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From: TSS ()
Information provided by the supplier, Agribrands Canada Inc., indicates that a very small amount of meat and bone meal came into contact with ingredients used in the production of ruminant feed. The supplier is moving quickly to remove any feed that made its way to the farm level. Teams of CFIA inspectors are visiting approximately 100 farms in Ontario and Quebec. As a precaution, the CFIA is identifying implicated animals and monitoring movement of all cattle and other ruminant animals exposed to the feed, pending the completion of an investigation and science-based assessment to determine the potential risk to animal health. Investigators are confirming the amount of feed that each farm received and to which animals it was fed, to indicate potential levels of exposure. This will allow for effective identification and movement control. Previous movement of animals will be verified through farmers' records. The CFIA is verifying that suppliers to Agribrands Canada Inc. have revised their processes and procedures as required to prevent similar situations in the future. The Agency will also be inspecting all feed mills, farms and transport vehicles that handled the contaminated material to ensure that equipment has been properly cleaned. Specified risk materials (SRM) are removed from every animal slaughtered in Canada for human consumption. This measure is internationally recognized as the most effective means to protect the safety of the food supply system from bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Furthermore, given the long incubation period of BSE and the brief period since the potential exposure, there is no food safety concern associated with animals that may have consumed the feed. The CFIA has a program in place to ensure that the current feed ban remains effectively enforced and to protect the health of the national cattle herd from BSE. To date, industry has demonstrated a high level of compliance with Canada's feed ban. Enhancements to the feed ban, which come into effect next July, address the remaining risks posed by contamination through the removal of more than 99% of potential BSE infectivity from the animal feed system. SRM-tissues where BSE concentrates in infected cattle-are being banned from all livestock feeds, pet foods and fertilizers. As the investigation proceeds, updates will be provided on the CFIA's web site. -30- For information: http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/corpaffr/newcom/2006/20061118e.shtml Corinne Ida Lasmézas, Emmanuel Comoy, Stephen Hawkins, Christian Herzog, 100 g 10 g 5 g 1 g 100 mg 10 mg 1 mg 0·1 mg 0·01 mg Primate (oral route)* 1/2 (50%) Cattle (oral route)* 10/10 (100%) 7/9 (78%) 7/10 (70%) 3/15 (20%) 1/15 (7%) RIII mice (ic ip route)* 17/18 (94%) 15/17 (88%) 1/14 (7%) PrPres biochemical detection The comparison is made on the basis of calibration of the bovine inoculum inoculated into mice and cattle.8 *Data are number of animals bioassays is generally judged to be about plus or minus 1 log. ic Table 1: Comparison of transmission rates in primates and cattle infected http://www.thelancet.com/journal/journal.isa also have shared Mr Bradley's surprise at the results because all the dose levels right down to 1 gram triggered infection. 2 6. It also appears to me that Mr Bradley's answer (that it would take less grams) was probably given with the benefit of hindsight; particularly if one considers that later in the same answer Mr Bradley expresses his surprise could take as little of 1 gram of brain to cause BSE by the oral route same species. This information did not become available until the "attack experiment had been completed in 1995/96. This was a titration experiment designed to ascertain the infective dose. A range of dosages was used to that the actual result was within both a lower and an upper limit within the and the designing scientists would not have expected all the dose levels to infection. The dose ranges chosen by the most informed scientists at that ranged from 1 gram to three times one hundred grams. It is clear that the scientists must have also shared Mr Bradley's surprise at the results dose levels right down to 1 gram triggered infection. Re: BSE .1 GRAM LETHAL NEW STUDY SAYS via W.H.O. Dr Maura Ricketts [BBC radio 4 FARM news] http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/03/slides/3923s1_OPH.htm 2) Infectious dose: To cattle: 1 gram of infected brain material (by oral ingestion) TSS
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