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Canada

Updating: Canada’s Food Supply Remains Safe

Canada's first case of the deadly human brain wasting disease new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (nvCJD) is not a threat to the nation's food supply or to the general public, a panel of health officials stressed at a news conference held Thursday in Saskatoon. "There's no risk to the general public in this case. The infection is not passed from person to person and, as far as we can tell, it was acquired in the United Kingdom," said Dr. Ross Findlater, Saskatchewan's chief medical health officer. Although the victim died earlier this summer, confirmation that he suffered nvCJD was confirmed only this week.

A brain-wasting illness, nvCJD likely develops as a result of people consuming products contaminated with central nervous system tissue of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy)-infected cattle. Officials did not identify the victim or his age at the time of death, but indicated that he had lived in the United Kingdom during the height of BSE outbreaks, which is how it appears he acquired the disease. Canada does not have BSE. For additional and ongoing information, check these web sites:
Saskatchewan Regional Health Authority news release <http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/2002/08/08-636.html>;
Health Canada backgrounders <http://www.hcsc.gc.ca/english/diseases/cjd/index.html>; Canadian Food Inspection Agency information on Canadian BSE prevention measures <http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/anima/heasan/disemala/bseesbe.shtml>; and http://www.bseinfo.org/.

Related Story: Tests Suggest Cattle Don't Catch CWD

Five years into a 15-year study, research so far indicates that cattle do not naturally catch chronic wasting disease, the brain malady akin to BSE that affects deer and elk, a leading scientist said this week. Concerns about the disease spreading was the focus of discussion among 450 scientists, government officials and hunting interests from around the U.S. and Canada who met in Denver this week. In a study conducted at the University of Wyoming, cattle were either inoculated or placed near infected animals to replicate potential natural contact, researchers said. Thus far, the animals have shown  no indications of contracting CWD.