Conference misery::feline_v1

    Lisa,

    What is Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy? Do you have any more 
    information on this disease? Such as:

        what are the symptoms?
        what effects does it have on an animal that contracts it?
        is it fatal?
        what animals can get it?
        how do animals get it? 

    I've never heard of this disease -- is it possible that it only
    exists in the UK?

    Thanks,

    Linda

    Is it something that usually cattle get?
    
    Deb

    
    BSE was originally identified in cows and sheep. It is known in the
    British popular press as "Mad Cow Disease".
    
    Symptoms are movement difficulties and nervousness.
    
    It is, I believe, one of these diseases that is related to the food
    chain of the animals it infects. Parts of dead cows being fed back to
    other cows as meal etc. Perhaps someone else knows more here.
    
    The British goverment has INSISTED for many months that it cannot
    infect humans or other species. They say there is no way that
    humans can get it from beef etc. However, British produced beef is
    banned in certain EEC countries!
    
    I bet HM Goverment Dept. of Agriculture will do its headless chicken
    bit again, as it did with Salmonella in eggs.
    
    We await the next development.
    
    Geoff
    

The first BSE type illness was detected in sheep and is called
scrapie. The illness then spread to cows and was named BSE. 
Scientists/vets have been worried for some time that it could
hop to other species - including humans. The disease is transmitted
by feeding offal from infected animals to other animals. It can
take anything up to 5 years or more to show itself. The symptoms
are loss of co-ordination of the limbs, fits and other nervous
disorders. Who knows what gets put into cat food! It is a disease
of the nervous system. I don't know if its a problem in the USA
but it is here in europe. I really do hope that its just media
hype!


Lisa plus Pookie.

    The disease:
    
     BSE is confined to cattle (hence the Bovine bit), it is getting
    a lot of news coverage over in the U.K. at the moment. It is
    thought that this disease spread to cattle by feeding them minced
    sheeps remains (Including central nervous tissues, e.g. brains &
    spinal cord), there has been a similar disease in sheep for a couple
    of hundred years, recently some experts have suggested that this
    disease may be spread to humans as some low quality meat products,
    e.g. sausages & hamburgers include miced nervous tissues, however
    the government experts say this is not possible (BUT I heard
    a government vet on the radio say this could not be spread to humans
    in this way, but when pressed he admitted that his family had stopped
    eating certain types of meat product since he started his
    investigation!)
    
    The symptoms :
    
    The disease is commonly known as Mad Cow disease, and that seems
    to be the main symptom, the brain goes 'soft' and the cow loses
    coordination and staggers around like it is drunk, I suspect the
    symptoms in other animals will be similar.
    
    The Cat:
    
    The cat which is referred to in .0 was put down and had an autopsy 
    performed after having the symptoms described above, the cause of
    death was something similar to BSE. It is the first such case known in 
    a cat. The cat was fed on a seemingly good diet of tinned foot/dry
    food/ and a bit of fresh food. At the moment no one knows how it
    contracted the disease.
                        
    Prevention:
    
    The media over here have been recommending only feeding pets on
    'reputable' pet foods since this scare, but as the virus (I think
    it's a virus anyway) which causes the disease is very hard to destroy,
    and the temperatures used in normal food processing will not kill
    it so it is difficult to see how this will make any difference.      
    However as the disease is only spread via Brains and the like, feeding
    cats on rump steak and fresh salmon will definately keep them free
    of BSE
     
                                                 
    
    The incubation period in cattle can be several years
    so it is likely that we shall not know how wide spread this disease
    has become for some time yet. 
                             
    Disclaimer:
    
    All my information has been gained from TV & radio, so please forgive
    any omissions/inaccuracies.
                                  

    Thanks to all for the information. Sounds pretty gruesome. I'll keep
    my eyes peeled for any news here of BSE.

    Well, got to go now and get some rump steak and fresh salmon so my
    guys don't turn into mad cows! :-)   

    Linda

An interesting aside to this:

there is a disease common among "headhunter" tribes that participate in
ritual consumption of human brain tissue that brings on symptoms much like
these - in humans!  of course, as there are very few headhunter cultures 
left in the world, it isn't very common anymore.  Under these circumstances,
I would be VERY cautious of any brain/nervous system tissue for myself
or my pets.  If bovine, ovine, and human species have common symptomatic
afflication from the same type of source, then it isn't too far a leap
to assume the possibility that a common family of viruses are the source..

In America, we do not, as far as I know, feed chopped up animal tissue
back to our cattle and sheep - the fear of scrapie is widespread in the
southwestern US - sheep and cattle ranchers are extremely careful of
any possibility of infection.....of course, I'm not a rancher, so I
am offering hear-say on the cattlefeed issue......[insert general
disclaimer, etc.] 

    The following is reprinted (without permission) from The Times,
    11/5/90:
    
    'Mad Cow' Symptons found in pet cat.
    
    A condition closely resembling 'mad cow' disease, the brain disorder
    that has killed more than 13,000 British cattle, has been diagnosed
    for the first time in a domestic cat.
    
    It is not yet known how the cat, a five-year-old neutered male Siamese,
    became infected, or whether this feline form of the disease, known
    as Spongiform Encephalopathy (SE), can be transmitted between species.
    Scientists are investigating whether it can be passed to laboratory
    mice.
    
    Mr Keith Meldrum, the Government's chief veterinary officer, said
    "There is no need for pet owners to change their pet food or to
    consider putting their cats down.  The risk to man is no greater
    than it was before the diagnosis."
    
    A human form of the condition, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD),
    kills about 30 people a year in England; there is however no evidence
    that the incidence of CJD, which occurs in about one in every two
    million people, is in any way related to the presence of SE in other
    animals.
    
    Mr Meldrum said the cat had been referred to Bristol University
    by a local vet after it showed nervous symptoms and unsteadiness
    on its feet and failed to respond to treatment.  It was destroyed
    on April 6th and a post-mortem examination showed "typical lesions
    of SE", Mr Meldrum said.  "Such findings have not been reported
    previously in domestic cats at this stage".
    
    The cat was apparently fed a wide range of pet food.  There are
    four other cats and four dogs in the same household.  All are said
    to be healthy.
    
    Mr John Bower, the president of the British Veterinary Association,
    said it was possible that cases of SE had occurred sporadically
    in cats before but had not been diagnosed.  "From time to time vets
    are presented with cats with nervous symptoms, but in the vast majority
    of fatal cases no post-mortem examination of the brain is carried
    out".
    
    "It is possible the cat developed the disease spontaneously, as
    in the cas of cat AIDS.  It is tempting but purely speculative to
    link this with BSE, the disease in cattle.  The lesions are similar
    but there is no evidence yet of any connection between the two.
     A thorough investigation was required into the feeding habits of
    the cat that died".
    
    Cattle are believed to have contracted the disease by eating feed
    containing protein from sheep infected with scrapie, the ovine form
    of the ailment.  One hypothesis is that pet food containing similar
    material could have been the transmission route to cats.
    
    Sheep protein is now banned in cattle feed but not in pet food.
     Cattle showing symptoms of the disease have to be destroyed and
    cattle brain and other offals, which are thought to harbour the
    organism, are also banned from human consumption.
    
    Last summer, the Pet Food Manufacturers Association, advised its
    memebers to stop using banned offals.  The association said last
    night it was "absolutely confident" that its members were abiding
    by the recommendation.  Mr Michael Jenkins, of Pedigree Pet Foods,
    said: "All our materials come from healthy animals fit for human
    consumption.  We do not use any condemned offals."
    
    As SE can be incubated for up to eight years without any symptoms
    showing, it is possible that the cat could have been infected by
    feed consumed before the association made its recommendation.
    
    ....
    
    There are an estimated 7 million dogs and 7 million cats in Britain
    which consume some 1.15 million tonnes of prepared food worth #825
    million a year.
    
    

    If the sheep version is "scrapie", then I assume the cow version,
    BSE, is pronounced "bessie"? :)