Mad cow test on the way

About time, a test that works on live cattle. Wonder how many cases will show up now.

www.abc.net.au...

Friday, 24/06/2005

In a significant development for cattle producers, a Canadian company has developed the first mad cow disease test for live animals.

news.tradingcharts.com...

CALGARY, Jun 16, 2005 (The Canadian Press via COMTEX) -- Vacci-Test Corp. expects to release a blood test for infectious brain diseases in live cattle this autumn at a cost of $20 per animal, the privately held Calgary company said Thursday.

Vacci-Test said the diagnostic tool, to be branded as Vacci-Test BD, can use a single drop of blood to quickly detect a protein marker which identifies brain infections such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy - mad cow disease.

"This will facilitate affordable mass testing of live cattle in the field with results readable in less than 30 minutes," Bill Hogan, Vacci-Test's president and chief executive, said in a statement.

search.japantimes.co.jp...

Fast mad cow test for live cattle in works

SAPPORO (Kyodo) A team of scientists at Hokkaido University is developing an automated device to detect mad cow disease using blood samples from live cattle.
The team, led by Mamoru Tamura, a professor at the university's Research Institute for Electronic Science, hopes to develop the device by this summer.

Detecting mad cow disease in young cattle is considered difficult because the type of protein, called prions, found in the brain of infected cows accumulates as the animals age.

The scientists said the new device will pave the way for establishing a faster and more accurate testing method for mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

Under the current system, Japan tests all cows by taking brain tissue samples when animals are slaughtered.



[edit on 24-6-2005 by valkeryie]

A test in live animals for vCJD has greater implications than just keeping the food supply safe. People who wish to donate their blood to an already undersupported blood donation system in the USA are turned away by the thousands every day because they have spent significant time in Europe or brief stays in the UK.

These likely healthy donors are turned away because there is no test for vCJD (Mad Cow) for the blood supply. Adding this ability would free up gallons and gallons of blood, organs, and blood products for collection and use.