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Blood
Test for 'Mad Cow' Disease May Be Near Source of Article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/29/AR2009012902652.html
Thursday, January 29, 2009; 12:00 AM THURSDAY, Jan.
29 (HealthDay News) -- A simple, inexpensive DNA
blood test may be able to detect "mad cow" disease in live cattle
months before they show any clinical signs of the disease, according to a
Canadian-led team of researchers. Currently, BSE
(bovine spongiform encephalopathy) can only be diagnosed by testing brain
samples from dead animals. The ability to test live animals could have a huge
impact on beef inspection worldwide. This test may also be able to detect
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in elk. "The next
steps are to analyze a time course series for BSE-infected cattle, to screen
different cattle breeds for variances in the sequence patterns and also to
look at cattle with brain tumors, brain trauma and other brain infections to
make sure we are really picking up BSE," principal investigator Christoph Sensen said in a
University of Calgary news release. "Once
that is done, our team sees the possibility for the production of a low-cost,
high-output standard test kit for industry use in the next few years," Sensen said. The research
was published in the January issue of the journal Nucleic Acids Research.
Last
September, Canadian and German researchers reported that cattle with mad cow
disease have elevated protein levels in their urine, a finding that could
lead to the development of a urine screening test for live animals. The scientists
also said it may be possible to develop a urine test to diagnose the fatal
human brain disorder Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which is thought to be linked
to BSE. More
information The
U.S. Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research has more about mad
cow disease. SOURCE: |
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