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Study finds broader reach for mad cow proteins { January 21 2005 }

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   http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/21/national/21disease.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/21/national/21disease.html

January 21, 2005
Study Finds Broader Reach for Mad Cow Proteins
By SANDRA BLAKESLEE

Mad cow disease has long been thought to occur in just the brains and nervous systems of infected animals. But scientists are reporting today that the proteins thought to cause the disease can travel to other organs as well.

The research is based on experiments with mice, but if it is borne out in other species, it may suggest that no part of an infected animal is safe to eat. The disease leads to a fatal brain infection in humans.

In the mouse experiments, reported in the journal Science, researchers in Switzerland found that prions, proteins that are the infectious agent in mad cow disease, follow immune cells, called lymphocytes, in the body. When mice were given chronic infectious diseases of the liver, kidney and pancreas and then inoculated with prions, the prions made their way to the infected organs.

Dr. Adriano Aguzzi, a neuropathologist at the University Hospital in Zurich, who led the experiments, said this meant that cows and sheep infected with prions could harbor the disease in any inflamed organ.

But Dr. David R. Smith, a veterinarian at the University of Nebraska, said the research did not raise alarms about American beef. For one thing, he said, livestock with obvious signs of systemic infection, like a fever, are not allowed into the food supply. And most American cattle are slaughtered while they are young and at reduced risk of infection.

Many countries, including the United States, require the removal of skulls, brains, eyes, spinal cords and other nervous tissues from slaughtered animals because prions are known to accumulate in those tissues. Even in countries with mad cow disease, mainly in Europe, meat is considered safe if those tissues are removed, Dr. Aguzzi said. But the disease could spread more readily if infections are not obvious or if inspections are sloppily done, he said.



Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company


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