Scientific Discovery In Canada Holds Promise Of BSE Test For Live Animals Scientists at the Public Health Agency of Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory have made a discovery that could lead to the ability to perform accurate diagnostic tests on live animals for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) as opposed to only being able to test them post-mortem, as is the current option. Working with scientists from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's BSE Reference Laboratories, the Federal Research Institute for Animal Health in Germany, and the University of Manitoba, the researchers found that changed levels of a protein in cattle urine indicates the presence of BSE with 100 per cent accuracy in a small sample set. It was also determined that changes in the relative abundance of a set of proteins corresponded with the advancement of the disease. "We are hopeful that at some point in the future the knowledge gained from this study will make it possible to test live cattle," explains Dr. David Knox, NML scientist and lead researcher on the study published in Proteome Science. "It also may be possible to develop similar tests for other Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs) in other species, including humans."....