Animals ; Cattle ; Encephalopathy, Bovine Spongiform ; epidemiology ; prevention & control ; transmission ; Humans

No abstract available.
Animals ; Cattle ; Encephalopathy, Bovine Spongiform/epidemiology ; Meat/*analysis ; United States

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a member of the transmissible spongiform encepahlopathies, has been a notifiable disease in Turkey since 1997. In 2002, the BSE status of Turkey was assessed by the EU Scientific Steering Committee as "it is likely but not confirmed".This study presents the results of a targeted surveillance study to assess the presence of BSE in the age risk population of Bursa, Turkey. In the assessment procedure, the immunohistochemical detection of protease-resistant prion protein (PrP-Sc) was aimed at and applied to 420 brain tissues of cattle slaughtered in Bursa at an age of 30-months and older. None of the samples were positive for BSE.
Age Factors ; Animals ; Cattle ; Encephalopathy, Bovine Spongiform/*diagnosis/epidemiology ; Immunohistochemistry/veterinary ; Prions/*analysis ; Turkey/epidemiology

Though the aetiology of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) remains uncertain, proteinase resistant prion protein (PrP-Sc), a converted form of the normal cellular prion protein (PrP-C), accumulates in the lysosome of cells of the nervous systems of animals with TSEs. In this study, clinical and epidemiological examinations of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) were conducted in Korea. During the investigated period, none of the cattle exhibited typical clinical signs of BSE, such as behavioral disturbances, high sensitivity, and abnormal locomotion. Immunohistochemical analysis and western immunoblotting were established to detect PrP-Sc in the brain tissue using monoclonal antibody (MAb) F89/160.1.5, produced by immunizing mice with a synthetic peptide which corresponds to bovine PrP residues 146-159, NH2-SRPLIHFGSDYEDRC-COOH. Although some BSE-like spongiform changes were observed in bovine brains randomly collected from Korean slaughterhouses from 1996 to 1999, no PrP-Sc was detected in those brains with the established immunohistochemistry and western immunoblotting assay. Also, no positive reaction was observed in bovine brains infected with rabies. These immunohistochemical and western immunoblotting methods using MAbs, specifically reactive with conserved epitopes on ruminant PrP, can be used for postmortem diagnosis of BSE. Further, the method can be applied to antemortem and the preclinical diagnosis of ovine scrapie by detecting PrP-Sc in lymphoid tissues, such as the tonsils, third eyelid or peripheral lymph nodes.
Abattoirs ; Animals ; Blotting, Western ; Brain/*pathology ; Brain Stem/pathology ; Cattle ; Encephalopathy, Bovine Spongiform/*epidemiology/pathology ; Immunohistochemistry ; Korea/epidemiology ; PrPSc Proteins/*analysis ; Sheep ; Sheep Diseases/*epidemiology/pathology

Eight major policies were implemented by Japanese Government since Oct. 2001, to deal with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). These are; 1) Surveillance in farm by veterinarian, 2) Prion test at healthy 1.3mi cows/yr, by veterinarian, 3) Elimination of specified risk material (SRM), 4) Ban of MBM for production, sale use, 5) Prion test for fallen stocks, 6) Transparent information and traceability, 7) New Measures such as Food Safety Basic Law, and 8) Establish of Food Safety Commission in the Cabinet Office. At this moment, the extent of SRM risk has only been indicated by several reports employing tests with a limited sensitivity. There is still a possibility that the items in the SRM list will increase in the future, and this indiscriminately applies to Japanese cattle as well. Although current practices of SRM elimination partially guarantee total food safety, additional latent problems and imminent issues remain as potential headaches to be addressed. If the index of SRM elimination cannot guarantee reliable food safety, we have but to resort to total elimination of tissues from high risk-bearing and BSE-infected animals. However, current BSE tests have their limitations and can not yet completely detect highrisk and/or infected animals. Under such circumstances, tissues/wastes and remains of diseased, affected fallen stocks and cohort animals have to be eliminated to prevent BSE invading the human food chain systems. The failure to detect any cohort should never be allowed to occur, and with regular and persistent updating of available stringent records, we are at least adopting the correct and useful approach as a reawakening strategy to securing food safety. In this perspective, traceability based on a National Identification System is required.
Animal Feed/*standards ; Animals ; Cattle ; Consumer Product Safety/*legislation&jurisprudence ; Encephalopathy, Bovine Spongiform/epidemiology/*prevention&control ; Female ; Food Chain ; Japan/epidemiology ; Meat/*standards ; Risk Assessment ; Risk Management

Many new human pathogens that have emerged or reemerged worldwide originated from animals or from products of animal origin. Many animal species as well as categories of agents have been involved in the emergence of diseases. Nearly all of these emergent disease episodes have involved zoonotic infectious agents; that is, they have involved the transmission of the etiologic agent to humans from an ongoing reservoir life cycle in animals or arthropods. Control of zooneses depends on attempts to reduce vector populations of limit contact with reservior species. But in most instances, the control efforts require environmental or human behavioral modification in addition to direct efforts at vector population reduction. We described the general ecological characteristics of zoonses and epidemiologic features of 7 important zoonoses in Korea-anthrax, brucellosis, rabies, E. coli O157 infection, japanese B encephalitis, bovine spongiform encephalitis and variant Creutzfelt-Jacob diseases, and high pathogenic avian influenza. We have made some suggestions in this article. First the network of medical field and veterinary field(including experts and governmental organization) should be systematically organized in zoonosis surveillance, epidemic investigation, outbreak control and so forth. Second, we should practically prepare the new emerging epidemics-including pandemic and bioterrorism in connection with zoonoses control. Third, we need ecological and epidemiological basic studies on zoonoses in Korea, and finally, the zoonoses control policy should be connected food safety.
Animals ; Arthropods ; Bioterrorism ; Brucellosis ; Cattle ; Communicable Diseases, Emerging ; Ecology ; Encephalitis, Japanese ; Encephalopathy, Bovine Spongiform ; Epidemiology ; Food Safety ; Humans ; Influenza in Birds ; Korea* ; Life Cycle Stages ; Pandemics ; Rabies ; Zoonoses