Mad Cow Deer (CWD) Comes to Alleghany Co., Md.

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2011/02/11/chronic-wasting-disease-discovered-in-allegany-county/

USDA Creates Bill to Compell Japan to Buy Our Beef, Lies to Congress about Mad Cow

Lies highlighted in bold italics

S. Res. 452

RESOLUTION

Supporting increased market access for exports of United States beef and beef products to Japan.

Whereas, in 2003, Japan was the largest market for United States beef, with exports valued at $1,400,000,000;

Whereas, after the discovery of 1 Canadian-born cow infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) disease in the State of Washington in December of 2003, Japan closed its market to United States beef, and still restricts access to a large number of safe United States beef products;

Whereas for years the Government of the United States has developed and implemented a multilayered system of interlocking safeguards to ensure the safety of United States beef, and after the 2003 discovery, the United States implemented further safeguards to ensure beef safety;

Whereas a 2006 study by the United States Department of Agriculture found that BSE was virtually nonexistent in the United States; ( I would like to see a copy of this "study")

Whereas the internationally recognized standard-setting body, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), has classified the United States as a controlled risk country for BSE, which means that United States beef is safe for export and consumption. (Oh yes and we believe anything the WHO has to say......we KNOW they would never lie to U.S. (not.)

Full text; http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=sr111-452

New Study Poses New Questions as to Origin of BSE

http://www.healthnewsdigest.com/news/Research_270/Virus-Like_Structure_Calls_Into_Question_Origin_of_Diseases_Such_as_Mad_Cow.shtml

"Meat-Growers" Ask: Wheres the Beef in S. Korea's Free Trade Agreement

Apparently, the issue of American Beef Imports to S. Korea was left out of the Free Trade Agreement; http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-korea-free-trade-deal-beef/story?id=12313952

Counsil Conclusions on TSE / USA the Worst

The U.S. has lower sanitary and phyto-sanitary standards (SPS) for imports than many other countries, especially those concerning bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). These low standards have made the U.S. a dumping ground for beef from the countries that have experienced BSE problems.

Full article; http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2010/11/council-conclusions-on-tse-road-map-2.html

Mad Cow Disease Suspected in Spanish Doctors Death

http://www.the-gates-of-hell.com/mad-cow-disease-suspected-in-spanish-doctors-death/

How Mad-Cow Disease Can Escape U.S. Detection

http://www.prlog.org/11040449-how-mad-cow-disease-can-escape-us-beef-detection-dr-lawrence-broxmeyer.html

McDonalds Pulls Out of Iceland - Will Consumers Survive Big Mac Attacks?

Click on title above to read more....

Taiwan lifts ban on importing US bone-in beef

Guess Taiwan didnt hear about Chinas banning US Beef Imports because of "banned organs" found in the cow carcasses. Recently, both Tyson and Cargill Beef Products have been guilty of failure to remove these banned parts from the carcasses of the beef we are exporting and/or are selling to our own American consumers.

By Pawan Shukla | 24/10/2009 | in

The Taiwan government has announced that it will lift a ban on imports of a range of U. S. ‘beef in bone’ products including Porterhouse steak.

Taiwan has ended a six year long ban on import that was in place over fears of mad cow disease, and ushering improving ties with the U. S.

The import is likely to start in November this year.

Meanwhile, the health department announced all imported beef products will have to carry a label of approval from the U. S. Agriculture Department.

During the meeting of Taiwan and US officials, a retired US diplomat in Taipei, Syd Goldsmith said, “It removes an irritant that's been nagging for as long as I can remember.”

A source from US official told reporters that the deal is finalized and it allows import of all beef products from cattle under 30 months old. He also added that imports from older cattle will be allowed only after the young ones are found safe.

While talking to reporters, the Taiwan government official said, “After a strict appraisal and risk analysis proving the safety of U. S. beef, the Department of Health today announces that in addition to the boneless products now allowed, it will open to other beef.”

The United States is Taiwan’s second largest trading partner and it generates an annual trade of about $57 billion.

Click on title above for original article and place to comment; http://topnews.com.sg/content/2384-taiwan-lifts-ban-importing-us-beef-bone

SEE ALSO, Related;

Taiwan minister offers to quit over US beef decision
(AFP) – 1 day ago

TAIPEI — Taiwan's health minister on Saturday offered to resign over the controversial decision to lift the ban on US beef on the bone despite mad cow disease concerns.

"Of course I will resign if there is a demand. I will take the responsibility," health minister Yang Chih-liang told reporters.

The health department announced Friday that it would allow imports of US bone-in beef and intestines in a move blasted by some lawmakers and consumer rights advocates.

The ruling Kuomintang caucus demanded Yang step down for lifting the ban without the parliament's consent and threatened to freeze the health department's budget.

Meanwhile, the Consumers' Foundation accused the government of bowing to pressure from Washington despite health risks and urged the authorities to put warning labels on US beef products.

Local media said the new measure would take effect in late October and the first shipment of US beef on the bone is expected to arrive in the island as early as November 10.

Taiwan banned US beef imports in December 2003 due to reports of mad cow disease in the country but opened up to boneless beef products in 2006.

Beef affected by the disease is feared to cause in humans a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.


http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hkNOLNffaZFNGZYSZ5Jk_6YXFYiA

Cargill recalls beef tongues - Banned Organs Found

Last week, China banned imported meat from Tyson for the same exact reason,...banned organs not removed from carcasses. Good Going USDA. Sleepin on the job agin, ay ye?

MILWAUKEE - A Cargill Meat Solutions plant in Milwaukee is voluntarily recalling over 5,500 pounds of beef tongues because the tonsils may not have been completely removed.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service says tonsils need to be removed because the tissue could contain the infective agent in cattle with mad cow disease.

Removing the tonsils minimizes potential human exposure; there's no indication these cattle were infected.

Cargill spokesman Mark Klein says the company acted quickly when the problem was discovered.

The recall includes various weight cases of "Beef Tongue Number 1 White." Each case has the establishment number EST.17690. The affected packages were produced between Oct. 12 and Oct. 14 and were shipped to distribution centers in Illinois.

Cargill Meat Solutions is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cargill Inc., based in Wayzata, Minn.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-wi-beeftonguerecall,0,3278187.s

MickyD's Introduces McMad-Cow Burger

Just for fun, but a big hit with people who "just dont care" what they eat or already have CJD (the human version of mad-cow disease) and dont mind eating a few (more) (live) malformed prions with their fries. Those things dont cook out you know. Scientist have even discovered the pesky little buggers living in feedlot soil!

Blood plasma can give you CJD

sundaymirror.co.uk 15/02/2009

An elderly man has caught the human form of mad cow disease by being given contaminated blood plasma.

Most victims develop the illness - called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) - by eating BSE infected meat or being given tainted blood transfusions.

But Government experts will reveal this week that an elderly haemophiliac got incurable vCJD through contaminated plasma, a special form of sterilised blood.

He was not killed by the disease and the vCJD was only found during a postmortem.

More than 160 people have died of vCJD since 1990. There are still about five deaths a year.


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/02/15/plasma-can-give-you-cjd-115875-21125057/

Alabama Mad Cows / June 2006

Report: 2006

Statement by Wenonah Hauter, executive director, Food & Water Watch



Today’s news report that a third cow with mad cow disease has been found in Alabama brings us once again to questions we’ve been asking for more than five years now: Why isn’t there a mandatory system in place to report suspect animals? When is the Animal and Plant Inspection Service going to address the problems with the sampling in its surveillance program? Why isn’t the U.S. Food and Drug Administration fixing the loopholes in the animal feed ban that would prevent mad cow from even being an issue?


We applaud the farmer who did the right thing by turning over the sick cow in question to a veterinarian for testing. But this is still a voluntary system that must be made mandatory for the sake of public health. Without a mandatory reporting system, who knows what else is out there?


The USDA surveillance system still has problems – even the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s own inspector general deeply criticized the system, and still there has been little action taken to fix the identified problems.


We urge USDA to continue its heightened surveillance program and to fight for more money in its 2007 budget for continued testing. As it currently stands, the fiscal budget for 2007 only provides for 40,000 tests. This is insufficient.


Mad cow disease will not go away on its own. The government must admit there’s a problem and take the necessary steps to fix the problems and protect all consumers.


Click on title above to see article;
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/press/releases/mad-cow-in-alabama-article03142006/?searchterm=mad%20cow

REPORT: Mad Cow Case in Canada / August 2008

For those who think "its over" or "its safe." It would do well to remember, WE (the USA) import alot of beef from Canada for our own use, and hee hee, we DO NOT even check our own healthy cows; how safe can any beef be, or, any meat for that matter? Remember, it is NOT just cows anymore, and NOT just brains and spinal cord tissues they are finding these mad cow "prions" in, it is found now even in meat and muscle! They are finding "mutant" Mad Cow prions in many species, sheep, pigs, etc., young and old, healthy & sick, even in wild game, and it IS effecting humans (CJD,) though studies show it can lay dormant for 20-30 years. Once symptoms do appear, death to the human usually comes on quickly, though it is a "wasting" disease. Some studies even link this mutant human mad-cow prion to Alheimers Disease. Could it really be? Scarey stuff, huh?

VANCOUVER, B.C. — The Canada Food Inspection Agency says a B.C. feed manufacturer is the most likely source of the country's 13th case of mad cow disease.

Canada brought in changes more than a decade ago to stop animal products from being fed to cattle, sheep and goats and prevent the transfer of bovine spongiform encephalopathy into the food chain.

But Dr. Connie Argue of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Thursday that one of the most recent cases of BSE and all 12 previous cases likely came "through incidents of accidental cross-contamination, which may occur in the complex feed and manufacturing system."

There have been 14 cases of BSE diagnosed in Canada since 2003, the most recent found in Alberta in August.

When the first case was discovered the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Australia and several other countries imposed a temporary import ban on Canadian beef.

The latest agency report involves a five-year-old dairy cow from British Columbia's Fraser Valley which tested positive for the disease in June.

Because the incubation period is four to six years, officials belief the animal was contaminated as a calf.

The food source was narrowed down to an unnamed food supplier of heifer ration that also manufactured food for other, non-ruminant animals that contained material prohibited from cattle, sheep and goat feed.

Two other unnamed feed manufacturers where prohibited material was handled were also mentioned in the report as potential areas for cross-contamination.

The report said the feed did not contained banned protein on purpose, but may have been contaminated by equipment used to process non-ruminant feed.

"Bulk ingredient receiving and finished feed conveyances were cross-utilized," the report said.

The agency said a total of 207 other animals connected to the diseased cow either have been or will be destroyed.

"The detection of this case does not change any of Canada's BSE risk parameters," the report concluded. "The location and age of the animal are consistent with previous cases."

When asked if there was concern for other farms that used feed from the suspect manufacturers, Argue said the investigation is limited to feeds that were given to the animals on the same farm at the time.

Canada is classified under the world organization for animal health as a controlled BSE risk country.

Last year the Canadian government extended regulations to eliminate all risk materials, tissues that have been shown to harbour BSE infection, from all animal food, pet feed and fertilizer.

"The enhancements to the feed ban are meant to accelerate BSE eradication in Canada," Argue said.

She predicted there will be more animals diagnosed with BSE in the next few years but said the fact that infected animals continue to show up is a testament to how vigilant the inspection process is in Canada.


Click on title above for article;
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hPI0z46We6UFdobzGZlKQf3TTQSw

Mapping CJD: Human Mad Cow Disease

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, commonly known as CJD, is a brain disease that progresses rapidly and generally results in the death of the patient. It probably came to the public notice following the outbreaks of mad cow disease in Europe in the 1990s because the agent that causes bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cows is thought by some to be responsible for the onset of variant CJD in humans. Yet, despite the swathe of publicity, CJD is a rare disease.

Of the various types, sporadic CJD is the most common, accounting for about 85% of cases in the US. The symptoms only show their faces around the age of 60 and most patients die within a year. Hereditary CJD, accounting for 5-10% of US cases, and acquired CJD, which is transmitted by exposure and accounts for 1% of cases, are the other major categories. The rapid progression and fatal outcome of the disease point to the fact that there is no cure for CJD.

The conventional way to confirm CJD in humans is to carry out a brain biopsy. This occurs in post-mortem examinations but biopsies on suspected patients are generally discouraged because, even if the disease is diagnosed, there is no treatment. So, the medical world needs a reliable test for live patients. Currently, one available test looks for the 14-3-3 proteins in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). These are indicative of CJD but the immunoblot procedure gives a false positive rate of 5-10%, so is unsuitable for screening. In addition, a high proportion of patients with variant CJD do not produce these proteins. A second test, developed by Amorfix Life Sciences Ltd. and currently undergoing validation in the UK, detects prion proteins associated with vCJD in human blood and has given promising results.

A team of scientists in Germany has adopted a different approach, looking for a panel of proteins in CSF which are indicative of CJD and can differentiate it from other neurodegenerative diseases in the largest study of this type. Markus Otto from the University of Ulm with colleagues from six other institutions analysed CSF from a total of 72 patients: 36 diagnosed as having probable CJD (according to WHO criteria), 24 with Alzheimer's disease, 6 with dementia with Lewy bodies and 6 non-demented controls.

The samples were subjected to an optimised sample preparation procedure for analysis by 2D differential gel electrophoresis using the CyDyes 2, 3, and 5. This method has the potential to separate thousands of proteins on a single gel and is a popular choice for comparative, quantitative proteomics studies.

Following 20-fold concentration, CSF was depleted of the abundant proteins albumin and immunoglobulin G, which tend to mask less abundant proteins. There is always a risk that some less abundant proteins will be co-depleted, or reduced in volume so that there is insufficient quantity remaining on the gels for subsequent identification. However, the advantage gained by removing albumin and IgG were considered to outweigh these disadvantages.

The depleted CSF was mixed with acetone to induce protein precipitation and the dried proteins were lysed in buffer to get at the soluble proteins. Then, proteins from the different disease groups were labelled with the respective dyes and subjected to gel electrophoresis. An initial separation at pH 4-10 showed that few proteins were resolved in the pH 7-10 region, so the samples were run at pH 4-7. In this way, about 2200 spots were resolved.

The use of an internal standard allowed normalisation and comparison between the various gels. Using stringent criteria, five protein spots were found to be statistically different in the CJD samples compared with the others. These were cut from the gel to identify the proteins by mass spectrometry, although one protein remained a mystery because there was insufficient sample for identification. The team regarded this protein as one with high diagnostic potential for CJD and will aim to identify it in the future.

Two of the other four proteins were members of the 14-3-3 family, which was not unexpected. The remaining two were L-lactate dehydrogenase B-chain and gamma-enolase. Their suitability as biomarkers has yet to be validated but their discovery presents more possibilities for developing a diagnostic test that is more reliable than the current 14-3-3 immunoblotting test.

Other proteins that have been proposed previously as candidate markers for CJD, such as transthyretin, serotransferrin and gelsolin, were regulated on some gels but did not fulfil the stringent criteria for selection.

Otto and the team have demonstrated the validity of their approach for differentiating CJD from other neurodegenerative diseases and have presented several new candidates for biomarkers. The technique should also be applicable to other brain diseases, especially those in which brain proteins are transferred into CSF but the limitations with regard to low abundance proteins should be taken into account.

Related links:

Proteomics 2008, 8, 4357-4366: "Cerebrospinal fluid-optimized two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis (2-D DIGE) facilitates the differential diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease"
Article by Steve Down


Click on title above to see full article with pics; http://www.spectroscopynow.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?id=19726&type=Feature&chId=10&page=1

Canada Close to Live Testing Methods

Canadian and German scientists have discovered that a single protein can accurately distinguish between healthy cows and those with mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). This finding should hopefully lead to the development of a test for diagnosing BSE in live cattle, says lead researcher David Knox from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg.

First detected in the UK in 1985, BSE is a degenerative neurological disease that affects cows. Like scrapie in sheep and Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (CJD) in humans, BSE is a type of a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) disease, caused by the build-up in the brain of an abnormal protein known as a prion.

Following the BSE epidemic among UK cows in the 1980s and 1990s and the discovery that humans could contract the so-called new variant CJD by eating BSE-infected meat, many countries implemented monitoring programmes to detect cows with BSE. This usually involves testing for the presence of prions in the brains of all cows older than a certain age or showing possible signs of BSE.

Understandably, this kind of test can only be conducted after the cows have been killed, which is sort of shutting the stable door after the cow has bolted. In contrast, a test that could detect BSE in live cows would permit the routine testing of all cattle. This would allow any BSE outbreak to be detected at an earlier stage and give much greater confidence that a country's cow population was entirely free of BSE.

Unfortunately, although prions are found at high concentrations in brains and spinal cords, they're present at much lower concentrations in easily testable bodily fluids such as cerebrospinal fluid, blood and urine. This has helped to stymie attempts to develop just such a live test.

But detecting prions is not the only way to diagnose BSE. Like any other disease, BSE induces a whole host of biochemical changes in infected cows, which should be reflected in the presence of characteristic protein biomakers in their bodily fluids. So Knox and his colleagues set out to find these biomarkers.

Using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, they searched for proteins present at different concentrations in urine from four healthy and four BSE-infected cows. Finding that 56 of the over 1,300 protein spots on each of the subsequent gels were present at different concentrations in the two groups, Knox and his colleagues then used a range of multivariate statistical techniques to determine which spots were best at distinguishing between healthy and infected cows.

This uncovered a single protein spot that was able to distinguish between the two groups with perfect accuracy. Analysing this protein using mass spectrometry revealed it to be the glycoprotein clusterin, which is commonly found in a wide range of different biological tissues. Unfortunately, high concentrations of clusterin have already been linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, suggesting that it might not make a particularly specific BSE biomarker.

However, Knox and his team actually detected two versions of clusterin in cow urine, perhaps reflecting two different post-translational modifications of the protein, and only one of these versions was able to distinguish between the healthy and infected groups. This raises the possibility that this particular version of clusterin could make a more accurate biomarker.

Furthermore, by analysing proteins in the cow urine at six different times during the course of the BSE infection, Knox and his team discovered that changes in the concentrations of 16 of the protein spots accurately matched the progression of the disease.

'Our work shows that it is possible to identify biomarkers in urine that could be useful in the diagnosis and monitoring of disease progression in BSE,' says Knox. In addition to developing a live BSE test, Knox hopes that this work will lead to live tests for other TSE diseases, including CJD


Click on title above for article;
http://www.separationsnow.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?id=19656&type=Feature&chId=2&page=1

Tracking Down The Cause Of Mad Cow Disease: First Synthetic Prion Protein With An Anchor

ScienceDaily (Oct. 10, 2008) — The cause of diseases such as BSE in cattle and Creutzfeld–Jakob disease in humans is a prion protein. This protein attaches to cell membranes by way of an anchor made of sugar and lipid components (a glycosylphosphatidylinositol, GPI) anchor. The anchoring of the prions seems to have a strong influence on the transformation of the normal form of the protein into its pathogenic form, which causes scrapie and mad cow disease.

A team headed by Christian F. W. Becker at the TU Munich and Peter H. Seeberger at the ETH Zurich has now “recreated” the first GPI-anchored prion in the laboratory. As they report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, they have been able to develop a new general method for the synthesis of anchored proteins.

The isolation of a complete prion protein that includes the anchor has not yet been achieved, nor has it been possible to produce a synthetic GPI-anchored protein. The function of the GPI anchor has thus remained in the dark. A new synthetic technique has now provided an important breakthrough for the German and Swiss team of researchers.

The sugar component of natural prion GPI anchors consists of five sugar building blocks, to which further sugars are attached through branches. Details of the lipid component have not been determined before. As a synthetic target, the researchers thus chose a construct made of the five sugars and one C18-lipid chain and worked out the corresponding synthetic route. First, the anchor was furnished with the sulfur-containing amino acid cysteine. The prion protein was produced with the use of bacteria and was given an additional thioester (a sulfur-containing group). The centerpiece of the new concept is the linkage of the protein and anchor by means of a native chemical ligation, in which the cysteine group reacts with the thioester. This allowed the prion protein to firmly attach to the vesicle membranes by way of the artificial anchor.

This new concept will allow production of sufficient quantities of proteins modified with GPI anchors for in-depth studies. Experiments with the artificial GPI prion protein should help to clarify the influence of membrane association on conversion of the protein into the pathogenic scrapie form. This should finally make it possible to track down the infectious form of the prion.

Click on title above to see full article; http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081008113430.htm

Mad Cow Ban Cost US $11 Billion in Beef Exports

By Christopher Doering

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. ranchers and processors lost almost $11 billion in revenue between 2004 and 2007 after major importers barred U.S. beef following the discovery of mad cow disease in the United States, according to a government report issued on Tuesday.

The International Trade Commission said trade restrictions put in place because of mad cow disease cost the U.S. beef industry between $1.5 billion and $2.7 billion in annual revenue between 2004 and 2007. Japan and Korea were responsible for $9.4 billion of the $11 billion estimated in total lost revenue.

Beef shipments from the United States were virtually halted after it found its first case of mad cow disease in December 2003 in Washington state.

Global U.S. beef sales have been edging higher, but not quickly enough for the Bush administration, or for the beef industry, which complain of age restrictions and inflexible import rules.

The ITC said that, while governments will immediately close their borders when food safety concerns arise, it can take several years before the restrictions are lifted.

"The U.S. (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) incident provides an example of this imbalance between imposing and relaxing trade restrictions," the ITC said in a 279-page report.

U.S. officials had hoped a decision last year by the World Organization for Animal Health, which gave the United States a "controlled risk" status for beef safety, would boost beef exports significantly, but it has been slow going.

The U.S. Agriculture Department and others have encouraged trading partners to adopt international beef guidelines by accepting U.S. bone-in beef and meats from cattle of all ages.

Currently, Japan accepts beef from cattle 20 months old or younger, while South Korea limits imports to under 30 months of age.

Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, who heads the Senate Finance Committee, said more needs to be done by the United States to fully resume beef exports to major trading partners.

"While I'm pleased that Korea is accepting some U.S. beef, it is clear that USDA and (the United States Trade Representative) must redouble their efforts to fully open markets in Japan, China and the rest of the world to safe, delicious U.S. beef," said Baucus, who requested the report from the ITC. "Removing these barriers must be a top priority."


Click title above to see article;
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE4969C120081007

Mexico Lifts Ban on Canadian Cattle

Mexico has lifted a two-month ban on live cattle imported from Alberta, says Canadian Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz.

Mexico imposed the ban after Canada found its 14th case of mad cow disease in August, but trade in breeding cattle born after January 1999 has resumed, the Department of Agriculture said in a statement yesterday.

Mexico is not a major market for Canadian breeding cattle, but it is Canada's second largest export market for beef after the United States.

Canada found its first native-born case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, in 2003, sparking trade bans with major buyers.

The country has since introduced strict measures to prevent the disease from being spread through livestock feed, and has been deemed a "controlled risk" country by international animal health officials.

Click on title above for article;
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/521592

UK Announces New Blood Test for Human BSE (CJD)

The first ever diagnosis for variant CJD, which is currently undergoing clinical trials and could be available within 18 months, is seen as an important step in finally stamping out the incurable disease and preventing it from becoming endemic in society.

But medical experts on an advisory committee to the government are worried that the test may have an unexpected downside including reducing the number of blood donors. There are also fears it could increase insurance premiums.

The doctors worry that donors will be reluctant to give blood if they risk being told that they have the possibility of developing the disease which causes an agonising death.

“You would think that the development of a test was a good news story ,” said John Forsythe, chair of the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood Tissues and Organs (SABTO) and a transplant surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

“But its does have a significant downsides. There is a worry it could put anyone off from donations.”

Despite fears that the disease could become widespread in the UK, only four of the 167 people who have died from variant CJD caught it through infected blood.

However, surveys suggest that one in 4,000 people carry the infection and although 95 per cent of them may never actually develop the full blown disease, being told you have the disease would be a terrifying blow.

Mr Forsythe said that the problem is compounded because around one per cent of the positive tests could be wrong. With two million people donating blood every year that could amount to 250 people being told they have the infection, and up to three or four of them falsely diagnosed.

Professor Marc Turner, who is also on SABTO, said that both legally and ethically the donors would have to be told they are incubating the disease even though only a few could develop it fully.

“They would have to be told that they could develop a really rather horrible condition,” he said.

It is not the first time vCJD has had an impact on blood supplies.

Four years ago the number of blood donors dropped by 52,000 when anybody who had received blood transfusion in the previous two decades was banned.

At the moment blood is screened for HIV, syphillis and hepatitus B and C, but a number of companies are on the verge of developing a blood test for vCJD.

The difference is that vCJD is not curable or even treatable and many donors may prefer to not know they could develop an ultimately fatal progressive degenerative brain disease.

At present vCJD is tested for by performing post mortem biopsies on the brain.

Professor Turner said that blood donations were currently sufficient because of better management of supplies.

“We can survive a small reduction but a substantive hit would give us major problems,” he said.

SABTO, which is holding a major meeting today, is also expected to recommend that those receiving blood donations be asked for consent for the first time.

A spokesman for the Association of British Insurers said: “The industry looks at any medical development and individual companies will make their own decision.”

Click on title above for article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/health/3230094/Test-for-human-form-of-mad-cow-disease-sparks-fears-of-a-blood-donor-shortage.html