MAD COW DISEASE

Study Finds Broader Reach for Mad Cow Proteins ad cow disease has long been thought to occur in just the brains and nervous systems of infected animals. But scientists are reporting today that the proteins thought to cause the disease can travel to other organs as well. The research is based on experiments with mice, but if it is borne out in other species, it may suggest that no part of an infected animal is safe to eat. The disease leads to a fatal brain infection in humans. In the mouse experiments, reported in the journal Science, researchers in Switzerland found that prions, proteins that are the infectious agent in mad cow disease, follow immune cells, called lymphocytes, in the body. When mice were given chronic infectious diseases of the liver, kidney and pancreas and then inoculated with prions, the prions made their way to the infected organs. Dr. Adriano Aguzzi, a neuropathologist at the University Hospital in Zurich, who led the experiments, said this meant that cows and sheep infected with prions could harbor the disease in any inflamed organ. But Dr. David R. Smith, a veterinarian at the University of Nebraska, said the research did not raise alarms about American beef. For one thing, he said, livestock with obvious signs of systemic infection, like a fever, are not allowed into the food supply. And most American cattle are slaughtered while they are young and at reduced risk of infection....
Japan Says Progress Made in BSE Dispute with US A senior Japanese Farm Ministry official said on Thursday that progress has been made in resolving a dispute with the United States over beef trade, a day after a meeting between mad cow experts from the two countries. Vice Farm Minister Mamoru Ishihara told a news conference: "Japan has always said the discussions with the United States should be based on scientific facts ... experts gave good marks to (Wednesday's meeting), and I think therefore that progress has been made in the talks." Ishihara was referring to a meeting held in Tokyo where US mad cow experts met their Japanese counterparts to explain a new US programme they say will guarantee that all meat exported to Japan is free of the brain-wasting disease. At Wednesday's meeting US experts used data and statistics to explain that if the United States exported the A40 grade of beef to Japan, mainly from cattle aged 12-17 months, the meat should be free of mad cow disease....
Exports of Australian beef this year expected to break records Exports of Australian beef are expected to break records this year, due largely to the United States being locked out of the lucrative Japanese market. Japan banned US beef following a case of mad cow disease in Washington State in December, 2003. Australia has been filling the shortfall. Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) says overall, 900-thousand tonnes of beef was exported last year, the second highest amount on record. Our reporter, James Martin, says exports to Japan topped a record 390,000 tonnes, meaning, for the first time ever, Japanese consumers ate more Australian beef than local product....