MAD COW DISEASE

Japan Takes Step Toward Lifting U.S. Beef Ban Japan moved a step closer to partially lifting a ban on U.S. beef imports after a government panel accepted U.S. assurances that a specific grade of meat would be free of mad-cow disease. The U.S. welcomed the panel's recommendations, but the findings angered some Japanese consumer groups that said they still are worried about the safety of U.S. beef. The panel's decision, if accepted by the government, will clear the way for Japan to begin importing U.S. grade A40 beef, which comes primarily from cattle aged 12-17 months. Panel chairman Akihiro Okitani, a professor at the Nippon Veterinary and Animal Science University, told reporters there is a high probability meat of this grade is free of mad-cow disease. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns yesterday praised Japan's decision to accept an American plan for verifying the age of U.S. cattle, calling it an "important step" toward resuming bilateral beef trade. He also called upon Japan to "expedite" its process for ending a ban on U.S. beef....
New tests point to BSE in Scottish goat A Scottish goat believed to have died from scrapie is now thought to have had mad cow disease. The goat died in 1990 but new tests on a stored sample of tissue revealed traits similar to those from goats experimentally infected with BSE. Unlike scrapie, BSE can infect humans and produce the fatal brain disease, variant CJD. Although it has always been accepted as theoretically possible that sheep and goats could have BSE, it was not until last month that the disease was positively identified in a species other than cattle....
Panel Suggests Blood Safeguard for Mad Cow To help prevent spread of the human form of mad cow disease, individuals who received a blood transfusion in France since 1980 should be barred from donating blood in the United States, a federal advisory panel recommended Tuesday. The members of the Food and Drug Administration's advisory committee said this would somewhat strengthen safeguards for the U.S. blood supply without significantly limiting the pool of potential donors. The panel voted 12-3 with one abstention. But it rejected a proposal to bar donors who had received transfusions anywhere in Europe. That vote was 15-0 with one abstention. The panel acted as concerns are growing that the brain-wasting disease can be spread through transfusion. In Britain, two cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, as the human form is known, are believed to have been caused by transfusions from infected donors....