists think that some of these people died after eating contaminated meat or "nutritional" pills containing dried animal brain. Governments will have a hard time facing activists like Singeltary if it turns out that some sCJD isn't as spontaneous as doctors have insisted.

 

 Deslys's work on macaques also provides further proof that the human disease vCJD is caused by BSE. And the experiments showed that vCJD is much more virulent to primates than BSE, even when injected into the bloodstream rather than the brain. This, says Deslys, means that there is an even bigger risk than we thought that vCJD can be passed from one patient to another through contaminated blood transfusions and surgical instruments.

 


 

Thursday, March 20, 2014

 

 CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD TSE PRION OF CERVID AND THE POTENTIAL FOR HUMAN TRANSMISSION THEREFROM 2014

 


 

Tuesday, July 01, 2014

 

 *** CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD TSE PRION DISEASE, GAME FARMS, AND POTENTIAL RISK FACTORS THERE FROM ***

 


 

Thursday, July 03, 2014

 

 *** How Chronic Wasting Disease is affecting deer population and what’s the risk to humans and pets? ***

 


 

Thursday

 

 CWD TO HUMANS, AND RISK FACTORS THERE FROM (see latest science)

 

 Tuesday, November 04, 2014

 

 *** Six-year follow-up of a point-source exposure to CWD contaminated venison in an Upstate New York community: risk behaviours and health outcomes 2005–2011

 


 

Friday, January 30, 2015

 

 *** Scrapie: a particularly persistent pathogen ***

 


 

Sunday, April 12, 2015

 

 *** Research Project: Transmission, Differentiation, and Pathobiology of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies 2014 Annual Report ***

 


 

Saturday, April 11, 2015

 

***  ISU veterinary researchers study retinal scans as early detection method for mad cow disease

 


 

Sunday, November 23, 2014

 

 *** Confirmed Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (variant CJD) Case in Texas in June 2014 confirmed as USA case NOT European ***

 


 

Monday, November 3, 2014

 

 USA CJD TSE PRION UNIT, TEXAS, SURVEILLANCE UPDATE NOVEMBER 2014

 

 National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center Cases Examined1 (October 7, 2014)

 

 ***6 Includes 11 cases in which the diagnosis is pending, and 19 inconclusive cases;

 

 ***7 Includes 12 (11 from 2014) cases with type determination pending in which the diagnosis of vCJD has been excluded.

 

 ***The sporadic cases include 2660 cases of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD),

 

 ***50 cases of Variably Protease-Sensitive Prionopathy (VPSPr)

 

 ***and 21 cases of sporadic Fatal Insomnia (sFI).

 


 

Thursday, January 15, 2015

 

 41-year-old Navy Commander with sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease CJD TSE Prion: Case Report

 


 

Subject: *** Becky Lockhart 46, Utah’s first female House speaker, dies diagnosed with the extremely rare Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease aka mad cow type disease

 

 what is CJD ? just ask USDA inc., and the OIE, they are still feeding the public and the media industry fed junk science that is 30 years old.

 

 why doesn’t some of you try reading the facts, instead of rubber stamping everything the USDA inc says.

 

 sporadic CJD has now been linked to BSE aka mad cow disease, Scrapie, and there is much concern now for CWD and risk factor for humans.

 

 My sincere condolences to the family and friends of the House Speaker Becky Lockhart. I am deeply saddened hear this.

 

 with that said, with great respect, I must ask each and every one of you Politicians that are so deeply saddened to hear of this needless death of the Honorable House Speaker Becky Lockhart, really, cry me a friggen river. I am seriously going to ask you all this...I have been diplomatic for about 17 years and it has got no where. people are still dying. so, are you all stupid or what??? how many more need to die ??? how much is global trade of beef and other meat products that are not tested for the TSE prion disease, how much and how many bodies is this market worth?

 

 Saturday, January 17, 2015

 

 *** Becky Lockhart 46, Utah’s first female House speaker, dies diagnosed with the extremely rare Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

 


 

*** ALERT new variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease nvCJD or vCJD, sporadic CJD strains, TSE prion aka Mad Cow Disease United States of America Update December 14, 2014 Report ***

 


 

Tuesday, November 04, 2014

 

 Towards an Age-Dependent Transmission Model of Acquired and Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

 


 

Thursday, January 22, 2015

 

 Transmission properties of atypical Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: a clue to disease etiology?

 


 


 

Sunday, July 06, 2014

 

 Dietary Risk Factors for Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease: A Confirmatory Case-Control Study

 

 Conclusions—The a priori hypotheses were supported.

 

 *Consumption of various meat products may be one method of transmission of the infectious agent for sCJD.

 


 

PLEASE REMEMBER ;

 

 The Akron, Ohio-based CJD Foundation said the Center for Disease Control revised that number in October of 2004 to about one in 9,000 CJD cases per year in the population group age 55 and older.

 

 HAVE YOU GOT YOUR CJD QUESTIONNAIRE ASKING REAL QUESTIONS PERTAINING TO ROUTE AND SOURCE OF THE TSE AGENT THAT KILLED YOUR LOVED ONE ???

 

 if not, why not...

 

 Friday, November 30, 2007

 

 CJD QUESTIONNAIRE USA CWRU AND CJD FOUNDATION

 


 


 

Friday, January 10, 2014

 

 vpspr, sgss, sffi, TSE, an iatrogenic by-product of gss, ffi, familial type prion disease, what it ???

 


 


 

Self-Propagative Replication of Ab Oligomers Suggests Potential Transmissibility in Alzheimer Disease

 

 Received July 24, 2014; Accepted September 16, 2014; Published November 3, 2014

 


 

Singeltary comment ;

 


 

Saturday, December 13, 2014

 

 Terry S. Singeltary Sr. Publications TSE prion disease

 

 Diagnosis and Reporting of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

 

 Singeltary, Sr et al. JAMA.2001; 285: 733-734. Vol. 285 No. 6, February 14, 2001 JAMA

 

 snip...

 


 

 

 

Terry S. Singeltary Sr. Bacliff, Texas USA 77518 flounder9@verizon.net

 

 

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Research Project: Transmission, Differentiation, and Pathobiology of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies 2014 Annual Report

Research Project: Transmission, Differentiation, and Pathobiology of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies 2014 Annual Report

 

1a.Objectives (from AD-416): 1. Investigate the pathobiology of atypical transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) in natural hosts. A. Investigate the pathobiology of atypical scrapie. B. Investigate the pathobiology of atypical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). 2. Investigate the horizontal transmission of TSEs. A. Assess the horizontal transmission of sheep scrapie in the absence of lambing. B. Determine routes of transmission in chronic wasting disease (CWD) infected premises. C. Assess oral transmission of CWD in reindeer. 3. Investigate determinants of CWD persistence. A. Determine CWD host range using natural routes of transmission. B. Investigate the pathobiology of CWD.

 

1b.Approach (from AD-416): The studies will focus on three animal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) agents found in the United States: bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE); scrapie of sheep and goats; and chronic wasting disease (CWD) of deer, elk, and moose. The research will address sites of accumulation, routes of infection, environmental persistence, and ante mortem diagnostics with an emphasis on controlled conditions and natural routes of infection. Techniques used will include clinical exams, histopathology, immunohistochemistry and biochemical analysis of proteins. The enhanced knowledge gained from this work will help mitigate the potential for unrecognized epidemic expansions of these diseases in populations of animals that could either directly or indirectly affect food animals.

 

3.Progress Report: Research efforts directed toward meeting objective 1 of our project plan, Investigate the pathobiology of atypical transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) in natural hosts, include work in previous years starting with the inoculation of animals for studies designed to address the pathobiology of atypical scrapie, atypical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), as well as a genetic version of BSE. Animals inoculated with atypical scrapie have not yet developed disease. Atypical BSE animals have developed disease and evaluation of the samples is currently underway. Animals inoculated with a genetic version of BSE have developed disease and the manuscript has been published (2012). In addition, we have investigated the possibility that atypical scrapie was present earlier than previously detected in the national flock by analyzing archived field isolates using methods that were unavailable at the time of original diagnosis. Sample quality was sufficiently degraded that modern methods were not suitable for evaluation. In research pertaining to objective 2, Investigate the horizontal transmission of TSEs, we have initiated a study to determine if cohousing non-lambing scrapie inoculated sheep is sufficient to transmit scrapie to neonatal lambs. At this time, scrapie free ewes have lambed in the presence of scrapie inoculated animals and the lambs are cohoused with these inoculated animals.

 

4.Accomplishments 1. Evaluated enzyme immunoassay for rapid identification of prion disease in livestock. Scrapie of sheep and bovine spongiform encephalopathy of cattle are diseases that cause damage to the central nervous system including the retina in the eye. The infectious agent is an abnormal protein called a prion that has misfolded from its normal state and is resistant to breakdown by the host cells. Current diagnostic methods require the testing of brain material, which can be difficult to collect and may lead to contamination of the environment and exposure of personnel to the infectious agent. Eyes can be readily collected without opening the skull. ARS researchers at Ames, Iowa demonstrated that the enzyme immunoassay results using eyes of negative controls or samples collected from sheep or cattle with clinical signs were in agreement with approved confirmatory assays (western blot or immunohistochemistry). These results indicate the retina is a useful tissue for rapid diagnosis of prion disease in clinically ill sheep and cattle and could be considered to greatly increase the number of samples submitted for prion disease diagnosis with a minimal investment of time and limited exposure of personnel to prion agents.

 

2. Evaluated E211K cattle as a model for inherited human prion disease. Prion diseases cause damage to the central nervous system of animals and humans. The infectious agent is an abnormal protein called a prion that has misfolded from its normal state and is resistant to breakdown by the host cells and thus accumulates and damages those cells. Some forms of prion disease are genetic and can be inherited. Current models of genetic prion disease in humans rely on mouse models expressing either the human prion protein (E200K) or a combination of both mouse and human sequences. In addition to being an entirely artificial system these mouse models have a short lifespan making them a less than ideal system to study a naturally occurring genetic disorder with a long incubation time and late onset of disease. Cattle, however, exhibit a number of similarities to humans with regard to prion disease and perhaps most notable is the late onset of genetic prion disease. ARS researchers at Ames, Iowa have produced cattle containing both 1 and 2 chromosome copies of the cattle prion gene (E211K) and evaluated many aspects of this prion protein from cattle including protein stability, protein expression levels and ratios, as well as evidence of oxidative stress. Taken together, these results highlight the differences between mouse models of genetic prion disease and a naturally occurring prion disease system in cattle and suggest that cattle will provide a more relevant understanding of genetic prion disease in humans than do current rodent models.

 

Review Publications

 

Smith, J.D., Greenlee, J.J. 2014. Detection of misfolded prion protein in retina samples of sheep and cattle by use of a commercially available enzyme immunoassay. American Journal of Veterinary Research. 75(3):268-272.

 

Haldar, S., Beveridge, A.J., Wong, J., Singh, A.J., Galimberti, D., Borroni, D., Zhu, X., Blevins, J., Greenlee, J., Perry, G., Mukhopadhyay, C.K., Schmotzer, C., Singh, N. 2014. A low-molecular-weight ferroxidase is increased in the CSF of sCJD Cases: CSF ferroxidase and transferrin as diagnostic biomarkers for sCJD. Antioxidants & Redox Signaling. 19(14):1662-1675.

 


 

Research Project: TRANSMISSION, DIFFERENTIATION, AND PATHOBIOLOGY OF TRANSMISSIBLE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES Title: Evaluation of the zoonotic potential of transmissible mink encephalopathy

 

Authors

 

item Comoy, Emmanuel - item Mikol, Jacqueline - item Ruchoux, Marie-Madeleine - item Durand, Valerie - item Luccantoni-Freire, Sophie - item Dehen, Capucine - item Correia, Evelyne - item Casalone, Cristina - item Richt, Juergen item Greenlee, Justin item Torres, Juan Maria - item Brown, Paul - item Deslys, Jean-Philippe -

 

Submitted to: Pathogens Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: July 30, 2013 Publication Date: July 30, 2013 Citation: Comoy, E.E., Mikol, J., Ruchoux, M., Durand, V., Luccantoni-Freire, S., Dehen, C., Correia, E., Casalone, C., Richt, J.A., Greenlee, J.J., Torres, J.M., Brown, P., Deslys, J. 2013. Evaluation of the zoonotic potential of transmissible mink encephalopathy. Pathogens. 2:(3)520-532.

 

Interpretive Summary: Cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease can be subclassified into at least 3 distinct disease forms with the predominate form known as classical BSE and the others collectively referred to as atypical BSE. Atypical BSE can be further subdivided into H-type and L-type cases that are distinct from classical BSE and from each other. Both of the atypical BSE subtypes are believed to occur spontaneously, whereas classical BSE is spread through feeding contaminated meat and bone meal to cattle. Transmissible mink encephalopathy (TME) is another prion disease that transmits to cattle and show similarities to L-type BSE when subjected to laboratory testing. The purpose of this study was to use non-human primates (cynomologous macaque) and transgenic mice expressing the human prion protein to determine if TME could represent a potential risk to human health. TME from two sources (cattle and raccoons) was able to infect non-human primates and transgenic mice after exposure by the intracranial route. This result suggest that humans may be able to replicate TME prions after an exposure that allows infectious material access to brain tissue. At this time, it is unknown whether non-human primates or transgenic mice would be susceptible to TME prions after oral exposure. The results obtained in these animal models were similar to those obtained for L-type BSE. Although rare, the existence of TME and that it transmits to cattle, non-human primates, and transgenic mice suggest that feed bans preventing the feeding of mammalian tissues to cattle should stay in place and that regular prion surveillance during the slaughter should remain in place. Parties with interest in the cattle and beef industries and regulatory officials responsible for safe feeding practices of cattle will be interested in this work. Technical Abstract: Successful transmission of Transmissible Mink Encephalopathy (TME) to cattle supports the bovine hypothesis to the still controversial origin of TME outbreaks. Human and primate susceptibility to classical Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (c-BSE) and the transmissibility of L-type BSE to macaques assume a low cattle-to-primate species barrier: we therefore evaluated the zoonotic potential of cattle-adapted TME. In less than two years, this strain induced in cynomolgus macaques a neurological disease similar to L-BSE and distinct from c-BSE. TME derived from another donor species (raccoon) induced a similar disease with shorter incubation periods. L-BSE and cattle-adapted TME were also transmissible to transgenic mice expressing human PrP. Interestingly, secondary transmissions to transgenic mice expressing bovine PrP showed the maintenance of prion strain features for the three tested bovine prion strains (cattle TME, c-BSE and L-BSE) regardless of intermediate host. Thus, TME is the third animal prion strain transmissible to both macaques and humanized transgenic mice, suggesting zoonotic potentials that should be considered in the risk analysis of animal prion diseases for human health. Moreover, the similarities between TME and L-BSE are highly suggestive of a link between those strains, and of the presence of L-BSE decades prior to its identification in USA and Europe.

 


 

IF, spontaneous BSE was ever to be proven, it would be the industry and consumer’s worst nightmare. you could never ever eradicate mad cow disease, no matter how hard you try, the risk factor for human mad cow disease from consumption or friendly fire (IATROGENIC) would always be there. ...TSS

 

*** Singeltary reply ; Molecular, Biochemical and Genetic Characteristics of BSE in Canada Singeltary reply ;

 


 

LET'S take a closer look at this new prionpathy or prionopathy, and then let's look at the g-h-BSEalabama mad cow. This new prionopathy in humans? the genetic makeup is IDENTICAL to the g-h-BSEalabama mad cow, the only _documented_ mad cow in the world to date like this, ......wait, it get's better. this new prionpathy is killing young and old humans, with LONG DURATION from onset of symptoms to death, and the symptoms are very similar to nvCJD victims, OH, and the plaques are very similar in some cases too, bbbut, it's not related to the g-h-BSEalabama cow, WAIT NOW, it gets even better, the new human prionpathy that they claim is a genetic TSE, has no relation to any gene mutation in that family. daaa, ya think it could be related to that mad cow with the same genetic make-up ??? there were literally tons and tons of banned mad cow protein in Alabama in commerce, and none of it transmitted to cows, and the cows to humans there from ??? r i g h t $$$ ALABAMA MAD COW g-h-BSEalabama In this study, we identified a novel mutation in the bovine prion protein gene (Prnp), called E211K, of a confirmed BSE positive cow from Alabama, United States of America. This mutation is identical to the E200K pathogenic mutation found in humans with a genetic form of CJD. This finding represents the first report of a confirmed case of BSE with a potential pathogenic mutation within the bovine Prnp gene. We hypothesize that the bovine Prnp E211K mutation most likely has caused BSE in "the approximately 10-year-old cow" carrying the E221K mutation.

 


 


 

Saturday, August 14, 2010

 

BSE Case Associated with Prion Protein Gene Mutation (g-h-BSEalabama) and VPSPr PRIONPATHY (see mad cow feed in COMMERCE IN ALABAMA...TSS)

 


 

her healthy calf also carried the mutation

 

(J. A. Richt and S. M. Hall PLoS Pathog. 4, e1000156; 2008).

 

This raises the possibility that the disease could occasionally be genetic in origin. Indeed, the report of the UK BSE Inquiry in 2000 suggested that the UK epidemic had most likely originated from such a mutation and argued against the scrapierelated assumption. Such rare potential pathogenic PRNP mutations could occur in countries at present considered to be free of BSE, such as Australia and New Zealand. So it is important to maintain strict surveillance for BSE in cattle, with rigorous enforcement of the ruminant feed ban (many countries still feed ruminant proteins to pigs). Removal of specified risk material, such as brain and spinal cord, from cattle at slaughter prevents infected material from entering the human food chain. Routine genetic screening of cattle for PRNP mutations, which is now available, could provide additional data on the risk to the public. Because the point mutation identified in the Alabama animals is identical to that responsible for the commonest type of familial (genetic) CJD in humans, it is possible that the resulting infective prion protein might cross the bovine-human species barrier more easily. Patients with vCJD continue to be identified. The fact that this is happening less often should not lead to relaxation of the controls necessary to prevent future outbreaks.

 

Malcolm A. Ferguson-Smith Cambridge University Department of Veterinary Medicine, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ES, UK e-mail: maf12@cam.ac.uk JĂĽrgen A. Richt College of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State University, K224B Mosier Hall, Manhattan, Kansas 66506-5601, USA NATURE|Vol 457|26 February 2009

 


 

BANNED MAD COW FEED IN COMMERCE IN ALABAMA

 

______________________________

 

PRODUCT

 

a) EVSRC Custom dairy feed, Recall # V-130-6;

 

b) Performance Chick Starter, Recall # V-131-6;

 

c) Performance Quail Grower, Recall # V-132-6;

 

d) Performance Pheasant Finisher, Recall # V-133-6.

 

CODE

 

None

 

RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER

 

Donaldson & Hasenbein/dba J&R Feed Service, Inc., Cullman, AL, by telephone on June 23, 2006 and by letter dated July 19, 2006. Firm initiated recall is complete.

 

REASON

 

Dairy and poultry feeds were possibly contaminated with ruminant based protein.

 

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE

 

477.72 tons

 

DISTRIBUTION

 

AL

 

______________________________

 

PRODUCT

 

a) Dairy feed, custom, Recall # V-134-6;

 

b) Custom Dairy Feed with Monensin, Recall # V-135-6.

 

CODE

 

None. Bulk product

 

RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER

 

Recalling Firm: Burkmann Feed, Greeneville, TN, by Telephone beginning on June 28, 2006.

 

Manufacturer: H. J. Baker & Bro., Inc., Albertville, AL. Firm initiated recall is complete.

 

REASON

 

Possible contamination of dairy feeds with ruminant derived meat and bone meal.

 

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE

 

1,484 tons

 

DISTRIBUTION

 

TN and WV

 

END OF ENFORCEMENT REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 6, 2006

 

###

 


 

RECALLS AND FIELD CORRECTIONS: VETERINARY MEDICINE - CLASS II

 

______________________________

 

PRODUCT

 

Bulk custom made dairy feed, Recall # V-115-6

 

CODE

 

None

 

RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER

 

Hiseville Feed & Seed Co., Hiseville, KY, by telephone and letter on or about July 14, 2006. FDA initiated recall is ongoing.

 

REASON

 

Custom made feeds contain ingredient called Pro-Lak which may contain ruminant derived meat and bone meal.

 

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE

 

Approximately 2,223 tons

 

DISTRIBUTION

 

KY

 

______________________________

 

PRODUCT

 

Bulk custom made dairy feed, Recall # V-116-6

 

CODE

 

None

 

RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER

 

Rips Farm Center, Tollesboro, KY, by telephone and letter on July 14, 2006. FDA initiated recall is ongoing.

 

REASON

 

Custom made feeds contain ingredient called Pro-Lak which may contain ruminant derived meat and bone meal.

 

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE

 

1,220 tons

 

DISTRIBUTION

 

KY

 

______________________________

 

PRODUCT

 

Bulk custom made dairy feed, Recall # V-117-6

 

CODE

 

None

 

RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER

 

Kentwood Co-op, Kentwood, LA, by telephone on June 27, 2006. FDA initiated recall is completed.

 

REASON

 

Possible contamination of animal feed ingredients, including ingredients that are used in feed for dairy animals, with ruminant derived meat and bone meal.

 

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE

 

40 tons

 

DISTRIBUTION

 

LA and MS

 

______________________________

 

PRODUCT

 

Bulk Dairy Feed, Recall V-118-6

 

CODE

 

None

 

RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER

 

Cal Maine Foods, Inc., Edwards, MS, by telephone on June 26, 2006. FDA initiated recall is complete.

 

REASON

 

Possible contamination of animal feed ingredients, including ingredients that are used in feed for dairy animals, with ruminant derived meat and bone meal.

 

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE

 

7,150 tons

 

DISTRIBUTION

 

MS

 

______________________________

 

PRODUCT

 

Bulk custom dairy pre-mixes, Recall # V-119-6

 

CODE

 

None

 

RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER

 

Walthall County Co-op, Tylertown, MS, by telephone on June 26, 2006. Firm initiated recall is complete.

 

REASON

 

Possible contamination of dairy animal feeds with ruminant derived meat and bone meal.

 

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE

 

87 tons

 

DISTRIBUTION

 

MS

 

______________________________

 

PRODUCT

 

Bulk custom dairy pre-mixes, Recall # V-120-6

 

CODE

 

None

 

RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER

 

Ware Milling Inc., Houston, MS, by telephone on June 23, 2006. Firm initiated recall is complete.

 

REASON

 

Possible contamination of dairy animal feeds with ruminant derived meat and bone meal.

 

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE

 

350 tons

 

DISTRIBUTION

 

AL and MS

 

______________________________

 

PRODUCT

 

a) Tucker Milling, LLC Tm 32% Sinking Fish Grower, #2680-Pellet,

 

50 lb. bags, Recall # V-121-6;

 

b) Tucker Milling, LLC #31120, Game Bird Breeder Pellet,

 

50 lb. bags, Recall # V-122-6;

 

c) Tucker Milling, LLC #31232 Game Bird Grower,

 

50 lb. bags, Recall # V-123-6;

 

d) Tucker Milling, LLC 31227-Crumble, Game Bird Starter, BMD Medicated, 50 lb bags, Recall # V-124-6;

 

e) Tucker Milling, LLC #31120, Game Bird Breeder, 50 lb bags, Recall # V-125-6;

 

f) Tucker Milling, LLC #30230, 30 % Turkey Starter, 50 lb bags, Recall # V-126-6;

 

g) Tucker Milling, LLC #30116, TM Broiler Finisher, 50 lb bags, Recall # V-127-6

 

CODE

 

All products manufactured from 02/01/2005 until 06/20/2006

 

RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER

 

Recalling Firm: Tucker Milling LLC, Guntersville, AL, by telephone and visit on June 20, 2006, and by letter on June 23, 2006.

 

Manufacturer: H. J. Baker and Brothers Inc., Stamford, CT. Firm initiated recall is ongoing.

 

REASON

 

Poultry and fish feeds which were possibly contaminated with ruminant based protein were not labeled as "Do not feed to ruminants".

 

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE

 

7,541-50 lb bags

 

DISTRIBUTION

 

AL, GA, MS, and TN

 

END OF ENFORCEMENT REPORT FOR AUGUST 9, 2006

 

###

 


 

Subject: MAD COW FEED RECALL AL AND FL VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE 125 TONS Products manufactured from 02/01/2005 until 06/06/2006

 

Date: August 6, 2006 at 6:16 pm PST PRODUCT

 

a) CO-OP 32% Sinking Catfish, Recall # V-100-6;

 

b) Performance Sheep Pell W/Decox/A/N, medicated, net wt. 50 lbs, Recall # V-101-6;

 

c) Pro 40% Swine Conc Meal -- 50 lb, Recall # V-102-6;

 

d) CO-OP 32% Sinking Catfish Food Medicated, Recall # V-103-6;

 

*** e) "Big Jim's" BBB Deer Ration, Big Buck Blend, Recall # V-104-6;

 

f) CO-OP 40% Hog Supplement Medicated Pelleted, Tylosin 100 grams/ton, 50 lb. bag, Recall # V-105-6;

 

g) Pig Starter Pell II, 18% W/MCDX Medicated 282020, Carbadox -- 0.0055%, Recall # V-106-6;

 

h) CO-OP STARTER-GROWER CRUMBLES, Complete Feed for Chickens from Hatch to 20 Weeks, Medicated, Bacitracin Methylene Disalicylate, 25 and 50 Lbs, Recall # V-107-6;

 

i) CO-OP LAYING PELLETS, Complete Feed for Laying Chickens, Recall # 108-6;

 

j) CO-OP LAYING CRUMBLES, Recall # V-109-6;

 

k) CO-OP QUAIL FLIGHT CONDITIONER MEDICATED, net wt 50 Lbs, Recall # V-110-6;

 

l) CO-OP QUAIL STARTER MEDICATED, Net Wt. 50 Lbs, Recall # V-111-6;

 

m) CO-OP QUAIL GROWER MEDICATED, 50 Lbs, Recall # V-112-6 CODE

 

Product manufactured from 02/01/2005 until 06/06/2006

 

RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER Alabama Farmers Cooperative, Inc., Decatur, AL, by telephone, fax, email and visit on June 9, 2006. FDA initiated recall is complete.

 

REASON Animal and fish feeds which were possibly contaminated with ruminant based protein not labeled as "Do not feed to ruminants".

 

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE 125 tons

 

DISTRIBUTION AL and FL

 

END OF ENFORCEMENT REPORT FOR AUGUST 2, 2006

 

###

 


 

MAD COW FEED RECALL USA EQUALS 10,878.06 TONS NATIONWIDE Sun Jul 16, 2006 09:22 71.248.128.67

 

RECALLS AND FIELD CORRECTIONS: VETERINARY MEDICINE -- CLASS II

 

______________________________

 

PRODUCT

 

a) PRO-LAK, bulk weight, Protein Concentrate for Lactating Dairy Animals, Recall # V-079-6;

 

b) ProAmino II, FOR PREFRESH AND LACTATING COWS, net weight 50lb (22.6 kg), Recall # V-080-6;

 

c) PRO-PAK, MARINE & ANIMAL PROTEIN CONCENTRATE FOR USE IN ANIMAL FEED, Recall # V-081-6;

 

d) Feather Meal, Recall # V-082-6 CODE

 

a) Bulk

 

b) None

 

c) Bulk

 

d) Bulk

 

RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER H. J. Baker & Bro., Inc., Albertville, AL, by telephone on June 15, 2006 and by press release on June 16, 2006. Firm initiated recall is ongoing.

 

REASON

 

Possible contamination of animal feeds with ruminent derived meat and bone meal.

 

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE 10,878.06 tons

 

DISTRIBUTION Nationwide

 

END OF ENFORCEMENT REPORT FOR July 12, 2006

 

###

 


 

what about that ALABAMA MAD COW, AND MAD COW FEED THERE FROM IN THAT STATE ???

 

Saturday, August 14, 2010

 

BSE Case Associated with Prion Protein Gene Mutation (g-h-BSEalabama) and VPSPr PRIONPATHY

 

*** (see mad cow feed in COMMERCE IN ALABAMA...TSS)

 

BANNED MAD COW FEED IN COMMERCE IN ALABAMA

 

Date: September 6, 2006 at 7:58 am PST PRODUCT

 

a) EVSRC Custom dairy feed, Recall # V-130-6;

 

b) Performance Chick Starter, Recall # V-131-6;

 

c) Performance Quail Grower, Recall # V-132-6;

 

d) Performance Pheasant Finisher, Recall # V-133-6.

 

CODE None RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER Donaldson & Hasenbein/dba J&R Feed Service, Inc., Cullman, AL, by telephone on June 23, 2006 and by letter dated July 19, 2006. Firm initiated recall is complete.

 

REASON

 

Dairy and poultry feeds were possibly contaminated with ruminant based protein.

 

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE 477.72 tons

 

DISTRIBUTION AL

 

______________________________

 


 

Saturday, August 14, 2010

 

BSE Case Associated with Prion Protein Gene Mutation (g-h-BSEalabama) and VPSPr PRIONPATHY (see mad cow feed in COMMERCE IN ALABAMA...TSS)

 


 

Saturday, August 4, 2012

 

*** Final Feed Investigation Summary – California Atypical L-type BSE Case - July 2012 ***

 


 

Saturday, June 25, 2011

 

Transmissibility of BSE-L and Cattle-Adapted TME Prion Strain to Cynomolgus Macaque

 

"BSE-L in North America may have existed for decades"

 


 

PLOS Singeltary Comment ;

 

*** ruminant feed ban for cervids in the United States ? ***

 

31 Jan 2015 at 20:14 GMT

 


 

Saturday, January 24, 2015

 

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy: Atypical Pros and Cons

 


 

Saturday, January 31, 2015

 

RAPID ADVICE 17-2014 : Evaluation of the risk for public health of casings in countries with a “negligible risk status for BSE” and on the risk of modification of the list of specified risk materials (SRM) with regard to BSE

 


 

Conclusion/Significance: Our results point to a possibly higher degree of pathogenicity of BASE than classical BSE in primates and also raise a question about a possible link to one uncommon subset of cases of apparently sporadic CJD. Thus, despite the waning epidemic of classical BSE, the occurrence of atypical strains should temper the urge to relax measures currently in place to protect public health from accidental contamination by BSE-contaminated products.

 


 


 


 


 

SPONTANEOUS TSE

 

Perspectives BIOMEDICINE: A Fresh Look at BSE Bruce Chesebro*

 

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is the cattle form of a family of progressive brain diseases. These diseases include scrapie in sheep, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans, and chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer and elk. They are also known as either "prion diseases" because of the association of a misfolded cellular prion protein in pathogenesis or "transmissible spongiform encephalopathies" (TSEs) because of the spongelike nature of the damaged brain tissue (1).

 

The recent discovery of two BSE-infected cows, one in Canada and one in the United States, has dramatically increased concern in North America among meat producers and consumers alike over the extent to which BSE poses a threat to humans as well as to domestic and wild animals. The European BSE epidemic of the late-1980s seems to have been initiated a decade earlier in the United Kingdom by changes in the production of meat and bone meal (MBM) from rendered livestock, which led to contamination of MBM with the BSE infectious agent. Furthermore, the fact that UK farmers fed this rendered MBM to younger animals and that this MBM was distributed to many countries may have contributed to the ensuing BSE epidemic in the United Kingdom and internationally (2).

 

Despite extensive knowledge about the spread of BSE through contaminated MBM, the source of BSE in Europe remains an unsolved mystery (2). It has been proposed that BSE could be derived from a cross-species infection, perhaps through contamination of MBM by scrapie-infected sheep tissues (see the figure). Alternatively, BSE may have been an endemic disease in cattle that went unnoticed because of its low level of horizontal transmission. Lastly, BSE might have originated by "spontaneous" misfolding of the normal cellular prion protein into the disease-associated abnormal isoform (3), which is postulated to be the infectious agent or "prion."

 

Five possible sources of BSE in North American cattle. Sheep, deer, and elk could spread prion diseases (TSEs) to cattle through direct animal contact or contamination of pastures. Endemic BSE has not been proven to exist anywhere in the world, but it is difficult to exclude this possibility because of the inefficient spread of BSE infectivity between individual animals (2). BSE caused by spontaneous misfolding of the prion protein has not been proven. CREDIT: KATHARINE SUTLIFF/SCIENCE

 

snip...

 

Nevertheless, the idea that BSE might originate due to the spontaneous misfolding of prion proteins has received renewed interest in the wake of reports suggesting the occurrence of atypical BSE (9-11). These results imply that new strains of cattle BSE might have originated separately from the main UK outbreak. Where and how might such strains have originated? Although such rare events cannot be studied directly, any number of sources of the original BSE strain could also explain the discovery of additional BSE strains in cattle (see the figure). However, it would be worrisome if spontaneous BSE were really a valid etiology because such a mechanism would be impossible to prevent--unlike other possible scenarios that could be controlled by large-scale eradication of TSE-positive animals.

 

Another way to look at this problem is to examine evidence for possible spontaneous TSE disease in other animals besides cattle. Spontaneous BSE would be extremely difficult to detect in cattle, where horizontal spread is minimal. However, in the case of the sheep TSE disease, scrapie, which spreads from ewes to lambs at birth as well as between adults, spontaneous disease should be detectable as new foci of clinical infection. In the early 1950s scrapie was eradicated in both Australia and New Zealand, and the mainland of both these countries has remained scrapie-free ever since. This scrapie-free status is not the result of selection of sheep resistant to scrapie because sheep from New Zealand are as susceptible as their UK counterparts to experimental scrapie infection (12). These experiments of man and nature appear to indicate that spontaneous clinical scrapie does not occur in sheep. Similarly, because CWD is known to spread horizontally, the lack of CWD in the deer or elk of eastern North America but its presence in western regions would also argue against a spontaneous disease mechanism. This is particularly noteworthy in New Zealand, where there are large numbers of deer and elk farms and yet no evidence of spontaneous CWD. If spontaneous scrapie does not occur in sheep or deer, this would suggest that spontaneous forms of BSE and sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) are unlikely to be found in cattle or humans. The main caveat to this notion is that spontaneous disease may arise in some animal species but not others. In humans, sCJD--which is considered by some researchers to begin by spontaneous misfolding of the prion protein--usually takes more than 50 years to appear. Thus, in animals with a shorter life-span, such as sheep, deer, and cattle, an analogous disease mechanism might not have time to develop.

 

What can we conclude so far about BSE in North America? Is the BSE detected in two North American cows sporadic or spontaneous or both? "Sporadic" pertains to the rarity of disease occurrence. "Spontaneous" pertains to a possible mechanism of origin of the disease. These are not equivalent terms. The rarity of BSE in North America qualifies it as a sporadic disease, but this low incidence does not provide information about cause. For the two reported North American BSE cases, exposure to contaminated MBM remains the most likely culprit. However, other mechanisms are still possible, including cross-infection by sheep with scrapie or cervids with CWD, horizontal transmission from cattle with endemic BSE, and spontaneous disease in individual cattle. Based on our understanding of other TSEs, the spontaneous mechanism is probably the least likely. Thus, "idiopathic" BSE--that is, BSE of unknown etiology--might be a better term to describe the origin of this malady. ...

 

snip...full text ;

 


 

DR. DEHAVEN: “All right. I think we've got three different questions in there, and I'll try to touch on each one of them.

 

“First of all, let me correct just a technical issue, and that is you mentioned 1 in 10,000. And actually our surveillance system currently is designed, the one that we have in place now is designed to detect 1 positive in 1 million cattle, and I gave some numbers between 200,000 and 268,000 that would allow us to detect 1 in 10 million as opposed to 1 in 10,000.

 

“So we would, if we were able to collect in the ballpark of those numbers of samples then we with increasing numbers of samples have an increasingly statistically valid sample from which to determine, one, whether or not the disease exists and, if so, at what prevalence level.

 

“So our real emphasis is to test as many of those animals as we can, ensure that we get an appropriate geographical distribution, but not setting a specific number as far as a target. Again, consistent with the recommendation from the International Review Team, their recommendation was to test all of them.

 

“So that's consistent with where we're going is to test as many as we possibly can.

 

*** “As far as spontaneous cases, that is a very difficult issue. There is no evidence to prove that spontaneous BSE occurs in cattle; but here again it's an issue of proving a negative. We do know that CJD, the human version of the disease, does occur spontaneously in humans at the rate of about 1 in 1 million. We don't have enough data to definitively say that spontaneous cases of BSE in cattle occur or do not occur.

 

“Again, it's a very difficult situation to prove a negative.

 

“So a lot of research is ongoing. Certainly if we do come up with any positive samples in the course of this surveillance we will be looking at that question in evaluating those samples but no scientifically hard evidence to confirm or refute whether or not spontaneous cases of BSE occur.

 

snip...

 


 


 

1. The BSE epidemic

 

1.1. The origin of the BSE epidemic will probably never be determined with certainty.

 

1.2. We do not know whether or not some of the BARB cases represent truly sporadic classical BSE. If there are spontaneous cases then BSE will never be eradicated although reducing surveillance could make it appear that BSE has been eradicated.

 

snip...

 

5.3. It was stated that the number of sporadic CJD cases was rising. Participants were invited to discuss the reason for this. It was suggested that this was likely to be due to improved surveillance with more cases of sporadic CJD being detected (i.e. through MRI scans). There had been a similar increase in sporadic CJD in countries which did not have a BSE epidemic but improved their surveillance. This supported this theory and suggested that the increase in sporadic CJD was not related to the BSE outbreak.

 


 

Atypical BSE: Transmissibility

 

Linda Detwiller, 5/10/2011

 

 BASE (L) transmitted to:  cattle (IC) - inc < 20 mos and oral?)

 

 Cynomolgus macaques (IC)

 

 Mouse lemurs (IC and oral)

 

 wild-type mice (IC)

 

 bovinized transgenic mice (IC and IP)

 

 humanized transgenic mice (IC)

 

 H cases transmitted to:

 

 cattle – IC incubations < 20 months

 

 bovinized transgenic mice (IC)

 

 ovinized transgenic mice (IC)

 

 C57BL mice (IC)

 

 One study did not transmit to humanized PrP Met 129 mice

 

Evaluation of Possibility of Atypical

 

BSE Transmitting to Humans

 

 Possble interpretation:

 

 L type seems to transmit to nonhuman primates with greater ease than classical BSE

 

 L type also transmitted to humanized transgenic mice with higher attack rate and shorter incubation period than classical?

 

 H type did not transmit to Tg Hu transgenic mice

 

Linda Detwiller, 5/10/2011

 


 

I ask Professor Kong ;

 

Thursday, December 04, 2008 3:37 PM

 

Subject: RE: re--Chronic Wating Disease (CWD) and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathies (BSE): Public Health Risk Assessment

 

IS the h-BSE more virulent than typical BSE as well, or the same as cBSE, or less virulent than cBSE? just curious.....

 

Professor Kong reply ;

 

.....snip

 

As to the H-BSE, we do not have sufficient data to say one way or another, but we have found that H-BSE can infect humans. I hope we could publish these data once the study is complete. Thanks for your interest.

 

Best regards, Qingzhong Kong, PhD Associate Professor Department of Pathology Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH 44106 USA

 

BSE-H is also transmissible in our humanized Tg mice. The possibility of more than two atypical BSE strains will be discussed.

 

Supported by NINDS NS052319, NIA AG14359, and NIH AI 77774.

 


 


 

P.4.23 Transmission of atypical BSE in humanized mouse models

 

Liuting Qing1, Wenquan Zou1, Cristina Casalone2, Martin Groschup3, Miroslaw Polak4, Maria Caramelli2, Pierluigi Gambetti1, Juergen Richt5, Qingzhong Kong1 1Case Western Reserve University, USA; 2Instituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale, Italy; 3Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Germany; 4National Veterinary Research Institute, Poland; 5Kansas State University (Previously at USDA National Animal Disease Center), USA

 

Background: Classical BSE is a world-wide prion disease in cattle, and the classical BSE strain (BSE-C) has led to over 200 cases of clinical human infection (variant CJD). Atypical BSE cases have been discovered in three continents since 2004; they include the L-type (also named BASE), the H-type, and the first reported case of naturally occurring BSE with mutated bovine PRNP (termed BSE-M). The public health risks posed by atypical BSE were argely undefined.

 

Objectives: To investigate these atypical BSE types in terms of their transmissibility and phenotypes in humanized mice.

 

Methods: Transgenic mice expressing human PrP were inoculated with several classical (C-type) and atypical (L-, H-, or Mtype) BSE isolates, and the transmission rate, incubation time, characteristics and distribution of PrPSc, symptoms, and histopathology were or will be examined and compared.

 

Results: Sixty percent of BASE-inoculated humanized mice became infected with minimal spongiosis and an average incubation time of 20-22 months, whereas only one of the C-type BSE-inoculated mice developed prion disease after more than 2 years. Protease-resistant PrPSc in BASE-infected humanized Tg mouse brains was biochemically different from bovine BASE or sCJD. PrPSc was also detected in the spleen of 22% of BASE-infected humanized mice, but not in those infected with sCJD. Secondary transmission of BASE in the humanized mice led to a small reduction in incubation time. The atypical BSE-H strain is also transmissible with distinct phenotypes in the humanized mice, but no BSE-M transmission has been observed so far.

 

Discussion: Our results demonstrate that BASE is more virulent than classical BSE, has a lymphotropic phenotype, and displays a modest transmission barrier in our humanized mice. BSE-H is also transmissible in our humanized Tg mice. The possibility of more than two atypical BSE strains will be discussed.

 

Supported by NINDS NS052319, NIA AG14359, and NIH AI 77774.

 


 


 


 

14th International Congress on Infectious Diseases H-type and L-type Atypical BSE January 2010 (special pre-congress edition)

 

18.173 page 189

 

Experimental Challenge of Cattle with H-type and L-type Atypical BSE

 

A. Buschmann1, U. Ziegler1, M. Keller1, R. Rogers2, B. Hills3, M.H. Groschup1. 1Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany, 2Health Canada, Bureau of Microbial Hazards, Health Products & Food Branch, Ottawa, Canada, 3Health Canada, Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Secretariat, Ottawa, Canada

 

Background: After the detection of two novel BSE forms designated H-type and L-type atypical BSE the question of the pathogenesis and the agent distribution of these two types in cattle was fully open. From initial studies of the brain pathology, it was already known that the anatomical distribution of L-type BSE differs from that of the classical type where the obex region in the brainstem always displays the highest PrPSc concentrations. In contrast in L-type BSE cases, the thalamus and frontal cortex regions showed the highest levels of the pathological prion protein, while the obex region was only weakly involved.

 

Methods:We performed intracranial inoculations of cattle (five and six per group) using 10%brainstemhomogenates of the two German H- and L-type atypical BSE isolates. The animals were inoculated under narcosis and then kept in a free-ranging stable under appropriate biosafety conditions. At least one animal per group was killed and sectioned in the preclinical stage and the remaining animals were kept until they developed clinical symptoms. The animals were examined for behavioural changes every four weeks throughout the experiment following a protocol that had been established during earlier BSE pathogenesis studies with classical BSE.

 

Results and Discussion: All animals of both groups developed clinical symptoms and had to be euthanized within 16 months. The clinical picture differed from that of classical BSE, as the earliest signs of illness were loss of body weight and depression. However, the animals later developed hind limb ataxia and hyperesthesia predominantly and the head. Analysis of brain samples from these animals confirmed the BSE infection and the atypical Western blot profile was maintained in all animals. Samples from these animals are now being examined in order to be able to describe the pathoge esis and agent distribution for these novel BSE types.

 

Conclusions: A pilot study using a commercially avaialble BSE rapid test ELISA revealed an essential restriction of PrPSc to the central nervous system for both atypical BSE forms. A much more detailed analysis for PrPSc and infectivity is still ongoing.

 


 

14th ICID International Scientific Exchange Brochure - Final Abstract Number: ISE.114

 

Session: International Scientific Exchange

 

Transmissible Spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) animal and human TSE in North America update October 2009

 

T. Singeltary Bacliff, TX, USA

 

Background: An update on atypical BSE and other TSE in North America. Please remember, the typical U.K. c-BSE, the atypical l-BSE (BASE), and h-BSE have all been documented in North America, along with the typical scrapie's, and atypical Nor-98 Scrapie, and to date, 2 different strains of CWD, and also TME. All these TSE in different species have been rendered and fed to food producing animals for humans and animals in North America (TSE in cats and dogs ?), and that the trading of these TSEs via animals and products via the USA and Canada has been immense over the years, decades.

 

Methods: 12 years independent research of available data

 

Results: I propose that the current diagnostic criteria for human TSEs only enhances and helps the spreading of human TSE from the continued belief of the UKBSEnvCJD only theory in 2009. With all the science to date refuting it, to continue to validate this old myth, will only spread this TSE agent through a multitude of potential routes and sources i.e. consumption, medical i.e., surgical, blood, dental, endoscopy, optical, nutritional supplements, cosmetics etc.

 

Conclusion: I would like to submit a review of past CJD surveillance in the USA, and the urgent need to make all human TSE in the USA a reportable disease, in every state, of every age group, and to make this mandatory immediately without further delay. The ramifications of not doing so will only allow this agent to spread further in the medical, dental, surgical arena's. Restricting the reporting of CJD and or any human TSE is NOT scientific. Iatrogenic CJD knows NO age group, TSE knows no boundaries. I propose as with Aguzzi, Asante, Collinge, Caughey, Deslys, Dormont, Gibbs, Gajdusek, Ironside, Manuelidis, Marsh, et al and many more, that the world of TSE Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy is far from an exact science, but there is enough proven science to date that this myth should be put to rest once and for all, and that we move forward with a new classification for human and animal TSE that would properly identify the infected species, the source species, and then the route.

 


 

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

 

Evidence for zoonotic potential of ovine scrapie prions

 

Hervé Cassard,1, n1 Juan-Maria Torres,2, n1 Caroline Lacroux,1, Jean-Yves Douet,1, Sylvie L. Benestad,3, Frédéric Lantier,4, Séverine Lugan,1, Isabelle Lantier,4, Pierrette Costes,1, Naima Aron,1, Fabienne Reine,5, Laetitia Herzog,5, Juan-Carlos Espinosa,2, Vincent Beringue5, & Olivier Andréoletti1, Affiliations Contributions Corresponding author Journal name: Nature Communications Volume: 5, Article number: 5821 DOI: doi:10.1038/ncomms6821 Received 07 August 2014 Accepted 10 November 2014 Published 16 December 2014 Article tools Citation Reprints Rights & permissions Article metrics

 

Abstract

 

Although Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is the cause of variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (vCJD) in humans, the zoonotic potential of scrapie prions remains unknown. Mice genetically engineered to overexpress the human ​prion protein (tgHu) have emerged as highly relevant models for gauging the capacity of prions to transmit to humans. These models can propagate human prions without any apparent transmission barrier and have been used used to confirm the zoonotic ability of BSE. Here we show that a panel of sheep scrapie prions transmit to several tgHu mice models with an efficiency comparable to that of cattle BSE. The serial transmission of different scrapie isolates in these mice led to the propagation of prions that are phenotypically identical to those causing sporadic CJD (sCJD) in humans. These results demonstrate that scrapie prions have a zoonotic potential and raise new questions about the possible link between animal and human prions.

 

Subject terms: Biological sciences• Medical research At a glance

 


 

why do we not want to do TSE transmission studies on chimpanzees $

 

5. A positive result from a chimpanzee challenged severly would likely create alarm in some circles even if the result could not be interpreted for man. I have a view that all these agents could be transmitted provided a large enough dose by appropriate routes was given and the animals kept long enough. Until the mechanisms of the species barrier are more clearly understood it might be best to retain that hypothesis.

 

snip...

 

R. BRADLEY

 


 

Friday, January 30, 2015

 

Scrapie: a particularly persistent pathogen

 


 

 Transmissible Mink Encephalopathy TME PRION DISEASE

 

Article

 

Evaluation of the Zoonotic Potential of Transmissible Mink Encephalopathy

 

Emmanuel E. Comoy 1,*, Jacqueline Mikol 1, Marie-Madeleine Ruchoux 1, Valérie Durand 1, Sophie Luccantoni-Freire 1, Capucine Dehen 1, Evelyne Correia 1, Cristina Casalone 2, Juergen A. Richt 3, Justin J. Greenlee 4, Juan Maria Torres 5, Paul Brown 1 and Jean-Philippe Deslys 1

 

1 CEA, Institute of Emerging Diseases and Innovative Therapies (iMETI), Division of Prions and Related Diseases (SEPIA), Route du Panorama, BP6, 92265 Fontenay-aux-Roses, France; E-Mails: jacqueline.mikol@wanadoo.fr (J.M.); mruchoux@yahoo.fr (M.-M.R.); valerie.durand@cea.fr (V.D.); sophie.luccantoni@cea.fr (S.L.); capucine.dehen@cea.fr (C.D.); evelyne.correia@cea.fr (E.C.); paulwbrown@comcast.net (P.B.); jpdeslys@cea.fr (J-P.D.)

 

2 Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Via Bologna 148, 10154 Torino, Italy; E-Mail: cristina.casalone@izsto.it (C.C.)

 

3 Kansas State University, College of Veterinary Medicine, K224B Mosier Hall, Manhattan, Kansas 66506-5601 USA; E-Mail: jricht@vet.k-state.edu

 

4 National Animal Disease Center, USDA, Agricultural Research Service, 1920 Dayton Ave, Ames, Iowa 50010 USA; E-Mail: justin.greenlee@ars.usda.gov (J.J.G.)

 

5 Instituto Nacional de Investigacion y Tecnologia Agraria y Alimentaria, Madrid, Spain; E-mail: jmtorres@inia.es

 

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: emmanuel.comoy@cea.fr (E.E.C.); Tel.: +33-46-54-90-05; Fax: +33-46-54-93-19. Received: 27 June 2013; in revised form: 28 July 2013 / Accepted: 30 July 2013 / Published: 30 July 2013

 

Abstract: Successful transmission of Transmissible Mink Encephalopathy (TME) to cattle supports the bovine hypothesis for the still controversial origin of TME outbreaks. Human and primate susceptibility to classical Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (c-BSE) and the transmissibility of L-type BSE to macaques indicate a low cattle-to-primate species barrier. We therefore evaluated the zoonotic potential of cattle-adapted TME. In less than two years, this strain induced in cynomolgus macaques a neurological disease similar to L-BSE but distinct from c-BSE. TME derived from another donor species (raccoon) induced a similar disease with even shorter incubation periods. L-BSE and cattle-adapted TME were also transmissible to transgenic mice expressing human prion protein (PrP). Secondary transmissions to transgenic mice expressing bovine PrP maintained the features of the three tested bovine strains (cattle TME, c-BSE and L-BSE) regardless of intermediate host. Thus, TME is the third animal prion strain transmissible to both macaques and humanized transgenic mice, suggesting zoonotic potentials that should be considered in the risk analysis of animal prion diseases for human health. Moreover, the similarities between TME and L-BSE are highly suggestive of a link between these strains, and therefore the possible presence of L-BSE for many decades prior to its identification in USA and Europe.

 

Keywords: primate; prion; transgenic mice; TME; cattle; raccoon; zoonotic potential

 

SNIP...

 

4. Conclusions We have shown that cattle-adapted TME is the third cattle prion strain (joining classical and L-type BSE) to be transmissible both to non-human primates and transgenic mice overexpressing human PrP. However, the successful transmission of raccoon TME to primate, inducing a disease with similar features as cattle TME, extends this notion to TME-related strains independent of host origin. Pathological, biochemical and bioassay investigations converged to demonstrate the similarity between cattle-adapted TME and L-BSE. Together with previous experiments performed in ovinized and bovinized transgenic mice and hamsters [8,9] indicating similarities between TME and L-BSE, the data support the hypothesis that L-BSE could be the origin of the TME outbreaks in North America and Europe during the mid-1900s. The corollary of this notion is the longstanding existence of atypical bovine prion cases in those countries during the same period, if not earlier. Although the risk of L-BSE for public health must be further assessed through studies using the oral route of exposure before drawing definitive conclusions, these data underline the importance of a potential zoonotic risk of L-BSE in the management of consumer protection, particularly in the context of the current relaxation of European policy with respect to BSE.

 


 

Evidence That Transmissible Mink Encephalopathy Results from Feeding Infected Cattle Over the next 8-10 weeks, approximately 40% of all the adult mink on the farm died from TME.

 

snip...

 

The rancher was a ''dead stock'' feeder using mostly (>95%) downer or dead dairy cattle...

 


 


 


 

Sunday, December 10, 2006

 

Transmissible Mink Encephalopathy TME

 


 

Saturday, December 01, 2007

 

Phenotypic Similarity of Transmissible Mink Encephalopathy in Cattle and L-type Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in a Mouse Model

 


 

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

 

Transmissible mink encephalopathy - review of the etiology

 


 


 

Comment from Terry Singeltary This is a Comment on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Notice: Draft Guidance for Industry on Ensuring Safety of Animal Feed Maintained and Fed On-Farm; Availability

 

For related information, Open Docket Folder Docket folder icon

 

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Show agency attachment(s) Attachments View All (0)

 

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Comment View document:

 


 


 

Guidance for Industry Ensuring Safety of Animal Feed Maintained and Fed On-Farm Draft Guidance FDA-2014-D-1180 Singeltary Comment

 

Greetings FDA et al,

 

I wish to comment on Guidance for Industry Ensuring Safety of Animal Feed Maintained and Fed On-Farm Draft Guidance FDA-2014-D-1180.

 

Once again, I wish to kindly bring up the failed attempt of the FDA and the ruminant to ruminant mad cow feed ban of August 4, 1997. This feed ban is still failing today, as we speak. Even more worrisome, is the fact it is still legal to feed cervids to cervids in the USA, in fact, the FDA only _recommends_ that deer and elk considered to be of _high_ risk for CWD do not enter the animal food chain, but there is NO law, its only voluntary, a recipe for a TSE prion disaster, as we have seen with the ruminant to ruminant feed ban for cattle, where in 2007, one decade post August 1997 mad cow feed ban, where in 2007 10,000,000 POUNDS OF BANNED BLOOD LACED MEAT AND BONE MEAL WHEN OUT INTO COMMERCE, TO BE FED OUT. Since 2007, these BSE feed ban rules have been breached time and time again. tons and tons of mad cow feed went out in Alabama as well, where one of the mad cows were documented, just the year before in 2006, and in 2013 and 2014, breaches so bad (OAI) Official Action Indicated were issued. those are like the one issued where 10 million pounds of banned blood laced meat and bone meal were fed out.

 

What is the use of having a Guidance for Industry Ensuring Safety of Animal Feed Maintained and Fed On-Farm Draft Guidance FDA-2014-D-1180, if it cannot be enforced, as we have seen with a mandatory ruminant to ruminant feed ban?

 

I strenuously once again urge the FDA and its industry constituents, to make it MANDATORY that all ruminant feed be banned to all ruminants, and this should include all cervids as soon as possible for the following reasons...

 

======

 

In the USA, under the Food and Drug Administrations BSE Feed Regulation (21 CFR 589.2000) most material (exceptions include milk, tallow, and gelatin) from deer and elk is prohibited for use in feed for ruminant animals. With regards to feed for non-ruminant animals, under FDA law, CWD positive deer may not be used for any animal feed or feed ingredients. For elk and deer considered at high risk for CWD, the FDA recommends that these animals do not enter the animal feed system.

 

***However, this recommendation is guidance and not a requirement by law.

 

======

 

31 Jan 2015 at 20:14 GMT

 

*** Ruminant feed ban for cervids in the United States? ***

 

31 Jan 2015 at 20:14 GMT

 


 

19 May 2010 at 21:21 GMT

 

*** Singeltary reply ; Molecular, Biochemical and Genetic Characteristics of BSE in Canada Singeltary reply ;

 


 

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

 

FDA PART 589 -- SUBSTANCES PROHIBITED FROM USE IN ANIMAL FOOD OR FEED VIOLATIONS OFFICIAL ACTION INDICATED OAI UPDATE DECEMBER 2014 BSE TSE PRION

 


 

2013

 

Sunday, December 15, 2013

 

FDA PART 589 -- SUBSTANCES PROHIBITED FROM USE IN ANIMAL FOOD OR FEED VIOLATIONS OFFICIAL ACTION INDICATED OAI UPDATE DECEMBER 2013 UPDATE

 


 

DOCKET-- 03D-0186 -- FDA Issues Draft Guidance on Use of Material From Deer and Elk in Animal Feed; Availability

 

Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 11:47:37 0500

 

EMC 1 Terry S. Singeltary Sr. Vol #: 1

 


 


 

PLEASE SEE FULL TEXT SUBMISSION ;

 


 

10,000,000+ LBS. of PROHIBITED BANNED MAD COW FEED I.E. BLOOD LACED MBM IN COMMERCE USA 2007

 

Date: March 21, 2007 at 2:27 pm PST

 

REASON

 

Blood meal used to make cattle feed was recalled because it was cross- contaminated with prohibited bovine meat and bone meal that had been manufactured on common equipment and labeling did not bear cautionary BSE statement.

 

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE

 

42,090 lbs.

 

DISTRIBUTION

 

WI

 

REASON

 

Products manufactured from bulk feed containing blood meal that was cross contaminated with prohibited meat and bone meal and the labeling did not bear cautionary BSE statement.

 

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE

 

9,997,976 lbs.

 

DISTRIBUTION

 

ID and NV

 

END OF ENFORCEMENT REPORT FOR MARCH 21, 2007

 


 

Terry S. Singeltary Sr.

 

*** See attached file(s) No documents available. Attachments View All (1) Guidance for Industry Ensuring Safety of Animal Feed Maintained and Fed On-Farm Terry Singeltary Comment View Attachment:

 


 

Sunday, April 5, 2015

 

*** Guidance for Industry Ensuring Safety of Animal Feed Maintained and Fed On-Farm Draft Guidance FDA-2014-D-1180 ***

 


 

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

 

Could we spot the next BSE?, asks BVA President

 


 

 

CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD TSE PRION

 

 

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

 

CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD WISCONSIN Almond Deer (Buckhorn Flats) Farm

 

Update DECEMBER 2011The CWD infection rate was nearly 80%, the highest ever in a North American captive herd. RECOMMENDATION: That the Board approve the purchase of 80acres of land for $465,000 for the Statewide Wildlife Habitat Program inPortage County and approve the restrictions on public use of the site.SUMMARY:

 


 

IOWA TEST RESULTS FROM CAPTIVE DEER HERD WITH CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE RELEASED 79.8 percent of the deer tested positive for the disease

 

For Immediate Release

 

Thursday, October 2, 2014

 

Dustin Vande Hoef 515/281-3375 or 515/326-1616 (cell) or Dustin.VandeHoef@IowaAgriculture.gov Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 1

 

TEST RESULTS FROM CAPTIVE DEER HERD WITH CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE RELEASED 79.8 percent of the deer tested positive for the disease

 

DES MOINES – The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship today announced that the test results from the depopulation of a quarantined captive deer herd in north-central Iowa showed that 284 of the 356 deer, or 79.8% of the herd, tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). The owners of the quarantined herd have entered into a fence maintenance agreement with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, which requires the owners to maintain the 8’ foot perimeter fence around the herd premises for five years after the depopulation was complete and the premises had been cleaned and disinfected

 

CWD is a progressive, fatal, degenerative neurological disease of farmed and free-ranging deer, elk, and moose. There is no known treatment or vaccine for CWD. CWD is not a disease that affects humans.

 

On July 18, 2012, USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) National Veterinary Services Lab in Ames, IA confirmed that a male white tail deer harvested from a hunting preserve in southeast IA was positive for CWD. An investigation revealed that this animal had just been introduced into the hunting preserve from the above-referenced captive deer herd in north-central Iowa.

 

The captive deer herd was immediately quarantined to prevent the spread of CWD. The herd has remained in quarantine until its depopulation on August 25 to 27, 2014.

 

The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship participated in a joint operation to depopulate the infected herd with USDA Veterinary Services, which was the lead agency, and USDA Wildlife Services.

 

Federal indemnity funding became available in 2014. USDA APHIS appraised the captive deer herd of 376 animals at that time, which was before depopulation and testing, at $1,354,250. At that time a herd plan was developed with the owners and officials from USDA and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.

 

Once the depopulation was complete and the premises had been cleaned and disinfected, indemnity of $917,100.00 from the USDA has been or will be paid to the owners as compensation for the 356 captive deer depopulated.

 

The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship operates a voluntary CWD program for farms that sell live animals. Currently 145 Iowa farms participate in the voluntary program. The above-referenced captive deer facility left the voluntary CWD program prior to the discovery of the disease as they had stopped selling live animals. All deer harvested in a hunting preserve must be tested for CWD.

 

-30-

 


 

*** see history of this CWD blunder here ;

 


 

On June 5, 2013, DNR conducted a fence inspection, after gaining approval from surrounding landowners, and confirmed that the fenced had beencut or removed in at least four separate locations; that the fence had degraded and was failing to maintain the enclosure around the Quarantined Premises in at least one area; that at least three gates had been opened;and that deer tracks were visible in and around one of the open areas in the sand on both sides of the fence, evidencing movement of deer into the Quarantined Premises.

 


 

Tuesday, January 06, 2015

 

APHIS Provides Additional Information on Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Indemnity Requests January 5, 2015 05:26 PM EST

 


 

Thursday, April 02, 2015

 

OHIO CONFIRMS SECOND POSTIVE CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD on Yoder's properties near Millersburg

 


 

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

 

Chronic Wasting Disease CWD Confirmed Texas Trans Pecos March 18, 2015

 


 

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

 

Chronic Wasting Disease CWD Cases Confirmed In New Mexico 2013 and 2014 UPDATE 2015

 


 

Sunday, December 28, 2014

 

CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD TSE PRION DISEASE AKA MAD DEER DISIEASE USDAUSAHA INC DECEMBER 28, 2014

 


 

Thursday, March 20, 2014

 

CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD TSE PRION OF CERVID AND THE POTENTIAL FOR HUMAN TRANSMISSION THEREFROM 2014

 


 

Tuesday, July 01, 2014

 

*** CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD TSE PRION DISEASE, GAME FARMS, AND POTENTIAL RISK FACTORS THERE FROM ***

 


 

Thursday, July 03, 2014

 

*** How Chronic Wasting Disease is affecting deer population and what’s the risk to humans and pets? ***

 


 

Thursday

 

CWD TO HUMANS, AND RISK FACTORS THERE FROM (see latest science)

 

Tuesday, November 04, 2014

 

*** Six-year follow-up of a point-source exposure to CWD contaminated venison in an Upstate New York community: risk behaviours and health outcomes 2005–2011

 


 

 

 KURU

 

another interesting aspect of the TSE prion disease is KURU ;

 

Figure 25. All cooking. including that of human flesh from diseased kinsmen. was done in pits with steam made by pouring water over the hot stones, or cooked in bamboo cylinders in the hot ashes. Children participated in both the butchery and the handling of cooked meat, rubbing their soiled hands in their armpits or hair, and elsewhere on their bodies. They rarely or never washed. Infection with the kuru virus was most probably through the cuts and abrasions of the skin. or from nose-picking, rye (eye...tss) rubbing, or mucosal injury.

 


 

These detailed descriptions will be published elsewhere but have reaffirmed the oral histories of endocannibalism in the Fore recorded previously12,22–24 and that this practice ceased abruptly at the time of Australian administrative control over the kuru areas. Although isolated events might have occurred for a few years after this prohibition, we are confident that new exposures of individuals to kuru at mortuary feasts would not have occurred after 1960. Not only have no cases of kuru been recorded in people born after 1959 (and only nine were recorded in those born after 1956); but also all the 11 last recorded cases of kuru that we report here were born before 1950. If any source of infection remained, whether from surreptitious cannibalism, possible ground contam-ination with human prions at sites where food was prepared, or other lateral routes, we would expect individuals born after this period to have kuru—especially since children are thought to have had shorter incubation periods than adults. However, no such cases have been observed. Additionally, although a fraction of hamster-adapted scrapie prions have been shown to survive in soil for at least 3 years,25 the mortuary feast practices (during which the entire body would be consumed) were undertaken so that any substantial contamination of soil would not have occurred, and traditional bamboo knives and leaf plates were burned after the feast. Furthermore, no clusters of kuru cases, as seen earlier in the epidemic,26 have been recorded for many years....

 


 


 

Kuru: The Science and the Sorcery

 

Special Jury Prize Winner, Pacific International Documentary Film Festival 2011.

 

This is the true story of one of the most incredible and challenging medical detective stories of the 20th Century; a history of human tragedy, adventure and discovery. It is the story of the Fore, a Papuan community immersed in cannibalistic mortuary practices and sorcery in one of the most remote regions on the planet, and the tragic disease that threatened to wipe out their entire population.

 

In 1961, a young Australian medical researcher, Michael Alpers, puts up his hand to work on a new and strange disease in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. There, he teams up with an American outer, Dr Carleton Gajdusek, who has been in the local Fore region since 1957. For Michael it is the beginning of a lifelong obsession.

 

Together, they are amidst a major epidemic. It is killing over 200 people a year with devastating effects. It mainly targets women and children. The local people, the Fore, call the disease kuru, their word for shivering. They believe it is caused by sorcery.

 

Michael and Carleton are baffled by the disease. There are no scientific disciplines to guide them as they attempt to unravel its mysteries. By pure chance, a link is made to a strange transmissible animal disease in sheep, Scrapie. The two kuru researchers embark on a 10-year experiment to see if the fatal degenerative brain disease in humans could be transmissible like Scrapie.

 

The decision is made to perform an autopsy on a kuru victim and inoculate the kuru material into a chimpanzee. Kigea, ayoung girl in the village is identified as being in the early stages of kuru. Kigea’s family, gives Michael permission to perform an autopsy upon her death.

 

A brain sample taken from Kigea after her death is flown to the USA and injected into a chimpanzee called Daisy. While Michael follows the progress of the transmission experiment, he starts to collate all the recorded data on kuru and begins to suspect cannibalism as the cause of the spreadof the disease.

 

Within two years, he diagnoses Daisy with kuru. This is a defining moment. It confirms kuru is transmissible and can cross the species barrier. The revelation, together with epidemiological data collated with anthropologist Shirley Lindenbaum, links the Fore’s mortuary feasts (consumption of dead relatives) to the transmission of kuru. Cannibalism is the cause, and its origin is linked to a rare disease called Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease(CJD), but the story of kuru is far from over.

 

The infecting agent is the first new pathogen – prions – to be discovered in over 100 years. Research results in two Nobel prizes: it’s discoveries turning scientific understanding upside down, causing rifts in the beliefs ofthe science community.

 

Then Mad Cow Disease (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or BSE) reared its head in the mid 1980s, and 10 years later the human variant CJD. All eyes turned to kuru, the only model of a prion epidemic in human populations. Many unknowns still surround prion diseases: there is no cure for kuru, or any of the prion diseases. The effects are devastating and unprecedented incubation periods can extend beyond 50 years.

 

Michael is the key and heart to this story, providing unique access to the Fore people, and the world’s other leading authorities on the matter; including Americans Prof. DC Gajdusek (Nobel Prize 1976), Prof. Stan Prusiner (Nobel Prize 1997), Prof Shirley Lindenbaum (Anthropologist) and British Prof. John Collinge (Director, MRC Prion Unit, UK).

 

Kuru: The Science and the Sorcery combines history, science and anthropology to tell a unique and ongoing ‘history of science’ documentary spanning five decades. It intertwines the thinking of great minds, locally and internationally, to reveal how this rare disease in the remote highlands of PNG exploded to international attention and how Prion research has now revealed we are all descendants of a remote past of cannibal practices.

 


 

Kuru: The Science and the Sorcery Australian scientist Michael Alpers dedicated over 50 years to researching Kuru, an obscure and incurable brain disease unique to the Fore people of New Guinea. Kuru was once thought to be a psychosomatic illness, an infection, a genetic disorder, even a sorcerer's curse, but Alpers' findings pointed to cannibalism as the culprit. Yet a recent discovery has proven to be even more disturbing: the malady is linked to mad cow disease and its human equivalent, variant CJD. With a decades-long incubation period, could a larger outbreak be on its way?

 


 


 

human flesh taste very sweet

 


 

KURU EPIDEMIOLOGICAL PATROLS

 


 

Michael Alpers

 


 

First Reports

 


 

People of the Kuru region part 1

 

boy playing with animal bladder, blowing it up like a balloon. ...

 


 

People of the Kuru region part 2

 


 

Saturday, March 21, 2015

 

Canada and United States Creutzfeldt Jakob TSE Prion Disease Incidence Rates Increasing

 


 

*** HUMAN MAD COW DISEASE nvCJD TEXAS CASE NOT LINKED TO EUROPEAN TRAVEL CDC ***

 

Sunday, November 23, 2014

 

*** Confirmed Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (variant CJD) Case in Texas in June 2014 confirmed as USA case NOT European

 

the patient had resided in Kuwait, Russia and Lebanon. The completed investigation did not support the patient's having had extended travel to European countries, including the United Kingdom, or travel to Saudi Arabia. The specific overseas country where this patient’s infection occurred is less clear largely because the investigation did not definitely link him to a country where other known vCJD cases likely had been infected.

 


 

Sunday, December 14, 2014

 

*** ALERT new variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease nvCJD or vCJD, sporadic CJD strains, TSE prion aka Mad Cow Disease United States of America Update December 14, 2014 Report

 


 

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

 

Another new prion disease: relationship with central and peripheral amyloidoses here we go again...

 


 

Thursday, January 15, 2015

 

41-year-old Navy Commander with sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease CJD TSE Prion: Case Report

 


 

Subject: *** Becky Lockhart 46, Utah’s first female House speaker, dies diagnosed with the extremely rare Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease aka mad cow type disease

 

what is CJD ? just ask USDA inc., and the OIE, they are still feeding the public and the media industry fed junk science that is 30 years old.

 

why doesn’t some of you try reading the facts, instead of rubber stamping everything the USDA inc says.

 

sporadic CJD has now been linked to BSE aka mad cow disease, Scrapie, and there is much concern now for CWD and risk factor for humans.

 

My sincere condolences to the family and friends of the House Speaker Becky Lockhart. I am deeply saddened hear this.

 

with that said, with great respect, I must ask each and every one of you Politicians that are so deeply saddened to hear of this needless death of the Honorable House Speaker Becky Lockhart, really, cry me a friggen river. I am seriously going to ask you all this...I have been diplomatic for about 17 years and it has got no where. people are still dying. so, are you all stupid or what??? how many more need to die ??? how much is global trade of beef and other meat products that are not tested for the TSE prion disease, how much and how many bodies is this market worth?

 

Saturday, January 17, 2015

 

*** Becky Lockhart 46, Utah’s first female House speaker, dies diagnosed with the extremely rare Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

 


 


 

Thursday, January 22, 2015

 

Transmission properties of atypical Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: a clue to disease etiology?

 


 

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

 

TSEAC USA Reason For Recalls Blood products, collected from a donors considered to be at increased risk for Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), were distributed END OF YEAR REPORT 2014

 


 

Saturday, April 11, 2015

 
ISU veterinary researchers study retinal scans as early detection method for mad cow disease
 
 
 
who’s kidding whom $$$ i.e. USDA INC AND THE OIE
 
 
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
 
OIE and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Reinforce Collaboration
 
 

 

2014

 

***Moreover, L-BSE has been transmitted more easily to transgenic mice overexpressing a human PrP [13,14] or to primates [15,16] than C-BSE.

 

***It has been suggested that some sporadic CJD subtypes in humans may result from an exposure to the L-BSE agent.

 

*** Lending support to this hypothesis, pathological and biochemical similarities have been observed between L-BSE and an sCJD subtype (MV genotype at codon 129 of PRNP) [17], and between L-BSE infected non-human primate and another sCJD subtype (MM genotype) [15].

 

snip...

 


 

Monday, October 10, 2011

 

EFSA Journal 2011 The European Response to BSE: A Success Story

 

snip...

 

EFSA and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) recently delivered a scientific opinion on any possible epidemiological or molecular association between TSEs in animals and humans (EFSA Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ) and ECDC, 2011). This opinion confirmed Classical BSE prions as the only TSE agents demonstrated to be zoonotic so far

 

*** but the possibility that a small proportion of human cases so far classified as "sporadic" CJD are of zoonotic origin could not be excluded.

 

*** Moreover, transmission experiments to non-human primates suggest that some TSE agents in addition to Classical BSE prions in cattle (namely L-type Atypical BSE, Classical BSE in sheep, transmissible mink encephalopathy (TME) and chronic wasting disease (CWD) agents) might have zoonotic potential.

 

snip...

 


 


 

Thursday, August 12, 2010

 

Seven main threats for the future linked to prions

 

First threat

 

The TSE road map defining the evolution of European policy for protection against prion diseases is based on a certain numbers of hypotheses some of which may turn out to be erroneous. In particular, a form of BSE (called atypical Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy), recently identified by systematic testing in aged cattle without clinical signs, may be the origin of classical BSE and thus potentially constitute a reservoir, which may be impossible to eradicate if a sporadic origin is confirmed.

 

*** Also, a link is suspected between atypical BSE and some apparently sporadic cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.

 

*** These atypical BSE cases constitute an unforeseen first threat that could sharply modify the European approach to prion diseases.

 

Second threat

 

snip...

 


 

Saturday, December 13, 2014

 

Terry S. Singeltary Sr. Publications TSE prion disease

 

Diagnosis and Reporting of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

 

Singeltary, Sr et al. JAMA.2001; 285: 733-734. Vol. 285 No. 6, February 14, 2001 JAMA

 

snip...

 


 

 

Terry S. Singeltary Sr. Bacliff, Texas USA 77518 flounder9@verizon.net