Mad cow disease case in US was a 'one-off' caused by a mutation

The US Department of Agriculture says there should be no concern about safety of food supply after discovery of BSE.A newly discovered case of mad cow disease in a US dairy herd apparently arose from a one-off mutation that was picked up during random surveillance at an abattoir in California.

The animal was tested as part of a regular inspection programme organised by the US Department of Agriculture that examines tissue from 40,000 slaughtered cattle each year.

Dr John Clifford, the USDA's chief veterinary officer, said the department was continuing its investigation of the case, but added "there should be no concern … about the safety of our food supply."

Despite assertions from Clifford that the case should not affect trade in meat, two of South Korea's largest importers of US beef halted sales.

The disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is caused by misfolded proteins called prions, which build up in the brain with fatal consequences.

Unlike the viruses that cause many other diseases in farm animals, prions do not spread through casual contact or by coughs and sneezes. The infectious prions are concentrated in certain tissues of the animals, such as the nervous system.

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 25 April 2012 15.31

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012

Wishing that the best of times come your way with new hopes and promises this New Year...

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL... 

The Official Veterinarian - An essential public good

In view of the 3rd round table on the modernization of meat inspection, the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE) would like to underline the crucial role played by veterinarians in protecting human health and ensuring food safety.
The consumer demands safe food of animal origin. The veterinary profession has the independence, integrity, knowledge and skills to provide the consumer with reassurance that their expectation of high food safety, animal welfare and environmental standards has been met – all the way from farm to fork.
FVE wants to outline this pivotal role played by veterinarians in assuring the safety of our food especially at slaughterhouse level.

Source:
http://www.fve.org/news/press_releases/docs/2011_12_005%20the%20role%20of%20ov_%20adding%20value%20v1.5_press%20release.pdf

Lions' and tigers' fearsome roars are due to their unusual vocal folds

When lions and tigers roar loudly and deeply -- terrifying every creature within earshot -- they are somewhat like human babies crying for attention, although their voices are much deeper. So says the senior author of a new study that shows lions' and tigers' loud, low-frequency roars are predetermined by physical properties of their vocal fold tissue -- namely, the ability to stretch and shear -- and not by nerve impulses from the brain. "Roaring is similar to what a baby sounds like when it cries," says speech scientist Ingo Titze, executive director of the National Center for Voice and Speech, which is administered by the University of Utah. "In some ways, the lion is a large replica of a crying baby, loud and noisy, but at very low pitch."
The study of lion and tiger vocal folds and how they produce roaring -- vocalizations used by big cats to claim their territory -- was set for publication on Nov. 2, in the Public Library of Science's online journal PLoS ONE. While the comparison was not part of the study, Titze says a baby "cries to have people come to help it. The lion uses similar attention-getting sound, but mainly to say, 'I am here, this is my territory, get out of here." "In both cases, we hear loud, grating sounds that grab people's ears. When a baby cries, the sound isn't pretty. The sound is basically rough. The vibration isn't regular."

Goats could increase the risk of a rare lung cancer

Exposure to goats could increase the risk of a certain type of lung cancer, according to French researchers. The study, presented at the European Respiratory Society's Annual Congress in Amsterdam, has linked a professional exposure to goats with a distinct subset of lung cancer, known as pneumonic-type lung adenocarcinoma (P-ADC). This form of lung cancer has a weak association with tobacco smoking when compared with other types of the disease. In attempting to identify other triggers that may cause the disease, scientists have previously noticed similarities between P-ADC and a viral infection which causes growths in the lungs of sheep. Given these similarities, the researchers have investigated whether a viral agent found in sheep and goats could be easily transferred to people who work with the animals, leading to a partiality for P-ADC. The current epidemiologic study involved 44 patients with P-ADC and 132 controls without the disease. All participants were given a questionnaire assessing a number of risk factors including their smoking status, their personal history of cancer and their exposure to goats.

The results showed that people who had experienced a professional exposure to goats during their lifetime were five times more likely to get P-ADC compared with other types of lung cancer. The findings also showed that P-ADC was significantly associated with females, and people who had never smoked or had any personal history of cancer. Dr Nicolas Girard, from the Louis Pradel Hospital, Hospices Civils de Lyon, said: "Scientists have noticed similarities between P-ADC and a contagious viral infection in sheep before. This led us to explore the possibility that professional exposure to cattle could make humans more susceptible to P-ADC. These findings demonstrate that exposure to goats could be a risk factor for this type of lung cancer, however further studies are needed to assess other potential risk factors for the disease."

Science Daily
November 1, 2011

Hold the phone for vital signs: researchers turn a smart phone into a medical monitor

An iPhone app that measures the user's heart rate is not only a popular feature with consumers, but it sparked an idea for a Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) researcher who is now turning smart phones, and eventually tablet devices, into sophisticated medical monitors able to capture and transmit vital physiological data. A team led by Ki Chon, professor and head of biomedical engineering at WPI, has developed a smart phone application that can measure not only heart rate, but also heart rhythm, respiration rate and blood oxygen saturation using the phone's built-in video camera. The new app yields vital signs as accurate as standard medical monitors now in clinical use. Details of the new technology are published online, in advance of print, by the journal IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. "This gives a patient the ability to carry an accurate physiological monitor anywhere, without additional hardware beyond what's already included in many consumer mobile phones," the authors write. "One of the advantages of mobile phone monitoring is that it allows patients to make baseline measurements at any time, building a database that could allow for improved detection of disease states."

The application, developed by Chon and WPI colleagues Yitzhak Mendelson, associate professor of biomedical engineering, Domhnull Granquist-Fraser, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, and doctoral student Christopher Scully, analyzes video clips recorded while the patient's fingertip is pressed against the lens of the phone's camera. As the camera's light penetrates the skin, it reflects off of pulsing blood in the finger; the application is able to correlate subtle shifts in the color of the reflected light with changes in the patient's vital signs. Chon, who is an expert on signal processing, has previously developed algorithms that monitor a range of vital signs using traditional clinical devices like a Holter heart monitor. In the new study, Chon and his team created and adapted algorithms to process the data gathered by the phone's video camera. To test for accuracy, volunteers at WPI donned the standard monitoring devices now in clinical use for measuring respiration, pulse rate, heart rhythm, and blood oxygen content. Simultaneously, the volunteers pressed a finger onto the camera of a Motorola Droid phone. While all devices were recording, the volunteers went through a series of breathing exercises while their vital signs were captured. Subsequent analysis of the data showed that Chon's new smart phone monitor was as accurate as the traditional devices. While this study was done on a Droid, Chon said the technology is easily adaptable to most smart phones with an embedded video camera.

Furthermore, since the new technology can measure heart rhythm, Chon believes the smart-phone app could be used to detect atrial fibrillation (AF), which is the most common form of cardiac arrhythmia. "We are building that application now, and we have started a preliminary clinical study with colleagues at UMass Medical School to use the smart phone to detect AF," Chon said.

Science Daily

Cattle parasite vaccine offers hope to world's poorest farmers

A new approach to vaccinating cattle could help farmers worldwide, research suggests

A new approach to vaccinating cattle could help farmers worldwide, research suggests.
Scientists have developed a technique using a harmless parasite – which lives in cows but has no effect on their health – to carry medicines into the animals' bloodstream.
Researchers created the vaccine by inserting key genetic material from a vaccine into the parasite's DNA. The manipulated parasite is intended to be injected into cattle, where it would continue to thrive in their bloodstreams, releasing small amounts of vaccine slowly over time.
The treatment could offer long-term protection against common conditions such as foot-and-mouth disease or bovine tuberculosis, as well as a range of other diseases.
Scientists say the method could also be adapted to carry medicines as well as vaccines, to deliver drug treatments against common cattle diseases.
It is hoped the approach will help to control or eradicate major cattle diseases. Also, by controlling certain tropical infections, it could transform the economic outlook of poor farmers in Africa, where such conditions are rife.
The research, carried out in collaboration with the Moredun Research Institute with funding from the Wellcome Trust and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, was published in the journal PLoS Pathogens.
Professor Keith Matthews of the University of Edinburgh's School of Biological Sciences, who led the research, said: "This method has real potential to control a wide range of cattle diseases throughout the world. It is also a fantastic example of how building on many years of basic scientific research can lead to unanticipated economic potential."

Contact: Catriona Kelly
Catriona.Kelly@ed.ac.uk
44-131-651-4401
University of Edinburgh