[1]
Date: Tuesday, 26 December
From: Patricia Doyle, PhD <dr_p_doyle@hotmail.com>
Source: UPI [edited]
Just a week before European countries impose new tests for mad cow disease,
France reported yet another case of the bovine ailment that has sparked
panic across the continent. The latest sighting was reported in Aquitaine,
a region in France that had previously been untouched by the scare.
France has reported more than 200 cases since January - more than triple
the previous year's cases. Those figures pale when compared to Britain's
180 000 cases. Last Friday, French prosecutors began investigations into
whether to pursue a case charging France, Britain and the EU for spreading
the brain-wasting human variant, known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
*****
[2]
Date: 25 Dec 2000
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Source: CNN [edited]
<http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/12/25/emirates.pakistan.reut/index.html>
The United Arab Emirates imposed a 3-month ban on imports of cows and water
buffaloes from Pakistan on Monday to prevent the spread of diseases, the
official WAM news agency reported.
It quoted a UAE Agricultural Ministry statement as saying the decision was
a "precautionary measure to safeguard against diseases." The agency did
not give the value of purchases of Pakistani cattle by the UAE, which
imports a large portion of its own food and is a major regional re-export
hub. The UAE and the other Gulf Arab oil states have banned livestock and
beef imports from a number of European and African countries in the past
few months because of concerns over mad cow disease and other illnesses.
****
[3]
Date: 24 December 2000
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Source: CNN Online [edited]
<http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe/12/24/germany.madcow/index.html>
Another case of suspected mad cow disease has been found in Germany --
raising the total to 4 suspected cases on top of 5 confirmed incidents of
the brain-wasting illness. The Agriculture Ministry in the central state
of Lower Saxony said a cow slaughtered near the town of Osnabrueck on
Saturday was believed to be infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy
(BSE).
The cow was born in 1996. It was slaughtered on Saturday because it appeared
to be ill. Police sealed off the farm. The cow had given birth on
Wednesday but the calf did not appear to be ill. Germany had insisted until
last month that it was immune to BSE. The German health ministry has
advised Germans against consuming meat products that might contain beef.
And the latest discovery comes after the Netherlands and Belgium joined
Austria by issuing warnings over German beef. The Dutch Health Ministry has
advised the public not to eat German meat for the time being and local media
in Belgium has reported that the government ordered the withdrawal of all
German beef from shops.
Meanwhile, Germany has rejected a charge that it hampered efforts to address
the spread of the disease with confusing policies and poor excuses. European
Union Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler said in an interview with Die Welt
newspaper that Germany had made the EU's work "not any easier by trying, as
usual, to assign the blame elsewhere." Martin Wille, Germany's deputy farm
minister, dismissed Fischler's charges and said government officials had
worked quickly and efficiently to cooperate with the EU. He blamed the EU
Commission for delaying follow-up information Germany requested.
The United Nations health agency said it would convene a major meeting of
experts and officials from all regions on the neuro-degenerative diseases
striking cattle and humans. Since 1986, 180 000 BSE cases have been
confirmed in British cattle, with 1300 to 1400 cases elsewhere in
Europe - all but several dozen cases in 4 countries (France, Ireland,
Portugal and Switzerland), according to WHO. In all, 87 cases of vCJD have
been reported in Britain, 3 in France and one in Ireland, according to
the agency.
****
[4]
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000
From: M. Cosgriff <mcosgriff@hotmail.com>
Source: Times of India [edited]
<http://www.timesofindia.com/today/28hlth13.htm>
Sheep should be tested for mad cow disease
-------------------------------------------
German Agriculture Minister Karl-Heinz Funke said on Wednesday the country
should introduce mass testing for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in
sheep.
"If scientists recommend doing that, I support it," Funke told German public
television network ZDF in an interview, adding that any new testing program
should be introduced at the European Union level. Funke said that he
believed sheep were less at risk of contracting the disease because most are
kept in grazing flocks and do not come in contact with feed that contains
animal remains.
*****
[5]
Date: 28 Dec 2000
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Source: M2 Communications Ltd. [edited]
Finnish farms with more than 20 goats or sheep will have to test the animals
for viruses that cause certain diseases that affect the brain. The
compulsory testing programme will step into force from the start of the
new year and is seen as necessary because some virus-caused diseases have
symptoms much like those of BSE (mad cow disease).
Farms with fewer than 20 goats or sheep can choose if they want to carry out
the tests.
*****
[6]
Date: 29 Dec 2000
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Source: Chicago Tribune [edited]
<http://www.chicago.tribune.com/version1/article/0,1575,SAV-0012290190,00.ht
ml>
Germany called for expanding meat testing to include sheep as a health scare
gripped the country Thursday after the discovery of still more cases of mad
cow disease.
The state testing agency in Tuebingen confirmed 2 more cases of bovine
spongiform encephalopathy, known as mad cow disease--one in the southern
Unterallgaeu region and another in Osnabrueck in Lower Saxony--to bring
Germany's known tally to seven.
Health authorities carrying out routine tests of sausages on German
supermarket shelves found that in some cases, sausages were labeled
incorrectly and did not say that the product contained beef.
Germany is testing cattle for the disease at a nationwide level, but so far
sheep are not included in the program. Agriculture Minister Karl-Heinz Funke
wants to widen testing to include sheep. He called for a European Union plan
to examine theories that sheep could be linked to mad cow disease.
*****
[7]
Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2000 16:01:59 -0500
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Source: Reuters [edited]
Dutch Discover Eighth Case of Mad Cow Disease
---------------------------------------------
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch government said on Friday it had discovered
its 8th case of mad cow disease at a farm in the eastern town of Punthorst.
The most recent BSE case in the Netherlands was discovered on 17 Nov 2000
this year amid a growing mad cow health scare crisis across Europe.
--
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
.
A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail, a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org