Canadian scientists say they may have discovered a breakthrough in testing cattle for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease. Currently, tests require samples of brain tissue to identify the cause of the disease: misfolded prions (sort of like infectious proteins). But these tests can't be used on live animals or people.

Instead, this new Canadian research uses a urine test to identify protein traces in live cattle. After comparing the urine of four BSE-infected cattle with four healthy cattle, they found "the pattern of protein changes was 100 percent accurate in detecting cattle with BSE."

Since the human variant of the brain-wasting disease, Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (CJD), is caused by eating BSE-infected meat, a urine test for humans would greatly assist doctors in narrowing down diagnoses of CJD. Some researchers believe that some people diagnosed with dementia or alzheimers disease may in fact have CJD. But most of these people don't have brain autopsies after they've passed, so there's really no way to know if CJD is more prevalent than we think -- if more beef cattle are inflicted with mad cow disease.

Source: Reuters

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ms office 2007
written by ms office 2007, March 14, 2010

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