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Re: mad cow and blood meal feeding



I should have mentioned that vCJD  seems to be spread by  blood
transfusion. Suggesting that blood meal from BSE cattle poses a threat
to cattle consuming or breathing dust from blood meal containing feed.
Farm hands  handling feed may breathe  contaminated blood or take it up
through cuts or abrasions.
Nature News
Blood transfusion linked to mad cow disease death
First UK case of variant CJD from blood.
22 December 2003

NICOLA JONES

Blood donation: screening measures may need rethink.
© Alamy.com

A patient who died from the human form of mad cow disease may have
caught the illness from a blood transfusion. Policies governing blood
donation may require a rethink as a result.

It is not possible to tell whether the patient caught the fatal disease
- called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) - from the transfusion
or contracted it by eating infected meat. But the incident is the first
case of "possible transmission" through transfusion - something that
scientists have long known to be a possibility.

Britain's Department of Health and the National Blood Service have since
contacted 15 other patients who also received blood from donors who
later died from vCJD. The patients have been offered counselling.

There is no blood test for vCJD, so blood banks cannot check their
stocks for signs of the disease. But precautions are in place to
minimize the risk of transmission. US and Canadian blood banks refuse
donations from British citizens or those who have spent a significant
amount of time in the country. In Britain itself, transfusions are
stripped of white blood cells, which are thought to aid disease
transmission.

The donor in this case gave blood in 1996, before the precautions were
put in place. He fell ill and died in 1999; the recipient of his blood
died in autumn this year.

"There won't be any changes to these procedures or precautions," says
National Blood Service spokesperson Jude Pamington. But an advisory
committee is discussing whether recipients of transfusions should be
allowed to donate blood. If they are excluded, the number of blood
donors could drop by up to 15%.

Five of the 15 patients who received contaminated blood were given the
transfusions after the white blood cells had been removed. The other ten
received them before the precaution was implemented.

Scientists think that the incubation period of vCJD may be as long as 30
years, so it is impossible to determine whether other past blood donors
will yet contract vCJD.

Britain's health secretary John Reid told the parliament there could be
other ways to reduce transmission risk. "It is apparent that much more
blood and blood products are used clinically than need to be used," he
said. Reid said he would ask the National Blood Service to have urgent
discussions with the National Health Service to explore how blood
supplies can be used more efficiently.

jcummins wrote:

I noticed that the  USDA-APHIS  restricion of  Canadian Meat and Meat
Products of last May included a ban on blood meal. I have encounteres
the powerful Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein System (CNCPS) used to
set rations for cattle. That system seems to use blood meal  along with
the soy protein  to set the optimum ration. My question is: has USDA
set a ban on use of american blood meal ? and does CNCPS have
alternative vegetarian (soy) replacements for blood meal? finally, is
the blood meal ban realistic?

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