Monday, October 18, 2010

TSEAC Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Advisory Committee Draft Agenda and Meeting Materials, Posted: 10/18/2010

Meeting of the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Advisory Committee Center Date Time Location

CBER October 28-29, 2010

October 28 from 8:30 a.m. to approximately 5 p.m. October 29 from 8:30 a.m. to approximately 12:30 p.m. Holiday Inn, 2 Montgomery Village Avenue, Gaithersburg, MD

Agenda

On October 28, 2010 the Committee will discuss: (1) FDA’s risk assessment for potential exposure to the variant Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease (vCJD) agent in U.S.-licensed plasma-derived Factor VIII and (2) labeling of blood and blood components and plasma-derived products, including plasma-derived albumin and products containing plasma-derived albumin, to address the possible risk of transmission of vCJD. On October 29, 2010, the Committee will hear informational presentations related to FDA’s geographic donor deferral policy to reduce the possible risk of transmission of CJD and vCJD by blood and blood products and human cells, tissue and cellular and tissue based products. The Committee will also hear updates on the following topics: The development of devices to remove transmissible spongiform encephalopathy agents from blood components and chronic wasting disease.

Meeting Materials

Materials for this meeting will be available on the 2010 Meeting Materials, Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Advisory Committee page.

Public Participation Information

Interested persons may present data, information, or views, orally or in writing, on issues pending before the committee.

Written submissions may be made to the contact person on or before October 21, 2010 Oral presentations from the public will be scheduled between approximate 11 a.m. and 11:45 a.m. and between 3:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. on October 28 and between approximately 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. on October 29. Those desiring to make formal oral presentations should notify the contact person and submit a brief statement of the general nature of the evidence or arguments they wish to present, the names and addresses of proposed participants, and an indication of the approximate time requested to make their presentation on or before October 13, 2010. Time allotted for each presentation may be limited. If the number of registrants requesting to speak is greater than can be reasonably accommodated during the scheduled open public hearing session, FDA may conduct a lottery to determine the speakers for the scheduled open public hearing session. The contact person will notify interested persons regarding their request to speak by October 14 , 2010. Contact Information

Bryan Emery or Rosanna Harvey 1401 Rockville Pike, HFM-71, Rockville, MD 20852 301-827-0314 FAX: 301-827-0294 e-mail: bryan.emery@fda.hhs.gov ; rosanna.harvey@fda.hhs.gov FDA Advisory Committee Information Line 1-800-741-8138 (301-443-0572 in the Washington, DC, area) code 3014512391. Please call the Information Line for up-to-date information on this meeting. FDA intends to make background material available to the public no later than 2 business days before the meeting. If FDA is unable to post the background material on its Web site prior to the meeting, the background material will be made publicly available at the location of the advisory committee meeting, and the background material will be posted on FDA’s Web site after the meeting.

A notice in the Federal Register about last minute modifications that impact a previously announced advisory committee meeting cannot always be published quickly enough to provide timely notice. Therefore, you should always check the agency’s Web site and call the appropriate advisory committee hot line/phone line to learn about possible modifications before coming to the meeting.

Persons attending FDA’s advisory committee meetings are advised that the agency is not responsible for providing access to electrical outlets. FDA welcomes the attendance of the public at its advisory committee meetings and will make every effort to accommodate persons with physical disabilities or special needs. If you require special accommodations due to a disability, please contact Bryan Emery at least 7 days in advance of the meeting. FDA is committed to the orderly conduct of its advisory committee meetings. Please visit our Web site for procedures on public conduct during advisory committee meetings.

Notice of this meeting is given under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. app. 2). Official FR Notice

http://www.fda.gov/AdvisoryCommittees/Calendar/ucm225791.htm


October 28-29, 2010

Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Advisory Committee Meeting Draft Agenda

DRAFT AGENDA

Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Advisory Committee 22nd Meeting, October 28-29, 2010

The Holiday Inn Gaithersburg 2 Montgomery Village Avenue Gaithersburg, MD 20879

Thursday, October 28, 2010

8:30a.m. Opening Remarks, Chair, TSEAC Statement of Conflicts of Interest, Announcements 8:40 a.m. Topic I: Review of FDA’s Risk Assessment for Potential Exposure to Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in U.S.-licensed Plasma-Derived Factor VIII

Introduction, Steven Anderson, Ph.D., OBE, FDA (30’) Presentation of FDA Risk Assessment, Hong Yang, Ph.D., OBE, FDA (40’) Summary and Questions for the Committee, Steven Anderson, Ph.D., OBE, FDA (20’)

10:30 a.m. Break 10:45 a.m. Open Public Hearing 11:30 a.m. Open Committee Discussion

Questions for the Committee

12:30 p.m. Lunch 1:45 p.m. Topic II: Labeling of Plasma-derived Products, including Plasma-derived Albumin and Products Containing Plasma-derived Albumin to Address the Possible Risk of Transmission of V ariant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Introduction and Rationale for Proposed Labeling Change for Plasma Derivatives to Reflect Possible vCJD Risk Dorothy Scott, M.D., DH, OBRR, FDA (15’) TSE Clearance in Manufacturing of Plasma Derivatives, PPTA (25’) Summary and Questions for the Committee Dorothy Scott, M.D., DH, OBRR, FDA (20’)

2:45 p.m. Break 3:00 p.m. Open Public Hearing 3:30 p.m. Open Committee Discussion

Questions for the Committee

4:30 p.m. Adjournment

Friday, October 29, 2010

8:30 a.m. Opening Remarks, Chair, TSEAC

Statement of Conflicts of Interest, Announcements

8:40 a.m. Informational Presentations: FDA’s Geographic Donor Deferral Policy to Reduce the Possible Risk of Transmission of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease by Blood and Blood Products and Human Cells, Tissues and Cellular and Tissue-based Products

Review of Current FDA Policies David Asher, M.D., DETTD, OBRR, FDA (30’) Elizabeth Lybarger, M.F.S., M.S. LT USPHS, DHT, OCTGT, FDA (15’) Variant CJD in the UK and Worldwide, Robert Will, M.D., UK CJD Surveillance Unit, Edinburgh (30’) BSE in the USA and Worldwide, Linda Detwiler, D.V.M., University of Mississippi (15’) USDA Updates Christopher Robinson, D.V.M., National Center for Import and Export, APHIS, USDA (15’) Troy Bigelow, D.V.M, National Center for Animal Health Programs, APHIS, USDA (15’) Questions to Speakers (10’)

11:00 a.m. Open Public Hearing 11:30 a.m. Break 11:45 a.m. Committee Updates

Recent Advances in Development of Devices to Remove TSE Agents from Blood Components. Steven J. Burton, Ph.D., Prometric BioSciences, Ltd. (15’) Sam Coker, Ph.D., Pall Medical Corporation (15’) Tomo Yokomizo, M.Sc., Asahi-Kasei Medical (15’) Questions to Speakers (10’)

12:30 p.m. Adjournment

http://www.fda.gov/AdvisoryCommittees/CommitteesMeetingMaterials/BloodVaccinesandOtherBiologics/TransmissibleSpongiformEncephalopathiesAdvisoryCommittee/ucm229984.htm


Module 2. Estimates of vCJD Prevalence in US Donors and US Plasma Pools

This module estimates the number of US plasma donors potentially infected with the agent that is responsible for vCJD, and this information was used to derive the number and percentage of plasma pools potentially including donations containing the vCJD agent. This module used results of a travel survey of US donors to determine numbers of US plasma donors expected to be at increased risk for vCJD, including those with history of:

Dietary exposure to BSE-contaminated beef during long-term travel or residence in UK, France and other European countries (since 1980);

US military service in European countries where beef was obtained from the UK, including US military personnel and associated civilian employees and dependents posted on or residing near military facilities in Europe during certain years; and

Transfusion with blood collected in Europe ("EuroBlood").

US plasma donors potentially at increased risk for vCJD were further characterized by:

Age,

Country of travel or residence,

Year of travel or residence,

Specific duration of travel or residence.

The model also included the factors of:

Plasma type (Source Plasma or recovered plasma),

Rate and frequency of plasma donation,

Number of donations per plasma pool, and

Effectiveness of donor deferral policies.

After accounting for the factors listed above, we used both UK prevalence estimates to predict the number of vCJD donations that might have entered into US plasma pools of various sizes under two separate prevalence scenarios.

http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AdvisoryCommittees/CommitteesMeetingMaterials/BloodVaccinesandOtherBiologics/TransmissibleSpongiformEncephalopathiesAdvisoryCommittee/UCM230048.pdf


SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES

ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING

October 28, 2010

Gaithersburg, MD

Topic II: Proposed revisions to the labeling recommendations to reflect potential risk of vCJD in plasma derivatives

Issue: FDA seeks advice on the proposed revisions to labeling recommendations for plasma derivative package inserts, to reflect potential risk of vCJD

http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AdvisoryCommittees/CommitteesMeetingMaterials/BloodVaccinesandOtherBiologics/TransmissibleSpongiformEncephalopathiesAdvisoryCommittee/UCM230049.pdf



TRANSMISSIBLE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES

ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING

28- 29 October 2010

Issue Summary

Informational Topic: FDA’s Geographic Donor Deferral Policy to Reduce the Possible Risk of Transmission of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease by Blood and Blood Products and Human Cells, Tissues and Cellular and Tissue-based Products

Issue: FDA wishes to update the Committee on the current regulatory considerations relating to Relevant Communicable Disease Agents and Diseases (RCDADs), of which TSEs are a part, for human cell, tissue, and cellular and tissue-based products (HCT/Ps), and also would like to identify current criteria that would render an HCT/P donor ineligible as a result of TSE risk. There is no decisional issue for the committee at this time.

Regulatory Background:

http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AdvisoryCommittees/CommitteesMeetingMaterials/BloodVaccinesandOtherBiologics/TransmissibleSpongiformEncephalopathiesAdvisoryCommittee/UCM230050.pdf




Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Advisory Committee; Notice of Meeting October 28 and 29, 2010


(COMMENT SUBMISSION)


http://tseac.blogspot.com/2010/09/transmissible-spongiform_14.html



what about the other strains of BSE i.e. atypical BSE, and other TSE in other species here in North America, and human TSE and risk factor from blood there from ?

atypical BSE are more virulent than typical UK c-BSE, so why would we be ignoring these factors here in the USA $ i.e. the Gold Card, TRADE $


Saturday, June 19, 2010

U.S. DENIED UPGRADED BSE STATUS FROM OIE

http://www.oie.int/eng/session2010/PDF%20Press%20releases/PRESS78_EN.pdf


see full text and reasons why here ;

http://usdameatexport.blogspot.com/2010/06/us-denied-upgraded-bse-status-from-oie.html



PLEASE NOTE *

Over the next 8-10 weeks, approximately 40% of all the adult mink on the farm died from TME.

snip...


The rancher was a ''dead stock'' feeder using mostly (>95%) downer or dead dairy cattle...


http://web.archive.org/web/20030516051623/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/mb/m09/tab05.pdf



Atypical BSE in Cattle

BSE has been linked to the human disease variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (vCJD). The known exposure pathways for humans contracting vCJD are through the consumption of beef and beef products contaminated by the BSE agent and through blood transfusions. However, recent scientific evidence suggests that the BSE agent may play a role in the development of other forms of human prion diseases as well. These studies suggest that classical type of BSE may cause type 2 sporadic CJD and that H-type atypical BSE is connected with a familial form of CJD.

To date the OIE/WAHO assumes that the human and animal health standards set out in the BSE chapter for classical BSE (C-Type) applies to all forms of BSE which include the H-type and L-type atypical forms. This assumption is scientifically not completely justified and accumulating evidence suggests that this may in fact not be the case. Molecular characterization and the spatial distribution pattern of histopathologic lesions and immunohistochemistry (IHC) signals are used to identify and characterize atypical BSE. Both the L-type and H-type atypical cases display significant differences in the conformation and spatial accumulation of the disease associated prion protein (PrPSc) in brains of afflicted cattle. Transmission studies in bovine transgenic and wild type mouse models support that the atypical BSE types might be unique strains because they have different incubation times and lesion profiles when compared to C-type BSE. When L-type BSE was inoculated into ovine transgenic mice and Syrian hamster the resulting molecular fingerprint had changed, either in the first or a subsequent passage, from L-type into C-type BSE. In addition, non-human primates are specifically susceptible for atypical BSE as demonstrated by an approximately 50% shortened incubation time for L-type BSE as compared to C-type. Considering the current scientific information available, it cannot be assumed that these different BSE types pose the same human health risks as C-type BSE or that these risks are mitigated by the same protective measures.

This study will contribute to a correct definition of specified risk material (SRM) in atypical BSE. The incumbent of this position will develop new and transfer existing, ultra-sensitive methods for the detection of atypical BSE in tissue of experimentally infected cattle.

Responsibilities include:

Driving research at the National and OIE BSE reference lab to ensure project milestones are met successfully. Contributing to the preparation of project progress reports. Directing technical staff working on the project. Communicating and discussing results, progress and future direction with project principle investigator(s). Communicating with collaborative project partners. Qualifications:

Successful completion of a PhD degree in an area focusing on or related to prion diseases. Extensive experience with molecular and/or morphologic techniques used in studying prion diseases and/or other protein misfolding disorders. Ability to think independently and contribute new ideas. Excellent written and oral communication skills. Ability to multitask, prioritize, and meet challenges in a timely manner. Proficiency with Microsoft Office, especially Word, PowerPoint and Excel. How to apply:

Please send your application and/or inquiry to: Dr. Stefanie Czub, DVM, Ph.D. Head, National and OIE BSE Reference Laboratory Canadian Food Inspection Agency Lethbridge Laboratory P.O. Box 640, Township Road 9-1 Lethbridge, AB, T1J 3Z4 Canada

phone: +1-403-382-5500 +1-403-382-5500 ext. 5549 email: stefanie.czub@inspection.gc.ca

Contact Info:

http://www.prionetcanada.ca/detail.aspx?menu=5&dt=293380&app=93&cat1=387&tp=20&lk=no&cat2


14th ICID International Scientific Exchange Brochure -

Final Abstract Number: ISE.114

Session: International Scientific Exchange

Transmissible Spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) animal and human TSE in North America

update October 2009

T. Singeltary

Bacliff, TX, USA

Background:

An update on atypical BSE and other TSE in North America. Please remember, the typical U.K. c-BSE, the atypical l-BSE (BASE), and h-BSE have all been documented in North America, along with the typical scrapie's, and atypical Nor-98 Scrapie, and to date, 2 different strains of CWD, and also TME. All these TSE in different species have been rendered and fed to food producing animals for humans and animals in North America (TSE in cats and dogs ?), and that the trading of these TSEs via animals and products via the USA and Canada has been immense over the years, decades.

Methods:

12 years independent research of available data

Results:

I propose that the current diagnostic criteria for human TSEs only enhances and helps the spreading of human TSE from the continued belief of the UKBSEnvCJD only theory in 2009. With all the science to date refuting it, to continue to validate this old myth, will only spread this TSE agent through a multitude of potential routes and sources i.e. consumption, medical i.e., surgical, blood, dental, endoscopy, optical, nutritional supplements, cosmetics etc.

Conclusion:

I would like to submit a review of past CJD surveillance in the USA, and the urgent need to make all human TSE in the USA a reportable disease, in every state, of every age group, and to make this mandatory immediately without further delay. The ramifications of not doing so will only allow this agent to spread further in the medical, dental, surgical arena's. Restricting the reporting of CJD and or any human TSE is NOT scientific. Iatrogenic CJD knows NO age group, TSE knows no boundaries. I propose as with Aguzzi, Asante, Collinge, Caughey, Deslys, Dormont, Gibbs, Gajdusek, Ironside, Manuelidis, Marsh, et al and many more, that the world of TSE Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy is far from an exact science, but there is enough proven science to date that this myth should be put to rest once and for all, and that we move forward with a new classification for human and animal TSE that would properly identify the infected species, the source species, and then the route.

page 114 ;

http://ww2.isid.org/Downloads/14th_ICID_ISE_Abstracts.pdf


PRODUCT Red Blood Cells. Recall # B-2300-10 CODE Unit: W001607702825 RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER Recalling Firm: Department of the Air Force, Wright Patterson AFB, OH, by letter dated April 8, 2008. Manufacturer: Depart of Air Force 88th Medical Group SGQC WPAFB, Wright Patterson AFB, OH. Firm initiated recall is complete. REASON Blood product, collected from a donor who was at risk for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), was distributed. VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE 1 unit DISTRIBUTION Japan

___________________________________

PRODUCT Recovered Plasma. Recall # B-2302-10 CODE Units: R08951; P90041; P90041 RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER Blood Center of Northcentral Wisconsin, Inc., Wausau, WI, by fax on January 2, 2007. Firm initiated recall is complete. REASON Blood products, collected from a donor considered to be at increased risk for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), were distributed. VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE 3 units DISTRIBUTION NY

___________________________________

PRODUCT 1) Red Blood Cells Leukocytes Reduced. Recall # B-2338-10; 2) Plasma Frozen. Recall # B-2339-10 CODE 1) and 2) Unit: 5039861 RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER Community Blood Center, Inc., Appleton, WI, by letter dated September 21, 2007 or by electronic notification on September 21, 2007. Firm initiated recall is complete. REASON Blood products, collected from a donor who was at risk for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), were distributed. VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE 2 units DISTRIBUTION WI, Switzerland

___________________________________

END OF ENFORCEMENT REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 22, 2010

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/EnforcementReports/ucm227078.htm


PRODUCT

1) Cryoprecipitated AHF, Pooled. Recall # B-2155-10;

2) Recovered Plasma. Recall # B-2156-10

CODE

1) Unit: W036309907231;

2) Unit: W036309616077

RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER

BloodCenter of Wisconsin, Inc., Milwaukee, WI, by fax and internet on May 5, 2010 and May 13, 2010. Firm initiated recall is complete.

REASON

Blood products, collected from a donor considered to be at increased risk for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), were distributed.

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE

2 units

DISTRIBUTION

TX, Switzerland

___________________________________

PRODUCT

Red Blood Cells Leukocytes Reduced. Recall # B-2157-10

CODE

Unit: 6371718

RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER

South Texas Blood & Tissue Center, San Antonio, TX, by telephone on January 23, 2010 and by fax on January 25, 2010. Firm initiated recall is complete.

REASON

Blood product, collected from a donor who failed to answer questions regarding risk for vCJD, was distributed.

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE

1 unit

DISTRIBUTION

TX

___________________________________

PRODUCT

Source Plasma. Recall # B-2212-10

CODE

Units: 09FMOG6851; 09FMOG3410; 09FMOG2756; 09FMOG1418; 09FMOF6640; 09FMOF2642; 09FMOF1554; 09FMOD7746; 09FMOF0063; 09FMOF7599

RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER

BioLife Plasma Service LP, Springfield, MO, by fax on April 1, 2010. Firm initiated recall is complete.

REASON

Blood products, collected from a donor considered to be at increased risk for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), were distributed.

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE

10 units

DISTRIBUTION

CA

___________________________________

PRODUCT

1) Red Blood Cells Leukocytes Reduced. Recall # B-2213-10;

2) Recovered Plasma. Recall # B-2214

CODE

1) and 2) Unit: 6325245

RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER

South Texas Blood and Tissue Center, San Antonio, TX, by facsimile on February 8, 2010. Firm initiated recall is complete.

REASON

Blood products, collected from a donor considered to be at increased risk for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), were distributed.

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE

2 units

DISTRIBUTION

FL, TX

___________________________________

END OF ENFORCEMENT REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 15, 2010

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/EnforcementReports/ucm225990.htm


PRODUCT Source Plasma. Recall # B-2056-10 CODE Units: FD0500537, FD0502880, FD0503259, FD0509894, FD0515518, FD0516063, FD0517957, FD0518606, FD0522255, FD0523346, FD0523544, FD0524204, FD0524698, FD0525142, FD0525845, FD0526653, FD0526878, FD0527579, FD0527845, FD0528519, FD0528827, FD0529544, FD0529761, FD0530471, FD0530712, FD0531425, FD0531801, FD0532483, FD0532869, FD0537501, FD0537687, FD0538370, FD0543210, FD0546250, FD0546632, FD0547328, FD0547832, FD0548286, FD0548743, FD0549325, FD0549840, FD0550427, FD0551448, FD0551572, FD0552307, FD0553173, FD0553418, FD0554063, FD0554834, FD0555041, FD0559685, FD0560235, FD0560592, FD0561168, FD0561786, FD0562212, FD0562883, FD0563248, FD0564435, FD0564723, FD0565467, FD0565880, FD0566540, FD0567053, FD0567723, FD0567965, FD0568941, FD0569180, FD0570057, FD0571177, FD0571477, FD0572411, FD0572818, FD0573582, FD0573871, FD0574531, FD0576955, FD0577140, FD0579983, FD0580403, FD0581156, FD0581623, FD0582680, FD0583090, FD0584073, FD0584500, FD0585410, FD0586089, FD0586790, FD0587500, FD0588791, FD0589023, FD0590248, FD0590600, FD0591592, FD0592445, FD0593277, FD0593712, FD0594626, FD0595049, FD0596132, FD0596519, FD0597701, FD0598681, FD0599198, FD0600210, FD0600690, FD0601755, FD0602401, FD0603415, FD0603985, FD0605122, FD0608608, FD0609074, FD0609979, FD0610508, FD0611469, FD0612006, FD0612905 RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER DCI Biologicals LLC, Farmington, NM, by facsimile on September 26, 2009 and electronic mail dated January 15, 2010. Firm initiated recall is complete. REASON Blood products, collected from a donor who was at risk for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), were distributed. VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE 119 units DISTRIBUTION NY, UK

___________________________________

END OF ENFORCEMENT REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/EnforcementReports/ucm225223.htm


PRODUCT Source Plasma. Recall # B-2134-10 CODE Units: 3910020431, 3910019695, 3910018715, 3910018227, 3910017100, 3910016675, 3910015596, 3910015120, 3910014175, 3910013575, 3910012934, 3910012281, 3910010102, 3910009899, 3910007715, 3910007430 RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER Talecris Plasma Resources, Inc., N Las Vegas, NV, by fax on July 17, 2009. Firm initiated recall is complete. REASON Blood products, collected from a donor considered to be at increased risk for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), were distributed. VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE 16 units DISTRIBUTION NC

___________________________________

PRODUCT 1) Red Blood Cells. Recall # B-2215-10; 2) Fresh Frozen Plasma. Recall # B-2216-10 CODE 1) and 2) Unit: 0951592 RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER Memorial Blood Centers, Saint Paul, MN, by letter on November 5, 2008. Firm initiated recall is complete. REASON Blood products, collected from a donor considered to be at increased risk for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), were distributed. VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE 2 units DISTRIBUTION MN

___________________________________

PRODUCT Recovered Plasma. Recall # B-2217-10 CODE Unit: 0951592 RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER Memorial Blood Centers, Saint Paul, MN, by letter on November 5, 2008. Firm initiated recall is complete. REASON Blood product, collected from a donor considered to be at increased risk for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), was distributed. VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE 1 unit DISTRIBUTION MN

___________________________________

END OF ENFORCEMENT REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 1, 2010

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/EnforcementReports/ucm224723.htm


Variant CJD: where has it gone, or has it?

The recent identification of a possible clinical case of vCJD in an individual with an MV genotype3 reinforces the long held concern that there may be further waves of vCJD cases in individuals with a non-MM codon 129 genotype. Mathematical models suggest that the number of MV and VV cases will be limited and not exceed the primary MM outbreak, but predicting infectious outbreaks is an imprecise science, as may be inferred from the recent swine flu epidemic which never materialised, at least not to the extent predicted. The adage that 'Essentially, all models are wrong but some are useful' (George Edwin Pelham Box, 2007), reinforces the need for caution in predicting the future course of the vCJD outbreak. There is also the possibility that the phenotype of vCJD may be influenced by the genetic background. It is reassuring therefore that the recent possible MV case was identified on the basis of the clinical features as this may indicate that any further such cases will also be recognised as vCJD.

However, there is clearly still a continuing need to look for new phenotypes of human prion disease. Novel forms of animal prion diseases have been identified in recent years, including atypical scrapie and the rare H and L forms of atypical BSE, probably as a result of the extensive abattoir testing of animal populations. Atypical BSE has been transmitted to a range of laboratory animals, and in a primate model the incubation period was shorter than with conventional BSE and the clinical and pathological phenotype different.4

The incubation period in human prion disease can extend to decades and there are continuing concerns and uncertainties that indicate that there are good reasons to continue research and surveillance in vCJD, despite the clear decline in the primary outbreak of vCJD.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Variant CJD: where has it gone, or has it?

Pract Neurol 2010; 10: 250-251

http://vcjdtransfusion.blogspot.com/2010/09/variant-cjd-where-has-it-gone-or-has-it.html


Date: June 21, 2007 at 2:49 pm PST

Owner and Corporation Plead Guilty to Defrauding Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Surveillance Program

An Arizona meat processing company and its owner pled guilty in February 2007 to charges of theft of Government funds, mail fraud, and wire fraud. The owner and his company defrauded the BSE Surveillance Program when they falsified BSE Surveillance Data Collection Forms and then submitted payment requests to USDA for the services. In addition to the targeted sample population (those cattle that were more than 30 months old or had other risk factors for BSE), the owner submitted to USDA, or caused to be submitted, BSE obex (brain stem) samples from healthy USDA-inspected cattle. As a result, the owner fraudulently received approximately $390,000. Sentencing is scheduled for May 2007.

4 USDA OIG SEMIANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS FY 2007 1st Half

http://www.usda.gov/oig/webdocs/sarc070619.pdf


Audit Report Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Surveillance Program ­ Phase II and Food Safety and Inspection Service

Controls Over BSE Sampling, Specified Risk Materials, and Advanced Meat Recovery Products - Phase III

Report No. 50601-10-KC January 2006

Finding 2 Inherent Challenges in Identifying and Testing High-Risk Cattle Still Remain

http://www.usda.gov/oig/webdocs/50601-10-KC.pdf


"The fact the Texas cow showed up fairly clearly implied the existence of other undetected cases," Dr. Paul Brown, former medical director of the National Institutes of Health's Laboratory for Central Nervous System Studies and an expert on mad cow-like diseases, told United Press International. "The question was, 'How many?' and we still can't answer that."

Brown, who is preparing a scientific paper based on the latest two mad cow cases to estimate the maximum number of infected cows that occurred in the United States, said he has "absolutely no confidence in USDA tests before one year ago" because of the agency's reluctance to retest the Texas cow that initially tested positive.

USDA officials finally retested the cow and confirmed it was infected seven months later, but only at the insistence of the agency's inspector general.

"Everything they did on the Texas cow makes everything they did before 2005 suspect," Brown said.

http://www.upi.com/ConsumerHealthDaily/view.php?StoryID=20060315-055557-1284r

LET'S take a closer look at this new prionpathy or prionopathy, and then let's look at the g-h-BSEalabama mad cow.

This new prionopathy in humans? the genetic makeup is IDENTICAL to the g-h-BSEalabama mad cow, the only _documented_ mad cow in the world to date like this, ......wait, it get's better. this new prionpathy is killing young and old humans, with LONG DURATION from onset of symptoms to death, and the symptoms are very similar to nvCJD victims, OH, and the plaques are very similar in some cases too, bbbut, it's not related to the g-h-BSEalabama cow, WAIT NOW, it gets even better, the new human prionpathy that they claim is a genetic TSE, has no relation to any gene mutation in that family. daaa, ya think it could be related to that mad cow with the same genetic make-up ??? there were literally tons and tons of banned mad cow protein in Alabama in commerce, and none of it transmitted to cows, and the cows to humans there from ??? r i g h t $$$

ALABAMA MAD COW g-h-BSEalabama

In this study, we identified a novel mutation in the bovine prion protein gene (Prnp), called E211K, of a confirmed BSE positive cow from Alabama, United States of America. This mutation is identical to the E200K pathogenic mutation found in humans with a genetic form of CJD. This finding represents the first report of a confirmed case of BSE with a potential pathogenic mutation within the bovine Prnp gene. We hypothesize that the bovine Prnp E211K mutation most likely has caused BSE in "the approximately 10-year-old cow" carrying the E221K mutation.

http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1000156


http://www.plospathogens.org/article/fetchObjectAttachment.action?uri=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1000156&representation=PDF


Saturday, August 14, 2010

BSE Case Associated with Prion Protein Gene Mutation (g-h-BSEalabama) and VPSPr PRIONPATHY

(see mad cow feed in COMMERCE IN ALABAMA...TSS)

http://prionpathy.blogspot.com/2010/08/bse-case-associated-with-prion-protein.html


2009 UPDATE ON ALABAMA AND TEXAS MAD COWS 2005 and 2006

http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2006/08/bse-atypical-texas-and-alabama-update.html


Wednesday, July 28, 2010

re-Freedom of Information Act Project Number 3625-32000-086-05, Study of Atypical BSE UPDATE July 28, 2010

http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2010/07/re-freedom-of-information-act-project.html


Discussion: The C, L and H type BSE cases in Canada exhibit molecular characteristics similar to those described for classical and atypical BSE cases from Europe and Japan. This supports the theory that the importation of BSE contaminated feedstuff is the source of C-type BSE in Canada. It also suggests a similar cause or source for atypical BSE in these countries.

http://www.prion2009.com/sites/default/files/Prion2009_Book_of_Abstracts.pdf


REPORT OF THE WORKING PARTY ON BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY 1989

snip...

4.2.9 ...Also, if it resulted from a localised chance transmission of the scrapie strain from sheep to cattle giving rise to a mutant, a different pattern of disease would have been expected: its range would have increased with time. Thus the evidence from Britain is against the disease being due to a new strain of the agent, but we note that in the United States from 1984 to 1988 outbreaks of scrapie in sheep flocks are reported to have Increased markedly, now being nearly 3 times as high as during any previous period (18).

http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20080102132706/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/ib/ibd1/tab02.pdf


http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20080102193106/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/mb/m12/tab12.pdf


CJD TEXAS 38 YEAR OLD FEMALE WORKED SLAUGHTERING CATTLE EXPOSED TO BRAIN AND SPINAL CORD MATTER

" Up until about 6 years ago, the pt worked at Tyson foods where she worked on the assembly line, slaughtering cattle and preparing them for packaging. She was exposed to brain and spinal cord matter when she would euthanize the cattle."

Irma Linda Andablo CJD Victim, she died at 38 years old on February 6, 2010 in Mesquite Texas

Irma Linda Andablo CJD Victim, she died at 38 years old on February 6, 2010 in Mesquite Texas. She left 6 Kids and a Husband. The Purpose of this web is to give information in Spanish to the Hispanic community, and to all the community who want's information about this terrible disease.-

Physician Discharge Summary, Parkland Hospital, Dallas Texas

Admit Date: 12/29/2009

Discharge Date: 1/20/2010

Attending Provider: Greenberg, Benjamin Morris;

General Neurology Team: General Neurology Team

Linda was a Hispanic female with no past medical history presents with 14 months of incresing/progressive altered mental status, generalized weakness, inability to walk, loss of appetite, inability to speak, tremor and bowel/blader incontinence. She was, in her usual state of health up until February, 2009, when her husbans notes that she began forgetting things like names and short term memories. He also noticed mild/vague personality changes such as increased aggression. In March, she was involved in a hit and run MVA,although she was not injured. The police tracked her down and ticketed her. At that time, her son deployed to Iraq with the Army and her husband assumed her mentation changes were due to stress over these two events. Also in March, she began to have weakness in her legs, making it difficult to walk. Over the next few months, her mentation and personality changes worsened, getting to a point where she could no longer recognized her children. She was eating less and less. She was losing more weight. In the last 2-3 months, she reached the point where she could not walk without an assist, then 1 month ago, she stopped talking, only making grunting/aggressive sounds when anyone came near her. She also became both bowel and bladder incontinent, having to wear diapers. Her '"tremor'" and body jerks worsened and her hands assumed a sort of permanent grip position, leading her family to put tennis balls in her hands to protect her fingers. The husband says that they have lived in Nebraska for the past 21 years. They had seen a doctor there during the summer time who prescribed her Seroquel and Lexapro, Thinking these were sx of a mood disorder. However, the medications did not help and she continued to deteriorate clinically.

Up until about 6 years ago, the pt worked at Tyson foods where she worked on the assembly line, slaughtering cattle and preparing them for packaging. She was exposed to brain and spinal cord matter when she would euthanize the cattle. The husband says that he does not know any fellow workers with a similar illness. He also says that she did not have any preceeding illness or travel.

http://www.recordandoalinda.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19:cjd-english-info&catid=9:cjd-ingles&Itemid=8


Terry S. Singeltary Sr. has added the following comment:

"According to the World Health Organisation, the future public health threat of vCJD in the UK and Europe and potentially the rest of the world is of concern and currently unquantifiable. However, the possibility of a significant and geographically diverse vCJD epidemic occurring over the next few decades cannot be dismissed .

The key word here is diverse. What does diverse mean?

If USA scrapie transmitted to USA bovine does not produce pathology as the UK c-BSE, then why would CJD from there look like UK vCJD?"

SEE FULL TEXT ;

http://www.promedmail.org/pls/apex/f?p=2400:1001:568933508083034::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,82101


.57 The experiment which might have determined whether BSE and scrapie were caused by the same agent (ie, the feeding of natural scrapie to cattle) was never undertaken in the UK. It was, however, performed in the USA in 1979, when it was shown that cattle inoculated with the scrapie agent endemic in the flock of Suffolk sheep at the United States Department of Agriculture in Mission, Texas, developed a TSE quite unlike BSE. 32 The findings of the initial transmission, though not of the clinical or neurohistological examination, were communicated in October 1988 to Dr Watson, Director of the CVL, following a visit by Dr Wrathall, one of the project leaders in the Pathology Department of the CVL, to the United States Department of Agriculture. 33 The results were not published at this point, since the attempted transmission to mice from the experimental cow brain had been inconclusive. The results of the clinical and histological differences between scrapie-affected sheep and cattle were published in 1995. Similar studies in which cattle were inoculated intracerebrally with scrapie inocula derived from a number of scrapie-affected sheep of different breeds and from different States, were carried out at the US National Animal Disease Centre. 34 The results, published in 1994, showed that this source of scrapie agent, though pathogenic for cattle, did not produce the same clinical signs of brain lesions characteristic of BSE.

32 Clark, W., Hourrigan, J. and Hadlow, W. (1995) Encephalopathy in Cattle Experimentally Infected with the Scrapie Agent, American Journal of Veterinary Research, 56, 606-12

33 YB88/10.00/1.1

http://web.archive.org/web/20040823105233/www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1988/10/00001001.pdf


Monday, August 9, 2010

National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center Cases Examined (July 31, 2010)

(please watch and listen to the video and the scientist speaking about atypical BSE and sporadic CJD and listen to Professor Aguzzi)

SEE where sporadic cjd in the USA went from 59 cases in 1997, to 216 cases in 2009. a steady increase since 1997. ...TSS

http://www.cjdsurveillance.com/pdf/case-table.pdf


see full text ;

http://prionunitusaupdate2008.blogspot.com/2010/08/national-prion-disease-pathology.html


Friday, August 27, 2010

NEW ATYPICAL NOR-98 SCRAPIE CASE DETECTED IDAHO NOW 5 CASES DOCUMENTED 2010

http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-atypical-nor-98-scrapie-case.html


THIS is just ONE month report, of TWO recalls of prohibited banned MBM, which is illegal, mixed with 85% blood meal, which is still legal, but yet we know the TSE/BSE agent will transmit blood. we have this l-BSE in North America that is much more virulent and there is much concern with blood issue and l-BSE as there is with nvCJD in humans. some are even starting to be concerned with sporadic CJD and blood, and there are studies showing transmission there as well. ... this is one month recall page, where 10 MILLION POUNDS OF BANNED MAD COW FEED WENT OUT INTO COMMERCE, TO BE FED OUT. very little of the product that reaches commerce is ever returned via recall, very, very little. this was 2007, TEN YEARS AFTER THE AUGUST 4, 1997, PARTIAL AND VOLUNTARY MAD COW FEED BAN IN THE USA, that was nothing but ink on paper. i have listed the tonnage of mad cow feed that was in ALABAMA in one of the links too, this is where the infamous g-h-BSEalabama case was, a genetic relation matching the new sporadic CJD in the USA. seems this saga just keeps getting better and better.......$$$

10,000,000+ LBS. of PROHIBITED BANNED MAD COW FEED I.E. BLOOD LACED MBM IN COMMERCE USA 2007

Date: March 21, 2007 at 2:27 pm PST

RECALLS AND FIELD CORRECTIONS: VETERINARY MEDICINES -- CLASS II

___________________________________

PRODUCT

Bulk cattle feed made with recalled Darling's 85% Blood Meal, Flash Dried, Recall # V-024-2007

CODE

Cattle feed delivered between 01/12/2007 and 01/26/2007

RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER

Pfeiffer, Arno, Inc, Greenbush, WI. by conversation on February 5, 2007.

Firm initiated recall is ongoing.

REASON

Blood meal used to make cattle feed was recalled because it was cross- contaminated with prohibited bovine meat and bone meal that had been manufactured on common equipment and labeling did not bear cautionary BSE statement.

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE

42,090 lbs.

DISTRIBUTION

WI

___________________________________

PRODUCT

Custom dairy premix products: MNM ALL PURPOSE Pellet, HILLSIDE/CDL Prot- Buffer Meal, LEE, M.-CLOSE UP PX Pellet, HIGH DESERT/ GHC LACT Meal, TATARKA, M CUST PROT Meal, SUNRIDGE/CDL PROTEIN Blend, LOURENZO, K PVM DAIRY Meal, DOUBLE B DAIRY/GHC LAC Mineral, WEST PIONT/GHC CLOSEUP Mineral, WEST POINT/GHC LACT Meal, JENKS, J/COMPASS PROTEIN Meal, COPPINI - 8# SPECIAL DAIRY Mix, GULICK, L-LACT Meal (Bulk), TRIPLE J - PROTEIN/LACTATION, ROCK CREEK/GHC MILK Mineral, BETTENCOURT/GHC S.SIDE MK-MN, BETTENCOURT #1/GHC MILK MINR, V&C DAIRY/GHC LACT Meal, VEENSTRA, F/GHC LACT Meal, SMUTNY, A- BYPASS ML W/SMARTA, Recall # V-025-2007

CODE

The firm does not utilize a code - only shipping documentation with commodity and weights identified.

RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER

Rangen, Inc, Buhl, ID, by letters on February 13 and 14, 2007. Firm initiated recall is complete.

REASON

Products manufactured from bulk feed containing blood meal that was cross contaminated with prohibited meat and bone meal and the labeling did not bear cautionary BSE statement.

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE

9,997,976 lbs.

DISTRIBUTION

ID and NV

END OF ENFORCEMENT REPORT FOR MARCH 21, 2007

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/EnforcementReports/2007/ucm120446.htm


Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Animal Proteins Prohibited in Ruminant Feed/Adulterated/Misbranded Rangen Inc 2/11/10 USA

http://madcowfeed.blogspot.com/2010/03/animal-proteins-prohibited-in-ruminant.html


Monday, March 1, 2010

ANIMAL PROTEIN I.E. MAD COW FEED IN COMMERCE A REVIEW 2010

http://madcowfeed.blogspot.com/2010/03/animal-protien-ie-mad-cow-feed-in.html


Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Feed Safety and BSE/Ruminant Feed Ban Support Project (U18)

http://madcowfeed.blogspot.com/2010/09/feed-safety-and-bseruminant-feed-ban.html


Friday, October 8, 2010

Scientific reasons for a feed ban of meat-and-bone meal, applicable to all farmed animals including cattle, pigs, poultry, farmed fish and pet food

http://madcowfeed.blogspot.com/2010/10/scientific-reasons-for-feed-ban-of-meat.html


Friday, October 15, 2010

BSE infectivity in the absence of detectable PrPSc accumulation in the tongue and nasal mucosa of terminally diseased cattle

http://bseusa.blogspot.com/2010/10/bse-infectivity-in-absence-of.html


Thursday, October 07, 2010

Experimental Transmission of H-type Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy to Bovinized Transgenic Mice

http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2010/10/experimental-transmission-of-h-type.html


Friday, August 20, 2010

USDA: Animal Disease Traceability August 2010

http://naiscoolyes.blogspot.com/2010/08/usda-animal-disease-traceability-august.html


Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Emerging Infectious Diseases: CJD, BSE, SCRAPIE, CWD, PRION, TSE Evaluation to Implementation for Transfusion and Transplantation September 2010

http://vcjdtransfusion.blogspot.com/2010/09/emerging-infectious-diseases-cjd-bse.html


Sunday, October 3, 2010

Scrapie, Nor-98 atypical Scrapie, and BSE in sheep and goats North America, who's looking ?

http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2010/10/scrapie-nor-98-atypical-scrapie-and-bse.html


Wednesday, September 08, 2010

CWD PRION CONGRESS SEPTEMBER 8-11 2010

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2010/09/cwd-prion-2010.html


Thursday, August 12, 2010

Seven main threats for the future linked to prions

http://prionpathy.blogspot.com/2010/08/seven-main-threats-for-future-linked-to.html


http://prionpathy.blogspot.com/


layperson

Terry S. Singeltary Sr. P.O. Box 42 Bacliff, Texas USA 77518 flounder9@verizon.net

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Advisory Committee; Notice of Meeting October 28 and 29, 2010 (COMMENT SUBMISSION)

----- Original Message -----

From: Terry S. Singeltary Sr.

To: william.freas@fda.hhs.gov Cc: rosanna.harvey@fda.hhs.gov ; Emery, Bryan (CBER)

Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2010 11:15 AM

Subject: Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Advisory Committee; Notice of Meeting October 28 and 29, 2010 (COMMENT SUBMISSION)

Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Advisory Committee; Notice of Meeting October 28 and 29, 2010

Contact Person: Bryan Emery or Rosanna Harvey, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (HFM-71), Food and Drug Administration, 1401 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852, 301-827-0314, or FDA Advisory Committee Information Line, 1-800-741-8138 (301-443-0572 in the Washington, DC area), code 3014512392.

http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/2010-22805.htm


Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Advisory Committee; Notice of Meeting October 28 and 29, 2010

http://tseac.blogspot.com/2010/09/transmissible-spongiform.html



Greetings Dr. Freas, Ms Rosanna Harvey, and Mr. Bryan Emery,


I wish to submit my concerns again with regards to this TSEAC meeting, human and animal TSE in the USA, and the risk from blood products there from.

I am still very concerned about the lack of sound BSE testing in the USA, the breach of the mad cow feed ban from the day the partial and voluntary feed ban was put in place August 4, 1997, to 2007 where some 10 million pounds of banned blood laced meat and bone meal went out into commerce, and fed out, the fact human CJD is on the increase in the USA, of which many cases now are of the ''UNKNOWN'' phenotype, of which claiming to be not nvCJD, but yet NOT know what the strain is, and then the potential ramifications there from in terms of blood and blood products, in my opinion, you are playing with fire to continue to believe that the nvCJD only strain from c-BSE (UK strain), is the only risk, when we now know that the atypical BSE is much more virulent, and the fact that all three strains i.e. c-BSE, h-BSE, and l-BSE have all been documented in North America. WE now have this new prionpathy or prionopathy, that is said to be of a Genetic line of human TSE, but yet has not related mutation to the family. BUT yet is identical to the g-h-BSEalabama cow, and we know that tons of mad cow feed was fed out in Alabama. WE know that CWD is spreading, the risk from CWD strains and exposure to humans, and friendly fire and or the pass if forward mode there from ? Atypical scrapie strains spreading, of which both the atypical scrapie and atypical BSE pathologically are very very similar to some sporadic CJD and GSS. The fact that the Baxter study DID produce transmission of blood from GSS to primate. All this is very disturbing, and the risk there from is very real. In my opinion, I believe that the USA FDA have now floundered too long, and that in fact we have exposed many (home and abroad) to this TSE agent via blood products, and medical procedures, simply by still believing in the UKBSEnvCJD only theory. Again, I beg that this theory be put to rest once and for all, and that the FDA et al take seriously the real threat of human TSE via animal TSE in the USA, and protect our Nations blood supply there of. IF not, the potential for further transmission is real, and in the end, for what ever it's worth, the FDA and the USA government will be fully responsible for their negligence. I present the following as evidence of my concerns. ...


PRION 2010

International Prion Congress: From agent to disease September 8-11, 2010 Salzburg, Austria

Previously published online:

www.landesbioscience.com/journals/prion/article/12764



DOI: 10.4161/pri.4.3.12764 PRION 2010 is the top Global Annual TSE Conference in prion research, following a sequence of PRION meetings that were originally organized by the EU Network of Excellence NeuroPrion. In this proud tradition, PRION 2010 covers all aspects of this fascinating scientific area. PRION 2010 is a meeting of greatest interest for neuroscientists, protein structural biologists, geneticists, medical specialists including neurologists, neuropathologists, hygiene experts and blood product providers, veterinarians, epidemiologists, laboratory technicians, industry developers, risk assessors and managers. An outstanding list of Plenary Lecture, Symposia and Workshop Speakers is complemented by the plethora of original input from Poster Presentations. Special consideration is given this year to two areas of major interest: the renewed discussion about the zoonotic potential of animal prion diseases, given the emergence of atypical BSE and scrapie strains, and the breakthrough work on synthetic prions by several groups simultaneously.


http://www.prion2010.org/bilder/prion_2010_program_latest_w_posters_4_.pdf?139&PHPSESSID=a30a38202cfec579000b77af81be3099



PPo3-11:

Blood Transmission Experiments in Primates: Squirrel Monkeys (the Baxter Study)

Paul Brown, James Ironside, Susan Gibson, Robert G. Will, Thomas R. Kreil and Christian Abee

Plasma and buffy coat samples from 2 sCJD and 3 vCJD cases were inoculated i.c. and i.v. into a total of 21 squirrel monkeys. Pooled brain from the 3 vCJD patients titered 106 LD50/g (i.c.). Whole blood from each of 4 monkeys inoculated with 10% vCJD brain homogenate was transfused i.v. to individual recipient monkeys at approximately 3-month intervals during the incubation and clinical stages of disease in the donor animals. Plasma, RBC's, platelets, and purified leukocytes from 6 chimpanzees infected with either human sCJD or GSS were inoculated i.c. and i.v. into 12 monkeys. In the entire group of monkeys inoculated with blood or blood components, only a single neuropathologically-verified transmission occurred within a 5-year observation period, in an animal inoculated with leukocytes from a pair of GSS-infected chimpanzee.

Conclusions. In a primate model highly susceptible to TSE (the squirrel monkey), infectivity was not detected (<10>92%. Due to limited data and knowledge of vCJD, the model estimates are uncertain. This analysis identifies critical data gaps in understanding the risk of TTvC, and provides a tool to inform regulatory decision-making.


PPo4-20:

All Clinically Relevant Components, from Prion Infected Blood Donors, can Cause Disease Following a Single Transfusion

Sandra McCutcheon,1 Fiona E. Houston,2 Anthony R. Alejo-Blanco,1 Christopher de Wolf,1 Boon Chin Tan,1 Anthony Smith,3 Nora Hunter,1 Valerie S. Hornsey,4 Ian R. MacGregor,4 Christopher V. Prowse,4 Marc Turner5 and Jean C. Manson1 1The Roslin Institute; Roslin, Edinburgh UK; 2The University of Glasgow; Glasgow, UK; 3The Institute for Animal Health; Compton, Berkshire UK; 4National Science Laboratory; Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS); Edinburgh, UK; 5University of Edinburgh and SNBTS; Edinburgh, UK

Key words: blood, prion, BSE, transfusion

Introduction. To date, there have been over 220 cases of vCJD worldwide, likely acquired directly from bovine sources. There is concern that human to human transmission from individuals sub-clinically infected with vCJD may amplify/prolong a vCJD epidemic. The area of greatest concern in this respect is blood transfusion, of which there have been several reported cases. Here we examined which blood components are likely to pose the greatest risk of transmitting vCJD via blood transfusion using our sheep BSE model.

Results. 67% of donors have been confirmed as having BSE. We have recorded 25 positive transmissions of BSE following transfusion of non-leucodepleted blood components and 2 transmissions resulting from the transfusion of leucoreduced red cells and leucoreduced plasma.

Conclusion. We show that all components, prepared to the same criteria as used in human medicine, contain sufficient levels of infectivity to cause disease in recipients following a single blood transfusion. Leucoreduction of plasma and red cell concentrates does not remove infectivity. These data indicate the importance of devising appropriate control measures to minimise the risk of human to human transmission of vCJD by blood transfusion. Department of Health, UK (007/0162).

Methods. Sheep were orally infected with bovine BSE brain homogenate. We collected two full-sized donations of whole blood, before the onset of clinical signs. The following components were transfused into naive recipients: whole blood, red cell concentrates buffy coat, plasma and platelet units. We also transfused leucoreduced plasma, platelets and red cells. We collected a unit of whole blood from selected primary recipients for transfusion into secondary recipients.


PPo4-21:

The Risk of Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) Among UK Patients with Bleeding Disorders, Known to Have Received Clotting Factors Linked to Donors who Subsequently Developed vCJD

Syed M.A. Zaman,1 Nicky Connor,1 Noel Gill,1 Carolyn M. Millar,2,6 Mike Makris,3,6 Benedict Palmer4 and Frank G.H. Hill5,6 1CJD Section, Health Protection Agency Centre for Infections; London, UK; 2Department of Haematology; Imperial College; London, UK; 3University of Sheffield; Royal Hallamshire Hospital; Sheffield, UK; 4National Haemophilia Database; Manchester, UK; 5The Children's Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Birmingham, UK; 6Members of the Transfusion Transmitted Infection Working Party of the UK; Haemophilia Centre Doctors' Organisation (UKHCDO); Sheffield, South Yorkshire UK

The risk of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) from potentially infected plasma products remains un-quantified. This risk has been assessed for 787 UK bleeding disorder patients prospectively followed-up for 10-20 years through the UK Haemophilia Centre Doctors' Organisation (UKHCDO) Surveillance Study. These patients were treated with any of 25 'implicated' clotting factor batches from 1987-1999, which included in their manufacture plasma from eight donors who subsequently developed vCJD. VCJD infectivity of these batches was estimated using plasma fraction infectivity estimates and batch manufacturing data. The quantity of implicated batches received by these patients was obtained. Total vCJD infectivity received by each patient has been estimated by cumulating infectivity from all doses received in their lifetime. Of 787 patients, 604 (77%) were followed-up for over 13 years since exposure to an implicated batch. By end 2008, none of these patients had developed vCJD. For these 604 patients, the estimated vCJD risk is <1% for 595, <50% for 164, and 100% for 51. This is additional to the background UK population risk due to dietary exposure. Of 604 patients, 94 (16%) received implicated batches linked to donors who developed vCJD within six months of their donations. 151 (25%) had received their first dose under 10 years of age. The absence of clinical vCJD cases in this cohort to date suggests that either plasma fraction infectivity estimates are overly precautionary, or the incubation period is longer for this cohort than for implicated cellular blood product recipients. Further follow up of this cohort is needed to answer these questions.


http://www.prion2010.org/bilder/prion_2010_program_latest_w_posters_4_.pdf?139&PHPSESSID=a30a38202cfec579000b77af81be3099



some additional interesting studies.


O.10.5


A novel human prion disease affecting subjects with the three prion protein codon 129 genotypes: could it be the sporadic form of Gerstmann-Straussler? Pierluigi Gambetti Case Western Reserve University, USA Background: We recently described a novel prion disease, named protease-sensitive prionopathy or PSPr, characterized by the presence of an abnormal prion protein (PrP) that was 60 fold less protease resistant than that of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) and on immunoblot generated a distinct ladder-like profile. All affected subjects where homozygous for valine at codon 129 (VV) and had no mutation in the PrP gene. Methods: We have characterized several new cases in our surveillance and received from Europe. Results: 1) A disease overall similar to that reported in the 129VV subjects also affects subjects that are methionine/valine heterozygous (MV) and methionine homozygous (MM) at codon 129 and have no PrP gene mutation; 2) The clinical and histopathological features of the new MV and MM PSPr cases are similar but distinguishable from those of the original VV cases; 3) The electrophoretic profiles generated by the abnormal PrP isoforms associated with the MV and MM cases are similar to VV cases but show increasing levels of proteaseresistance; 3) abnormal tau is present in all three genotypic forms of PSPr with features apparently similar to those of primary tauopathies placing PSPr at the intersection of tauopathies and prion diseases. Discussion: Will focus on: 1) the features of the abnormal PrP in the newly discovered 129MV and 129MM PSPr; 2) the effect of the 129 polymorphism on PSPr compared to that on sCJD; 3) the relationship of PSPr with tauopathies; 4) whether PSPr now with the three 129 genotypic forms is the long sought sporadic form of GSS.

(Supported by NIH AG-14359, NS052319, CDC UR8/CCU515004).


http://www.neuroprion.org/resources/pdf_docs/conferences/prion2009/prion2009_bookofabstracts.pdf



I ask Professor Kong ;

Thursday, December 04, 2008 3:37 PM

Subject: RE: re--Chronic Wating Disease (CWD) and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathies (BSE): Public Health Risk Assessment


''IS the h-BSE more virulent than typical BSE as well, or the same as cBSE, or less virulent than cBSE? just curious.....''


Professor Kong reply ;

.....snip


''As to the H-BSE, we do not have sufficient data to say one way or another, but we have found that H-BSE can infect humans. I hope we could publish these data once the study is complete. Thanks for your interest.''


Best regards, Qingzhong Kong, PhD Associate Professor Department of Pathology Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH 44106 USA END...TSS


P26

TRANSMISSION OF ATYPICAL BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY (BSE) IN HUMANIZED MOUSE MODELS

Liuting Qing1, Fusong Chen1, Michael Payne1, Wenquan Zou1, Cristina Casalone2, Martin Groschup3, Miroslaw Polak4, Maria Caramelli2, Pierluigi Gambetti1, Juergen Richt5*, and Qingzhong Kong1 1Department of Pathology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA; 2CEA, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale, Italy; 3Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Germany; 4National Veterinary Research Institute, Poland; 5Kansas State University, Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology Department, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA. *Previous address: USDA National Animal Disease Center, Ames, IA 50010, USA


Classical BSE is a world-wide prion disease in cattle, and the classical BSE strain (BSE-C) has led to over 200 cases of clinical human infection (variant CJD). Two atypical BSE strains, BSE-L (also named BASE) and BSE-H, have been discovered in three continents since 2004. The first case of naturally occurring BSE with mutated bovine PrP gene (termed BSE-M) was also found in 2006 in the USA. The transmissibility and phenotypes of these atypical BSE strains/isolates in humans were unknown. We have inoculated humanized transgenic mice with classical and atypical BSE strains (BSE-C, BSE-L, BSE-H) and the BSE-M isolate. We have found that the atypical BSE-L strain is much more virulent than the classical BSE-C. The atypical BSE-H strain is also transmissible in the humanized transgenic mice with distinct phenotype, but no transmission has been observed for the BSE-M isolate so far. III International Symposium on THE NEW PRION BIOLOGY: BASIC SCIENCE, DIAGNOSIS AND THERAPY 2 - 4 APRIL 2009, VENEZIA (ITALY)


http://www.istitutoveneto.it/prion_09/Abstracts_09.pdf



P02.35


Molecular Features of the Protease-resistant Prion Protein (PrPres) in H-type BSE


Biacabe, A-G1; Jacobs, JG2; Gavier-Widén, D3; Vulin, J1; Langeveld, JPM2; Baron, TGM1 1AFSSA, France; 2CIDC-Lelystad, Netherlands; 3SVA, Sweden


Western blot analyses of PrPres accumulating in the brain of BSE-infected cattle have demonstrated 3 different molecular phenotypes regarding to the apparent molecular masses and glycoform ratios of PrPres bands. We initially described isolates (H-type BSE) essentially characterized by higher PrPres molecular mass and decreased levels of the diglycosylated PrPres band, in contrast to the classical type of BSE. This type is also distinct from another BSE phenotype named L-type BSE, or also BASE (for Bovine Amyloid Spongiform Encephalopathy), mainly characterized by a low representation of the diglycosylated PrPres band as well as a lower PrPres molecular mass. Retrospective molecular studies in France of all available BSE cases older than 8 years old and of part of the other cases identified since the beginning of the exhaustive surveillance of the disease in 20001 allowed to identify 7 H-type BSE cases, among 594 BSE cases that could be classified as classical, L- or H-type BSE. By Western blot analysis of H-type PrPres, we described a remarkable specific feature with antibodies raised against the C-terminal region of PrP that demonstrated the existence of a more C-terminal cleaved form of PrPres (named PrPres#2 ), in addition to the usual PrPres form (PrPres #1). In the unglycosylated form, PrPres #2 migrates at about 14 kDa, compared to 20 kDa for PrPres #1. The proportion of the PrPres#2 in cattle seems to by higher compared to the PrPres#1. Furthermore another PK-resistant fragment at about 7 kDa was detected by some more N-terminal antibodies and presumed to be the result of cleavages of both N- and C-terminal parts of PrP. These singular features were maintained after transmission of the disease to C57Bl/6 mice. The identification of these two additional PrPres fragments (PrPres #2 and 7kDa band) reminds features reported respectively in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and in Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker (GSS) syndrome in humans.


http://www.neuroprion.com/pdf_docs/conferences/prion2007/abstract_book.pdf



MORE from this years PRION 2010 International Prion Congress:

From agent to disease September 8-11, 2010 Salzburg, Austria


PPo2-17:

Atypical H-type BSE Infection in Bovine-PrP Transgenic Mice Let to the Emergence of Classical BSE Strain Features

Juan Carlos Espinosa,1 Olivier Andréoletti,2 Caroline Lacroux,2 Irene Prieto,1 Patricia Lorenzo,1 Magdalena Larska,1 Thierry Baron3 and Juan María Torres1 1Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal; INIA; Valdeolmos, Madrid Spain; 2UMR INRA-ENVT 1225; Interactions Hôte Agent Pathogène; Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire de; Toulouse, France; 3Agence Francaise de Sécurité Sanitaire des Aliments; Lyon Cedex, France

Key words: atypical BSE, PrPres, prion strain, prion transmission


Until identification of atypical cases of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in several countries it was assumed that BSE in cattle consisted of only a unique and biologically homogeneous strain type that caused BSE epidemic in Europe. Currently, beside the classical BSE strain associated to most described cases, atypical BSE cases are identified as H- or L-type based on the differences in the western blot profiles of abnormal protease-resistant prion protein (PrPres) according to the apparent molecular mass of its unglycosilated band. In the present study, we characterized five atypical BSE-H isolates by analyzing their molecular and neuropathological properties after transmission in transgenic mice expressing homologous bovine prion protein (PrP). The results showed that most of the inoculated animals conserved the atypical BSE-H strain features. However, a number of animals inoculated with two of these isolates showed prion strain features resembling those of classical BSE in this mouse model. On each case, the strain characteristics were preserved after subsequent passage in the same mice. These data suggest that atypical BSE-H prions, can acquire epidemic BSE-like properties during propagation in a homologous bovine PrP context. Beside a new view on BSE strains diversification, our observations support the hypothesis that atypical BSE-H, which could be a sporadic form of prion disease in cattle, may be at the origin of the foodborne BSE epizooty.


PPo3-9:


Potential of Cell Substrates used for Production of Biologics to Propagate Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) Agents: 5-year Update


P. Piccardo,1,* L. Cervenakova,2 I. Vasilyeva,2 O. Yakovleva,2 I. Bacik,1 J. Cervenak,1 L. Gregori,1 K. Pomeroy,1 L. Kurillova,1 C. McKenzie2 and D.M. Asher1 1Laboratory of Bacterial and TSE Agents; CBER; FDA; USA; 2J. Holland Laboratory; American Red Cross; USA *Presenting Author

Key words: cell culture, animal models, biologics, prion, TSE-agent


Background. TSE agents have contaminated human-tissue-derived therapeutics and animal vaccines. Many biologics are prepared in cell cultures. Although most cultures studied resisted infection with TSE agents, a few were susceptible.


Objectives. We are investigating susceptibility of several cell lines to infection with TSE agents. Results. We studied Vero, CHO, MDCK, HEK-393 and WI-38 cells. We also studied SH-SY5Y cells overexpressing wild-type PrP and mutant PrPs. Cells exposed to TSE agents were serially propagated for 30 passages and samples tested for TSE-associated PrP (PrPTSE) and infectivity by intracerebral inoculation into transgenic mice and squirrel monkeys (BSE-exposed cells only). No exposed cell substrate has transmitted TSE to mice or monkeys to date. No PrPTSE was found in any exposed cells after 30 passages. Known susceptible murine cells exposed to mouse-adapted scrapie agent as positive controls accumulated PrPTSE. Three monkeys inoculated with BSE reference material have developed TSE to date.


Discussion. To date, no candidate cell substrate exposed to 3 TSE agents accumulated PrPTSE or propagated a TSE agent. Squirrel monkeys provide a new model to study BSE pathogenesis.


Methods. We inoculated brain suspensions containing agents of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) or sporadic CJD into several cell lines important in manufacture of biologics. Serial dilutions of the BSE reference material used as inoculum were also inoculated into mice and squirrel monkeys. The findings and conclusions in this article have not been formally disseminated by the Food and Drug Administration and should not be construed to represent any Administration determination or policy.

Acknowledgements Support. NIAID-NIH AI-4893-02/FDA 224-05-1307



PPo2-27:


Generation of a Novel form of Human PrPSc by Inter-species Transmission of Cervid Prions


Marcelo A. Barria,1 Glenn C. Telling,2 Pierluigi Gambetti,3 James A. Mastrianni4 and Claudio Soto1 1Mitchell Center for Alzheimer's disease and related Brain disorders; Dept of Neurology; University of Texas Houston Medical School; Houston, TX USA; 2Dept of Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics and Neurology; Sanders Brown Center on Aging; University of Kentucky Medical Center; Lexington, KY USA; 3Institute of Pathology; Case western Reserve University; Cleveland, OH USA; 4Dept of Neurology; University of Chicago; Chicago, IL USA


Prion diseases are infectious neurodegenerative disorders affecting humans and animals that result from the conversion of normal prion protein (PrPC) into the misfolded and infectious prion (PrPSc). Chronic wasting disease (CWD) of cervids is a prion disorder of increasing prevalence within the United States that affects a large population of wild and captive deer and elk. CWD is highly contagious and its origin, mechanism of transmission and exact prevalence are currently unclear. The risk of transmission of CWD to humans is unknown. Defining that risk is of utmost importance, considering that people have been infected by animal prions, resulting in new fatal diseases. To study the possibility that human PrPC can be converted into the infectious form by CWD PrPSc we performed experiments using the Protein Misfolding Cyclic Amplification (PMCA) technique, which mimic in vitro the process of prion replication. Our results show that cervid PrPSc can induce the pathological conversion of human PrPC, but only after the CWD prion strain has been stabilized by successive passages in vitro or in vivo. Interestingly, this newly generated human PrPSc exhibits a distinct biochemical pattern that differs from any of the currently known forms of human PrPSc, indicating that it corresponds to a novel human prion strain. Our findings suggest that CWD prions have the capability to infect humans, and that this ability depends on CWD strain adaptation, implying that the risk for human health progressively increases with the spread of CWD among cervids.



PPo3-7:


Prion Transmission from Cervids to Humans is Strain-dependent


Qingzhong Kong, Shenghai Huang,*Fusong Chen, Michael Payne, Pierluigi Gambetti and Liuting Qing Department of Pathology; Case western Reserve University; Cleveland, OH USA *Current address: Nursing Informatics; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; New York, NY USA

Key words: CWD, strain, human transmission


Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a widespread prion disease in cervids (deer and elk) in North America where significant human exposure to CWD is likely and zoonotic transmission of CWD is a concern. Current evidence indicates a strong barrier for transmission of the classical CWD strain to humans with the PrP-129MM genotype. A few recent reports suggest the presence of two or more CWD strains. What remain unknown is whether individuals with the PrP-129VV/MV genotypes are also resistant to the classical CWD strain and whether humans are resistant to all natural or adapted cervid prion strains. Here we report that a human prion strain that had adopted the cervid prion protein (PrP) sequence through passage in cervidized transgenic mice efficiently infected transgenic mice expressing human PrP, indicating that the species barrier from cervid to humans is prion strain-dependent and humans can be vulnerable to novel cervid prion strains. Preliminary results on CWD transmission in transgenic mice expressing human PrP-129V will also be discussed.

Acknowledgement Supported by NINDS NS052319 and NIA AG14359.


http://www.prion2010.org/bilder/prion_2010_program_latest_w_posters_4_.pdf?139&PHPSESSID=a30a38202cfec579000b77af81be3099




Greetings again TSEAC et al,

Confucius ponders, IS GSS and the g-h-BSEalabama mad cow case, the birth of nvCJD-like disease from cattle to humans in the USA ???

Could it be from the ever growing cases of the Nor-98 atypical scrapie in the USA, with 6 cases documented already this year ???

Could it be possible from one of the CWD strains here in the USA ???

ARE GAMBETTI'S INFAMOUS 2ND 10+ AND GROWING, simply USA MAD COW strain in humans ???

WHY not, if US sheep scrapie transmitted to US cattle did not produce a c-BSE (UK type), then why would it produce an nvCJD strain in humans ???

THE ever growing strains of TSE in humans and animals, and classification there from, does not compute. now we are seeing atypical h-BSE cases, and atypical l-BSE cases, atypical human TSE cases that look like these atypical BSE cases, so why in the name of science is all this not acceptable to conclude that these atypical human TSE are a by-product of these atypical animal TSE $$$ and how can it be that the science that concluded IRONSIDES 1st 10+ in 1995, does not correspond with Gambetti's 2nd 10+, in that Gambetti's 2nd 10+ is not a cause from anything, just a happenstance of bad luck on a funked out twisted protein that spontaneously twist to a bad protein on it's own, or, it is familial CJD, but not related to any common family mutation, like sporadic FFI or sporadic GSS $$$ this does not compute either.

JUST HOW long can Gambetti et al hold off on a final analysis of the ever growing numbers of human TSE in the USA $$$


National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center Cases Examined1 (July 31, 2010)

5 Includes 16 cases in which the diagnosis is pending, and 18 inconclusive cases;

6 Includes 21 (19 from 2010) cases with type determination pending in which the diagnosis of vCJD has been excluded.


http://www.cjdsurveillance.com/pdf/case-table.pdf



CAN the blood from these atypical CJD cases transmit TSE prions ???

WHAT if these strange atypical case of human TSE in the USA are from USA cattle, deer, elk, sheep, goat, will blood products transmit, and why wouldn't they ???

Have there been extinsive transmission studies done with blood and all it's products there from ???

WHAT about vaccines ???


Results. We studied Vero, CHO, MDCK, HEK-393 and WI-38 cells. We also studied SH-SY5Y cells overexpressing wild-type PrP and mutant PrPs. Cells exposed to TSE agents were serially propagated for 30 passages and samples tested for TSE-associated PrP (PrPTSE) and infectivity by intracerebral inoculation into transgenic mice and squirrel monkeys (BSE-exposed cells only). No exposed cell substrate has transmitted TSE to mice or monkeys to date. No PrPTSE was found in any exposed cells after 30 passages. Known susceptible murine cells exposed to mouse-adapted scrapie agent as positive controls accumulated PrPTSE. Three monkeys inoculated with BSE reference material have developed TSE to date. ???



Thursday, August 12, 2010

USA Blood products, collected from a donor who was at risk for vCJD, were distributed July-August 2010


http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2010/08/usa-blood-products-collected-from-donor.html


Sunday, August 01, 2010


Blood product, collected from a donors possibly at increased risk for vCJD only, was distributed USA JULY 2010


http://vcjdtransfusion.blogspot.com/2010/08/blood-product-collected-from-donors.html


Sunday, May 18, 2008


MAD COW DISEASE BSE CJD CHILDREN VACCINES

Sunday, May 18, 2008


MAD COW DISEASE BSE CJD CHILDREN VACCINES TIP740203/l 0424 CONFIDENTIAL


http://bseinquiry.blogspot.com/2008/05/mad-cow-disease-bse-cjd-children.html



FC5.1.1


Transmission Results in Squirrel Monkeys Inoculated with Human sCJD, vCJD, and GSS Blood Specimens: the Baxter Study


Brown, P1; Gibson, S2; Williams, L3; Ironside, J4; Will, R4; Kreil, T5; Abee, C3 1Fondation Alliance BioSecure, France; 2University of South Alabama, USA; 3University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA; 4Western General Hospital, UK; 5Baxter BioSience, Austria


Background: Rodent and sheep models of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) have documented blood infectivity in both the pre-clinical and clinical phases of disease. Results in a (presumably more appropriate) non-human primate model have not been reported.


Objective: To determine if blood components (red cells, white cells, platelets, and plasma) from various forms of human TSE are infectious.


Methods: Blood components were inoculated intra-cerebrally (0.1 ml) and intravenously (0.5 ml) into squirrel monkeys from 2 patients with sporadic Creutzfeldt- Jakob disease (sCJD) and 3 patients with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). Additional monkeys were inoculated with buffy coat or plasma samples from chimpanzees infected with either sCJD or Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease (GSS). Animals were monitored for a period of 5 years, and all dying or sacrificed animals had post-mortem neuropathological examinations and Western blots to determine the presence or absence of the misfolded â?~prionâ?T protein (PrPTSE).


Results: No transmissions occurred in any of the animals inoculated with blood components from patients with sporadic or variant CJD. All donor chimpanzees (sCJD and GSS) became symptomatic within 6 weeks of their pre-clinical phase plasmapheresis, several months earlier than the expected onset of illness. One monkey inoculated with purified leukocytes from a pre-clinical GSS chimpanzee developed disease after 36 months.


Conclusion: No infectivity was found in small volumes of blood components from 4 patients with sporadic CJD and 3 patients with variant CJD. ***However, a single transmission from a chimpanzee-passaged strain of GSS shows that infectivity may be present in leukocytes, and the â?~shockâ?T of general anaesthesia and plasmspheresis appears to have triggered the onset of illness in pre-clinical donor chimpanzees.



FC5.1.2


Interim Transmission Results in Cynomolgus Macaques Inoculated with BSE and vCJD Blood Specimens


Lasmezas, C1; Lescoutra, N2; Comoy, E2; Holznagel, E3; Loewer, J3; Motzkus, D4; Hunsmann, G4; Ingrosso, L5; Bierke, P6; Pocchiari, M5; Ironside, J7; Will, R7; Deslys, JP2 1Scripps Florida, Infectology, USA; 2CEA, France; 3PEI, Germany; 4DPZ, Germany; 5Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Italy; 6SMI, Sweden; 7CJD Surveillance Unit, UK


BSE and vCJD transmitted to cynomolgus macaques reproduce many features of human vCJD, including clinical symptoms, neuropathological hallmarks of vCJD, PrPres electrophoretical pattern and, most importantly, the wide distribution of infectivity in peripheral organs. The latter characteristic distinguishes vCJD from sCJD in both humans and cynomolgus macaques, and prompted us to use this non-human primate model for further investigations of vCJD and its risk for human health. The occurrence of four vCJD infections in humans transfused with blood from patients who later developed vCJD has raised concern about blood transfusion safety in countries with vCJD. In this collaborative European study, we investigated the infectivity of blood components and whole blood administered by intracerebral (ic) and intravenous (iv) routes. Buffy-coat and whole blood was inoculated by ic and iv route, respectively, from two vCJD patients and from two clinical vCJD-inoculated macaques. Transfusions were also performed from whole blood and blood leucodepleted according to hospital practice standards from two clinical BSE inoculated macaques. Blood infectivity during the preclinical phase is being examined in orally infected macaques. Whole blood was collected and transfused from one such animal two years after oral challenge, whereas buffy-coat and plasma from two animals at 2 and 4.5 years post-challenge, respectively, have been inoculated by the ic route. This is an ongoing study in which recipient animals continue to be observed at various times post-inoculation. So far, we have had one positive transmission in one animal transfused 65 months earlier with 40 ml of whole blood from a vCJD macaque (the characteristics of the disease in this animal will be shown in a separate poster by E. Comoy). This positive transmission reproduces transfusion transmission of vCJD in humans, with an incubation of 5.5 years compatible with incubation periods observed in humans.


http://www.prion2007.com/pdf/Prion%20Book%20of%20Abstracts.pdf



Saturday, September 5, 2009


TSEAC MEETING FEBRUARY 12, 2004


THE BAXTER STUDY GSS


http://tseac.blogspot.com/2009/09/tseac-meeting-february-12-2004-baxter.html



Thursday, July 08, 2010


Nosocomial transmission of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: results from a risk-based assessment of surgical interventions Public release date: 8-Jul-2010


http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2010/07/nosocomial-transmission-of-sporadic.html



Sunday, July 11, 2010


CJD or prion disease 2 CASES McLennan County Texas population 230,213 both cases in their 40s


http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2010/07/cjd-2-cases-mclennan-county-texas.html



Thursday, July 08, 2010


GLOBAL CLUSTERS OF CREUTZFELDT JAKOB DISEASE - A REVIEW 2010


http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2010/07/global-clusters-of-creutzfeldt-jakob.html



Tuesday, August 03, 2010


Variably protease-sensitive prionopathy: A new sporadic disease of the prion protein


http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2010/08/variably-protease-sensitive-prionopathy.html



Monday, August 9, 2010


Variably protease-sensitive prionopathy: A new sporadic disease of the prion protein or just more Prionbaloney ?


http://prionunitusaupdate2008.blogspot.com/2010/08/variably-protease-sensitive-prionopathy.html



*****Thursday, July 10, 2008*****


A Novel Human Disease with Abnormal Prion Protein Sensitive to Protease update July 10, 2008 Friday, June 20, 2008


http://cjdmadcowbaseoct2007.blogspot.com/2008/07/novel-human-disease-with-abnormal-prion.html


Wednesday, August 18, 2010


Incidence of CJD Deaths Reported by CJD-SS in Canada as of July 31, 2010


http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2010/08/incidence-of-cjd-deaths-reported-by-cjd.html



Monday, August 9, 2010


National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center Cases Examined (July 31, 2010) (please watch and listen to the video and the scientist speaking about atypical BSE and sporadic CJD and listen to Professor Aguzzi)


http://prionunitusaupdate2008.blogspot.com/2010/08/national-prion-disease-pathology.html



Friday, November 30, 2007


CJD QUESTIONNAIRE USA CWRU AND CJD FOUNDATION


http://cjdquestionnaire.blogspot.com/



ALABAMA MAD COW g-h-BSEalabama In this study, we identified a novel mutation in the bovine prion protein gene (Prnp), called E211K, of a confirmed BSE positive cow from Alabama, United States of America. This mutation is identical to the E200K pathogenic mutation found in humans with a genetic form of CJD. This finding represents the first report of a confirmed case of BSE with a potential pathogenic mutation within the bovine Prnp gene. We hypothesize that the bovine Prnp E211K mutation most likely has caused BSE in "the approximately 10-year-old cow" carrying the E221K mutation.


http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1000156


http://www.plospathogens.org/article/fetchObjectAttachment.action?uri=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1000156&representation=PDF



let's take a closer look at this new prionpathy or prionopathy, and then let's look at the g-h-BSEalabama mad cow.



This new prionopathy in humans? the genetic makeup is IDENTICAL to the g-h-BSEalabama mad cow, the only _documented_ mad cow in the world to date like this, ......wait, it get's better. this new prionpathy is killing young and old humans, with LONG DURATION from onset of symptoms to death, and the symptoms are very similar to nvCJD victims, OH, and the plaques are very similar in some cases too, bbbut, it's not related to the g-h-BSEalabama cow, WAIT NOW, it gets even better, the new human prionpathy that they claim is a genetic TSE, has no relation to any gene mutation in that family. daaa, ya think it could be related to that mad cow with the same genetic make-up ??? there were literally tons and tons of banned mad cow protein in Alabama in commerce, and none of it transmitted to cows, and the cows to humans there from ??? r i g h t $$$



Saturday, August 14, 2010


BSE Case Associated with Prion Protein Gene Mutation (g-h-BSEalabama) and VPSPr PRIONPATHY (see mad cow feed in COMMERCE IN ALABAMA...TSS)



http://prionpathy.blogspot.com/2010/08/bse-case-associated-with-prion-protein.html



THIS is just ONE month report, of TWO recalls of prohibited banned MBM, which is illegal, mixed with 85% blood meal, which is still legal, but yet we know the TSE/BSE agent will transmit blood. we have this l-BSE in North America that is much more virulent and there is much concern with blood issue and l-BSE as there is with nvCJD in humans. some are even starting to be concerned with sporadic CJD and blood, and there are studies showing transmission there as well. ...


this is one month recall page, where 10 MILLION POUNDS OF BANNED MAD COW FEED WENT OUT INTO COMMERCE, TO BE FED OUT. very little of the product that reaches commerce is ever returned via recall, very, very little. this was 2007, TEN YEARS AFTER THE AUGUST 4, 1997, PARTIAL AND VOLUNTARY MAD COW FEED BAN IN THE USA, that was nothing but ink on paper. i have listed the tonnage of mad cow feed that was in ALABAMA in one of the links too, this is where the infamous g-h-BSEalabama case was, a genetic relation matching the new sporadic CJD in the USA. seems this saga just keeps getting better and better.......$$$



10,000,000+ LBS. of PROHIBITED BANNED MAD COW FEED I.E. BLOOD LACED MBM IN COMMERCE USA 2007 Date: March 21, 2007 at 2:27 pm PST RECALLS AND FIELD CORRECTIONS: VETERINARY MEDICINES --

CLASS II

___________________________________ P


RODUCT Bulk cattle feed made with recalled Darling's 85% Blood Meal, Flash Dried, Recall # V-024-2007 CODE Cattle feed delivered between 01/12/2007 and 01/26/2007 RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER Pfeiffer, Arno, Inc, Greenbush, WI. by conversation on February 5, 2007. Firm initiated recall is ongoing.


REASON Blood meal used to make cattle feed was recalled because it was cross- contaminated with prohibited bovine meat and bone meal that had been manufactured on common equipment and labeling did not bear cautionary BSE statement.


VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE 42,090 lbs.


DISTRIBUTION WI


___________________________________


PRODUCT Custom dairy premix products: MNM ALL PURPOSE Pellet, HILLSIDE/CDL Prot- Buffer Meal, LEE, M.-CLOSE UP PX Pellet, HIGH DESERT/ GHC LACT Meal, TATARKA, M CUST PROT Meal, SUNRIDGE/CDL PROTEIN Blend, LOURENZO, K PVM DAIRY Meal, DOUBLE B DAIRY/GHC LAC Mineral, WEST PIONT/GHC CLOSEUP Mineral, WEST POINT/GHC LACT Meal, JENKS, J/COMPASS PROTEIN Meal, COPPINI - 8# SPECIAL DAIRY Mix, GULICK, L-LACT Meal (Bulk), TRIPLE J - PROTEIN/LACTATION, ROCK CREEK/GHC MILK Mineral, BETTENCOURT/GHC S.SIDE MK-MN, BETTENCOURT #1/GHC MILK MINR, V&C DAIRY/GHC LACT Meal, VEENSTRA, F/GHC LACT Meal, SMUTNY, A- BYPASS ML W/SMARTA, Recall # V-025-2007 CODE The firm does not utilize a code - only shipping documentation with commodity and weights identified. RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER Rangen, Inc, Buhl, ID, by letters on February 13 and 14, 2007. Firm initiated recall is complete.


REASON Products manufactured from bulk feed containing blood meal that was cross contaminated with prohibited meat and bone meal and the labeling did not bear cautionary BSE statement.


VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE 9,997,976 lbs. DISTRIBUTION ID and NV


END OF ENFORCEMENT REPORT FOR MARCH 21, 2007



http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/EnforcementReports/2007/ucm120446.htm



Tuesday, March 2, 2010


Animal Proteins Prohibited in Ruminant Feed/Adulterated/Misbranded Rangen Inc 2/11/10 USA


http://madcowfeed.blogspot.com/2010/03/animal-proteins-prohibited-in-ruminant.html



Monday, March 1, 2010


ANIMAL PROTEIN I.E. MAD COW FEED IN COMMERCE A REVIEW 2010


http://madcowfeed.blogspot.com/2010/03/animal-protien-ie-mad-cow-feed-in.html



Terry S. Singeltary Sr. (Submitted question):

Monday, April 5, 2010

Update on Feed Enforcement Activities to Limit the Spread of BSE April 5, 2010

http://madcowfeed.blogspot.com/2010/04/update-on-feed-enforcement-activities.html



Subject: USDA OIG SEMIANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS FY 2007 1st Half (bogus BSE sampling FROM HEALTHY USDA CATTLE)

Date: June 21, 2007 at 2:49 pm PST


Owner and Corporation Plead Guilty to Defrauding Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Surveillance Program An Arizona meat processing company and its owner pled guilty in February 2007 to charges of theft of Government funds, mail fraud, and wire fraud. The owner and his company defrauded the BSE Surveillance Program when they falsified BSE Surveillance Data Collection Forms and then submitted payment requests to USDA for the services. In addition to the targeted sample population (those cattle that were more than 30 months old or had other risk factors for BSE), the owner submitted to USDA, or caused to be submitted, BSE obex (brain stem) samples from healthy USDA-inspected cattle. As a result, the owner fraudulently received approximately $390,000. Sentencing is scheduled for May 2007. snip... Topics that will be covered in ongoing or planned reviews under Goal 1 include: soundness of BSE maintenance sampling (APHIS), implementation of Performance-Based Inspection System enhancements for specified risk material (SRM) violations and improved inspection controls over SRMs (FSIS and APHIS),

snip...


The findings and recommendations from these efforts will be covered in future semiannual reports as the relevant audits and investigations are completed. 4 USDA OIG SEMIANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS FY 2007 1st Half


http://www.usda.gov/oig/webdocs/sarc070619.pdf


http://madcowtesting.blogspot.com/



Wednesday, March 31, 2010


Atypical BSE in Cattle To date the OIE/WAHO assumes that the human and animal health standards set out in the BSE chapter for classical BSE (C-Type) applies to all forms of BSE which include the H-type and L-type atypical forms. This assumption is scientifically not completely justified and accumulating evidence suggests that this may in fact not be the case. Molecular characterization and the spatial distribution pattern of histopathologic lesions and immunohistochemistry (IHC) signals are used to identify and characterize atypical BSE. Both the L-type and H-type atypical cases display significant differences in the conformation and spatial accumulation of the disease associated prion protein (PrPSc) in brains of afflicted cattle. Transmission studies in bovine transgenic and wild type mouse models support that the atypical BSE types might be unique strains because they have different incubation times and lesion profiles when compared to C-type BSE. When L-type BSE was inoculated into ovine transgenic mice and Syrian hamster the resulting molecular fingerprint had changed, either in the first or a subsequent passage, from L-type into C-type BSE. In addition, non-human primates are specifically susceptible for atypical BSE as demonstrated by an approximately 50% shortened incubation time for L-type BSE as compared to C-type. Considering the current scientific information available, it cannot be assumed that these different BSE types pose the same human health risks as C-type BSE or that these risks are mitigated by the same protective measures.

This study will contribute to a correct definition of specified risk material (SRM) in atypical BSE. The incumbent of this position will develop new and transfer existing, ultra-sensitive methods for the detection of atypical BSE in tissue of experimentally infected cattle.


http://www.prionetcanada.ca/detail.aspx?menu=5&dt=293380&app=93&cat1=387&tp=20&lk=no&cat2



CJD TEXAS 38 YEAR OLD FEMALE WORKED SLAUGHTERING CATTLE EXPOSED TO BRAIN AND SPINAL CORD MATTER


"Up until about 6 years ago, the pt worked at Tyson foods where she worked on the assembly line, slaughtering cattle and preparing them for packaging. She was exposed to brain and spinal cord matter when she would euthanize the cattle."


Irma Linda Andablo CJD Victim, she died at 38 years old on February 6, 2010 in Mesquite Texas Irma Linda Andablo CJD Victim, she died at 38 years old on February 6, 2010 in Mesquite Texas.She left 6 Kids and a Husband.The Purpose of this web is to give information in Spanish to the Hispanic community, and to all the community who want's information about this terrible disease.-


Physician Discharge Summary, Parkland Hospital, Dallas Texas

Admit Date: 12/29/2009

Discharge Date: 1/20/2010

Attending Provider: Greenberg, Benjamin Morris;

General Neurology Team: General Neurology Team


Linda was a Hispanic female with no past medical history presents with 14 months of incresing/progressive altered mental status, generalized weakness, inability to walk, loss of appetite, inability to speak, tremor and bowel/blader incontinence. She was, in her usual state of health up until February, 2009, when her husbans notes that she began forgetting things like names and short term memories. He also noticed mild/vague personality changes such as increased aggression. In March, she was involved in a hit and run MVA,although she was not injured. The police tracked her down and ticketed her. At that time, her son deployed to Iraq with the Army and her husband assumed her mentation changes were due to stress over these two events. Also in March, she began to have weakness in her legs, making it difficult to walk. Over the next few months, her mentation and personality changes worsened, getting to a point where she could no longer recognized her children. She was eating less and less. She was losing more weight. In the last 2-3 months, she reached the point where she could not walk without an assist, then 1 month ago, she stopped talking, only making grunting/aggressive sounds when anyone came near her. She also became both bowel and bladder incontinent, having to wear diapers. Her '"tremor'" and body jerks worsened and her hands assumed a sort of permanent grip position, leading her family to put tennis balls in her hands to protect her fingers. The husband says that they have lived in Nebraska for the past 21 years. They had seen a doctor there during the summer time who prescribed her Seroquel and Lexapro, Thinking these were sx of a mood disorder. However, the medications did not help and she continued to deteriorate clinically. Up until about 6 years ago, the pt worked at Tyson foods where she worked on the assembly line, slaughtering cattle and preparing them for packaging. She was exposed to brain and spinal cord matter when she would euthanize the cattle. The husband says that he does not know any fellow workers with a similar illness. He also says that she did not have any preceeding illness or travel.



http://www.recordandoalinda.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19:cjd-english-info&catid=9:cjd-ingles&Itemid=8



"Up until about 6 years ago, the pt worked at Tyson foods where she worked on the assembly line, slaughtering cattle and preparing them for packaging. She was exposed to brain and spinal cord matter when she would euthanize the cattle."



Monday, March 29, 2010


Irma Linda Andablo CJD Victim, she died at 38 years old on February 6, 2010 in Mesquite Texas


http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2010/03/irma-linda-andablo-cjd-victim-she-died.html



CJD TEXAS 38 YEAR OLD FEMALE WORKED SLAUGHTERING CATTLE EXPOSED TO BRAIN AND SPINAL CORD MATTER


http://cjdtexas.blogspot.com/2010/03/cjd-texas-38-year-old-female-worked.html



Terry S. Singeltary Sr. has added the following comment: "According to the World Health Organisation, the future public health threat of vCJD in the UK and Europe and potentially the rest of the world is of concern and currently unquantifiable. However, the possibility of a significant and geographically diverse vCJD epidemic occurring over the next few decades cannot be dismissed .

The key word here is diverse. What does diverse mean?

If USA scrapie transmitted to USA bovine does not produce pathology as the UK c-BSE, then why would CJD from there look like UK vCJD?"

SEE FULL TEXT ;

http://www.promedmail.org/pls/apex/f?p=2400:1001:568933508083034::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,82101



.57 The experiment which might have determined whether BSE and scrapie were caused by the same agent (ie, the feeding of natural scrapie to cattle) was never undertaken in the UK. It was, however, performed in the USA in 1979, when it was shown that cattle inoculated with the scrapie agent endemic in the flock of Suffolk sheep at the United States Department of Agriculture in Mission, Texas, developed a TSE quite unlike BSE. 32 The findings of the initial transmission, though not of the clinical or neurohistological examination, were communicated in October 1988 to Dr Watson, Director of the CVL, following a visit by Dr Wrathall, one of the project leaders in the Pathology Department of the CVL, to the United States Department of Agriculture. 33 The results were not published at this point, since the attempted transmission to mice from the experimental cow brain had been inconclusive. The results of the clinical and histological differences between scrapie-affected sheep and cattle were published in 1995. Similar studies in which cattle were inoculated intracerebrally with scrapie inocula derived from a number of scrapie-affected sheep of different breeds and from different States, were carried out at the US National Animal Disease Centre. 34 The results, published in 1994, showed that this source of scrapie agent, though pathogenic for cattle, did not produce the same clinical signs of brain lesions characteristic of BSE.


32 Clark, W., Hourrigan, J. and Hadlow, W. (1995) Encephalopathy in Cattle Experimentally Infected with the Scrapie Agent, American Journal of Veterinary Research, 56, 606-12

33 YB88/10.00/1.1


http://web.archive.org/web/20040823105233/www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1988/10/00001001.pdf



34 Cutlip, R., Miller, J., Race, R., Jenny, A., Katz, J., Lehmkuhl, H., Debey, B. and Robinson, M. (1994) Intracerebral Transmission of Scrapie to Cattle, Journal of Infectious Diseases, 169, 814-20

Friday, August 27, 2010

NEW ATYPICAL NOR-98 SCRAPIE CASE DETECTED IDAHO NOW 5 CASES DOCUMENTED 2010

http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-atypical-nor-98-scrapie-case.html



PR-26

NOR98 SHOWS MOLECULAR FEATURES REMINISCENT OF GSS

R. Nonno1, E. Esposito1, G. Vaccari1, E. Bandino2, M. Conte1, B. Chiappini1, S. Marcon1, M. Di Bari1, S.L. Benestad3, U. Agrimi1 1 Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Department of Food Safety and Veterinary Public Health, Rome, Italy (romolo.nonno@iss.it); 2 Istituto Zooprofilattico della Sardegna, Sassari, Italy; 3 National Veterinary Institute, Department of Pathology, Oslo, Norway

Molecular variants of PrPSc are being increasingly investigated in sheep scrapie and are generally referred to as "atypical" scrapie, as opposed to "classical scrapie". Among the atypical group, Nor98 seems to be the best identified. We studied the molecular properties of Italian and Norwegian Nor98 samples by WB analysis of brain homogenates, either untreated, digested with different concentrations of proteinase K, or subjected to enzymatic deglycosylation. The identity of PrP fragments was inferred by means of antibodies spanning the full PrP sequence. We found that undigested brain homogenates contain a Nor98-specific PrP fragment migrating at 11 kDa (PrP11), truncated at both the C-terminus and the N-terminus, and not N-glycosylated. After mild PK digestion, Nor98 displayed full-length PrP (FL-PrP) and N-glycosylated C-terminal fragments (CTF), along with increased levels of PrP11. Proteinase K digestion curves (0,006-6,4 mg/ml) showed that FL-PrP and CTF are mainly digested above 0,01 mg/ml, while PrP11 is not entirely digested even at the highest concentrations, similarly to PrP27-30 associated with classical scrapie. Above 0,2 mg/ml PK, most Nor98 samples showed only PrP11 and a fragment of 17 kDa with the same properties of PrP11, that was tentatively identified as a dimer of PrP11. Detergent solubility studies showed that PrP11 is insoluble in 2% sodium laurylsorcosine and is mainly produced from detergentsoluble, full-length PrPSc. Furthermore, among Italian scrapie isolates, we found that a sample with molecular and pathological properties consistent with Nor98 showed plaque-like deposits of PrPSc in the thalamus when the brain was analysed by PrPSc immunohistochemistry. Taken together, our results show that the distinctive pathological feature of Nor98 is a PrP fragment spanning amino acids ~ 90-155. This fragment is produced by successive N-terminal and C-terminal cleavages from a full-length and largely detergent-soluble PrPSc, is produced in vivo and is extremely resistant to PK digestion.

*** Intriguingly, these conclusions suggest that some pathological features of Nor98 are reminiscent of Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease.

119

http://www.neuroprion.com/pdf_docs/conferences/prion2006/abstract_book.pdf



Monday, December 14, 2009

Similarities between Forms of Sheep Scrapie and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Are Encoded by Distinct Prion Types


http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2009/12/similarities-between-forms-of-sheep.html


http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2010/08/scrapie-canada-update-current-as-of.html




PPo2-27:

Generation of a Novel form of Human PrPSc by Inter-species Transmission of Cervid Prions

Marcelo A. Barria,1 Glenn C. Telling,2 Pierluigi Gambetti,3 James A. Mastrianni4 and Claudio Soto1 1Mitchell Center for Alzheimer's disease and related Brain disorders; Dept of Neurology; University of Texas Houston Medical School; Houston, TX USA; 2Dept of Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics and Neurology; Sanders Brown Center on Aging; University of Kentucky Medical Center; Lexington, KY USA; 3Institute of Pathology; Case western Reserve University; Cleveland, OH USA; 4Dept of Neurology; University of Chicago; Chicago, IL USA

Prion diseases are infectious neurodegenerative disorders affecting humans and animals that result from the conversion of normal prion protein (PrPC) into the misfolded and infectious prion (PrPSc). Chronic wasting disease (CWD) of cervids is a prion disorder of increasing prevalence within the United States that affects a large population of wild and captive deer and elk. CWD is highly contagious and its origin, mechanism of transmission and exact prevalence are currently unclear. The risk of transmission of CWD to humans is unknown. Defining that risk is of utmost importance, considering that people have been infected by animal prions, resulting in new fatal diseases. To study the possibility that human PrPC can be converted into the infectious form by CWD PrPSc we performed experiments using the Protein Misfolding Cyclic Amplification (PMCA) technique, which mimic in vitro the process of prion replication. Our results show that cervid PrPSc can induce the pathological conversion of human PrPC, but only after the CWD prion strain has been stabilized by successive passages in vitro or in vivo. Interestingly, this newly generated human PrPSc exhibits a distinct biochemical pattern that differs from any of the currently known forms of human PrPSc, indicating that it corresponds to a novel human prion strain. Our findings suggest that CWD prions have the capability to infect humans, and that this ability depends on CWD strain adaptation, implying that the risk for human health progressively increases with the spread of CWD among cervids.


PPo3-7:

Prion Transmission from Cervids to Humans is Strain-dependent

Qingzhong Kong, Shenghai Huang,*Fusong Chen, Michael Payne, Pierluigi Gambetti and Liuting Qing Department of Pathology; Case western Reserve University; Cleveland, OH USA *Current address: Nursing Informatics; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; New York, NY USA

Key words: CWD, strain, human transmission

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a widespread prion disease in cervids (deer and elk) in North America where significant human exposure to CWD is likely and zoonotic transmission of CWD is a concern. Current evidence indicates a strong barrier for transmission of the classical CWD strain to humans with the PrP-129MM genotype. A few recent reports suggest the presence of two or more CWD strains. What remain unknown is whether individuals with the PrP-129VV/MV genotypes are also resistant to the classical CWD strain and whether humans are resistant to all natural or adapted cervid prion strains. Here we report that a human prion strain that had adopted the cervid prion protein (PrP) sequence through passage in cervidized transgenic mice efficiently infected transgenic mice expressing human PrP, indicating that the species barrier from cervid to humans is prion strain-dependent and humans can be vulnerable to novel cervid prion strains. Preliminary results on CWD transmission in transgenic mice expressing human PrP-129V will also be discussed.

Acknowledgement Supported by NINDS NS052319 and NIA AG14359.


http://www.prion2010.org/bilder/prion_2010_program_latest_w_posters_4_.pdf?139&PHPSESSID=a30a38202cfec579000b77af81be3099


http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2010/07/comments-sought-on-revised-plan-to.html


http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2009/09/experimental-oral-transmission-of.html


http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2009/08/susceptibilities-of-nonhuman-primates.html


http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/



Wednesday, September 08, 2010

CWD PRION CONGRESS SEPTEMBER 8-11 2010

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2010/09/cwd-prion-2010.html


Sunday, September 6, 2009

MAD COW USA 1997 SECRET VIDEO

http://madcowusda.blogspot.com/2009/09/mad-cow-usa-1997-video.html


U.S.A. HIDING MAD COW DISEASE VICTIMS AS SPORADIC CJD ? see video at bottom

http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2009/07/usa-hiding-mad-cow-disease-victims-as.html


Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Import Alert 62-07 Sygen Injectable (Bovine-Extracted GMI Monosialoganglioside) manufactured from bovine brain starting material

http://bseusa.blogspot.com/2010/02/import-alert-62-07-sygen-injectable.html



Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee The possible impacts and consequences for public health, trade and agriculture of the Government's decision to relax import restrictions on beef Final report June 2010

2.65 At its hearing on 14 May 2010, the committee heard evidence from Dr Alan Fahey who has recently submitted a thesis on the clinical neuropsychiatric, epidemiological and diagnostic features of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.48 Dr Fahey told the committee of his concerns regarding the lengthy incubation period for transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, the inadequacy of current tests and the limited nature of our current understanding of this group of diseases.49

2.66 Dr Fahey also told the committee that in the last two years a link has been established between forms of atypical CJD and atypical BSE. Dr Fahey said that: They now believe that those atypical BSEs overseas are in fact causing sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. They were not sure if it was due to mad sheep disease or a different form. If you look in the textbooks it looks like this is just arising by itself. But in my research I have a summary of a document which states that there has never been any proof that sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease has arisen de novo-has arisen of itself. There is no proof of that. The recent research is that in fact it is due to atypical forms of mad cow disease which have been found across Europe, have been found in America and have been found in Asia. These atypical forms of mad cow disease typically have even longer incubation periods than the classical mad cow disease.50

http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/rrat_ctte/mad_cows/report/report.pdf



Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Heterozygosity at Polymorphic Codon 219 in Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Vol. 67 No. 8, August 2010

http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2010/08/heterozygosity-at-polymorphic-codon-219.html



Saturday, January 2, 2010

Human Prion Diseases in the United States January 1, 2010 ***FINAL***

http://prionunitusaupdate2008.blogspot.com/2010/01/human-prion-diseases-in-united-states.html



my comments to PLosone here ;


http://www.plosone.org/annotation/listThread.action?inReplyTo=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fannotation%2F04ce2b24-613d-46e6-9802-4131e2bfa6fd&root=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fannotation%2F04ce2b24-613d-46e6-9802-4131e2bfa6fd



Title: HUMAN and ANIMAL TSE Classifications i.e. mad cow disease and the UKBSEnvCJD only theory


http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/ContentViewer?objectId=090000648027c28e&disposition=attachment&contentType=pdf


http://cjdusa.blogspot.com/2009/06/monitoring-occurrence-of-emerging-forms.html



Saturday, June 13, 2009

Monitoring the occurrence of emerging forms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the United States 2003 revisited 2009


http://cjdusa.blogspot.com/2009/06/monitoring-occurrence-of-emerging-forms.html



From: Terry S. Singeltary Sr.

To: FREAS@CBER.FDA.GOV

Cc: william.freas@fda.hhs.gov ; rosanna.harvey@fda.hhs.gov

Sent: Friday, December 01, 2006 2:59 PM

Subject: Re: TSE advisory committee for the meeting December 15, 2006 [TSS SUBMISSION PART III]

page 1 starts on page 13, then come back to page 1 to finish.....tss


http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/ContentViewer?objectId=09000064801f3413&disposition=attachment&contentType=msw8



PDF]Freas, William TSS SUBMISSION

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat -

Page 1. J Freas, William From: Sent: To: Subject: Terry S. Singeltary

Sr. [flounder@wt.net] Monday, January 08,200l 3:03 PM freas ...


http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/01/slides/3681s2_09.pdf



Newsdesk The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Volume 3, Issue 8, Page 463, August 2003 doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(03)00715-1Cite or Link Using DOI

Tracking spongiform encephalopathies in North America

Xavier Bosch

“My name is Terry S Singeltary Sr, and I live in Bacliff, Texas. I lost my mom to hvCJD (Heidenhain variant CJD) and have been searching for answers ever since. What I have found is that we have not been told the truth. CWD in deer and elk is a small portion of a much bigger problem.” 49-year-old Singeltary is one of a number of people who have remained largely unsatisfied after being told that a close relative died from a rapidly progressive dementia compatible with spontaneous Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). So he decided to gather hundreds of documents on transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) and realised that if Britons could get variant CJD from bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), Americans might get a similar disorder from chronic wasting disease (CWD)—the relative of mad cow disease seen among deer and elk in the USA. Although his feverish…


http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1473309903007151



http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(03)00715-1/fulltext



http://www.mdconsult.com/das/article/body/180784492-2/jorg=journal&source=&sp=13979213&sid=0/N/368742/1.html?issn=14733099




JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY

MARCH 26, 2003

RE-Monitoring the occurrence of emerging forms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the United States

Email Terry S. Singeltary:

[log in to unmask]

I lost my mother to hvCJD (Heidenhain Variant CJD). I would like to comment on the CDC's attempts to monitor the occurrence of emerging forms of CJD. Asante, Collinge et al [1] have reported that BSE transmission to the 129-methionine genotype can lead to an alternate phenotype that is indistinguishable from type 2 PrPSc, the commonest sporadic CJD. However, CJD and all human TSEs are not reportable nationally. CJD and all human TSEs must be made reportable in every state and internationally. I hope that the CDC does not continue to expect us to still believe that the 85%+ of all CJD cases which are sporadic are all spontaneous, without route/source. We have many TSEs in the USA in both animal and man. CWD in deer/elk is spreading rapidly and CWD does transmit to mink, ferret, cattle, and squirrel monkey by intracerebral inoculation. With the known incubation periods in other TSEs, oral transmission studies of CWD may take much longer. Every victim/family of CJD/TSEs should be asked about route and source of this agent. To prolong this will only spread the agent and needlessly expose others. In light of the findings of Asante and Collinge et al, there should be drastic measures to safeguard the medical and surgical arena from sporadic CJDs and all human TSEs. I only ponder how many sporadic CJDs in the USA are type 2 PrPSc?


http://www.neurology.org/cgi/eletters/60/2/176#535



Diagnosis and Reporting of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Singeltary, Sr et al. JAMA.2001; 285: 733-734. Vol. 285 No. 6, February 14, 2001 JAMA

Diagnosis and Reporting of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

To the Editor: In their Research Letter, Dr Gibbons and colleagues1 reported that the annual US death rate due to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) has been stable since 1985. These estimates, however, are based only on reported cases, and do not include misdiagnosed or preclinical cases. It seems to me that misdiagnosis alone would drastically change these figures. An unknown number of persons with a diagnosis of Alzheimer disease in fact may have CJD, although only a small number of these patients receive the postmortem examination necessary to make this diagnosis. Furthermore, only a few states have made CJD reportable. Human and animal transmissible spongiform encephalopathies should be reportable nationwide and internationally.

Terry S. Singeltary, Sr Bacliff, Tex

1. Gibbons RV, Holman RC, Belay ED, Schonberger LB. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the United States: 1979-1998. JAMA. 2000;284:2322-2323. FREE FULL TEXT


http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/285/6/733?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=singeltary&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT


http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/285/6/733?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=singeltary&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT



2 January 2000

British Medical Journal

U.S. Scientist should be concerned with a CJD epidemic in the U.S., as well

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/320/7226/8/b#6117



15 November 1999

British Medical Journal vCJD in the USA * BSE in U.S.

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/319/7220/1312/b#5406



THE PATHOLOGICAL PROTEIN

BY Philip Yam

Yam Philip Yam News Editor Scientific American www.sciam.com

Answering critics like Terry Singeltary, who feels that the U.S. under- counts CJD, Schonberger conceded that the current surveillance system has errors but stated that most of the errors will be confined to the older population.

CHAPTER 14

Laying Odds

Are prion diseases more prevalent than we thought?

Researchers and government officials badly underestimated the threat that mad cow disease posed when it first appeared in Britain. They didn’t think bovine spongiform encephalopathy was a zoonosis—an animal disease that can sicken people. The 1996 news that BSE could infect humans with a new form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease stunned the world. It also got some biomedical researchers wondering whether sporadic CJD may really be a manifestation of a zoonotic sickness. Might it be caused by the ingestion of prions, as variant CJD is?

Revisiting Sporadic CJD

It’s not hard to get Terry Singeltary going. “I have my conspiracy theories,” admitted the 49-year-old Texan.1 Singeltary is probably the nation’s most relentless consumer advocate when it comes to issues in prion diseases. He has helped families learn about the sickness and coordinated efforts with support groups such as CJD Voice and the CJD Foundation. He has also connected with others who are critical of the American way of handling the threat of prion diseases. Such critics include Consumers Union’s Michael Hansen, journalist John Stauber, and Thomas Pringle, who used to run the voluminous www.madcow. org Web site. These three lend their expertise to newspaper and magazine stories about prion diseases, and they usually argue that prions represent more of a threat than people realize, and that the government has responded poorly to the dangers because it is more concerned about protecting the beef industry than people's health.

Singeltary has similar inclinations. ...



http://books.google.com/books?id=ePbrQNFrHtoC&pg=PA223&lpg=PA223&dq=the+pathological+protein+laying+odds+It%E2%80%99s+not+hard+to+get+Terry+Singeltary+going&source=bl&ots=um0PFAZSZD&sig=JWaGR7M7-1WeAr2qAXq8D6J_jak&hl=en&ei=MhtjS8jMJM2ztgeFoa2iBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false



http://www.springerlink.com/content/r2k2622661473336/fulltext.pdf?page=1



http://www.thepathologicalprotein.com/



DER SPIEGEL (9/2001) - 24.02.2001 (9397 Zeichen) USA: Loch in der Mauer Die BSE-Angst erreicht Amerika: Trotz strikter Auflagen gelangte in Texas verbotenes Tiermehl ins Rinderfutter - die Kontrollen der Aufsichtsbehördensind lax.Link auf diesen Artikel im Archiv: http://service.spiegel.de/digas/find?DID=18578755

"Löcher wie in einem Schweizer Käse" hat auch Terry Singeltary im Regelwerk der FDA ausgemacht. Der Texaner kam auf einem tragischen Umweg zu dem Thema: Nachdem seine Mutter 1997 binnen weniger Wochen an der Creutzfeldt-Jakob-Krankheit gestorben war, versuchte er, die Ursachen der Infektion aufzuspüren. Er klagte auf die Herausgabe von Regierungsdokumenten und arbeitete sich durch Fachliteratur; heute ist er überzeugt, dass seine Mutter durch die stetige Einnahme von angeblich kräftigenden Mitteln erkrankte, in denen - völlig legal - Anteile aus Rinderprodukten enthalten sind.

Von der Fachwelt wurde Singeltary lange als versponnener Außenseiter belächelt. Doch mittlerweile sorgen sich auch Experten, dass ausgerechnet diese verschreibungsfreien Wundercocktails zur Stärkung von Intelligenz, Immunsystem oder Libido von den Importbeschränkungen ausgenommen sind. Dabei enthalten die Pillen und Ampullen, die in Supermärkten verkauft werden, exotische Mixturen aus Rinderaugen; dazu Extrakte von Hypophyse oder Kälberföten, Prostata, Lymphknoten und gefriergetrocknetem Schweinemagen. In die USA hereingelassen werden auch Blut, Fett, Gelatine und Samen. Diese Stoffe tauchen noch immer in US-Produkten auf, inklusive Medizin und Kosmetika. Selbst in Impfstoffen waren möglicherweise gefährliche Rinderprodukte enthalten. Zwar fordert die FDA schon seit acht Jahren die US-Pharmaindustrie auf, keine Stoffe aus Ländern zu benutzen, in denen die Gefahr einer BSE-Infizierung besteht. Aber erst kürzlich verpflichteten sich fünf Unternehmen, darunter Branchenführer wie GlaxoSmithKline, Aventis und American Home Products, ihre Seren nur noch aus unverdächtigem Material herzustellen.

"Its as full of holes as Swiss Cheese" says Terry Singeltary of the FDA regulations. ...


http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-18578755.html



http://wissen.spiegel.de/wissen/image/show.html?did=18578755&aref=image024/E0108/SCSP200100901440145.pdf&thumb=false



http://service.spiegel.de/digas/servlet/find/DID=18578755




Suspect symptoms

What if you can catch old-fashioned CJD by eating meat from a sheep infected with scrapie?

28 Mar 01

Like lambs to the slaughter 31 March 2001 by Debora MacKenzie Magazine issue 2284. Subscribe and get 4 free issues. FOUR years ago, Terry Singeltary watched his mother die horribly from a degenerative brain disease. Doctors told him it was Alzheimer's, but Singeltary was suspicious. The diagnosis didn't fit her violent symptoms, and he demanded an autopsy. It showed she had died of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Most doctors believe that sCJD is caused by a prion protein deforming by chance into a killer. But Singeltary thinks otherwise. He is one of a number of campaigners who say that some sCJD, like the variant CJD related to BSE, is caused by eating meat from infected animals. Their suspicions have focused on sheep carrying scrapie, a BSE-like disease that is widespread in flocks across Europe and North America.

Now scientists in France have stumbled across new evidence that adds weight to the campaigners' fears. To their complete surprise, the researchers found that one strain of scrapie causes the same brain damage in mice as sCJD.

"This means we cannot rule out that at least some sCJD may be caused by some strains of scrapie," says team member Jean-Philippe Deslys of the French Atomic Energy Commission's medical research laboratory in Fontenay-aux-Roses, south-west of Paris. Hans Kretschmar of the University of Göttingen, who coordinates CJD surveillance in Germany, is so concerned by the findings that he now wants to trawl back through past sCJD cases to see if any might have been caused by eating infected mutton or lamb.

Scrapie has been around for centuries and until now there has been no evidence that it poses a risk to human health. But if the French finding means that scrapie can cause sCJD in people, countries around the world may have overlooked a CJD crisis to rival that caused by BSE.

Deslys and colleagues were originally studying vCJD, not sCJD. They injected the brains of macaque monkeys with brain from BSE cattle, and from French and British vCJD patients. The brain damage and clinical symptoms in the monkeys were the same for all three. Mice injected with the original sets of brain tissue or with infected monkey brain also developed the same symptoms.

As a control experiment, the team also injected mice with brain tissue from people and animals with other prion diseases: a French case of sCJD; a French patient who caught sCJD from human-derived growth hormone; sheep with a French strain of scrapie; and mice carrying a prion derived from an American scrapie strain. As expected, they all affected the brain in a different way from BSE and vCJD. But while the American strain of scrapie caused different damage from sCJD, the French strain produced exactly the same pathology.

"The main evidence that scrapie does not affect humans has been epidemiology," says Moira Bruce of the neuropathogenesis unit of the Institute for Animal Health in Edinburgh, who was a member of the same team as Deslys. "You see about the same incidence of the disease everywhere, whether or not there are many sheep, and in countries such as New Zealand with no scrapie." In the only previous comparisons of sCJD and scrapie in mice, Bruce found they were dissimilar.

But there are more than 20 strains of scrapie, and six of sCJD. "You would not necessarily see a relationship between the two with epidemiology if only some strains affect only some people," says Deslys. Bruce is cautious about the mouse results, but agrees they require further investigation. Other trials of scrapie and sCJD in mice, she says, are in progress.

People can have three different genetic variations of the human prion protein, and each type of protein can fold up two different ways. Kretschmar has found that these six combinations correspond to six clinical types of sCJD: each type of normal prion produces a particular pathology when it spontaneously deforms to produce sCJD.

But if these proteins deform because of infection with a disease-causing prion, the relationship between pathology and prion type should be different, as it is in vCJD. "If we look at brain samples from sporadic CJD cases and find some that do not fit the pattern," says Kretschmar, "that could mean they were caused by infection."

There are 250 deaths per year from sCJD in the US, and a similar incidence elsewhere. Singeltary and other US activists think that some of these people died after eating contaminated meat or "nutritional" pills containing dried animal brain. Governments will have a hard time facing activists like Singeltary if it turns out that some sCJD isn't as spontaneous as doctors have insisted.

Deslys's work on macaques also provides further proof that the human disease vCJD is caused by BSE. And the experiments showed that vCJD is much more virulent to primates than BSE, even when injected into the bloodstream rather than the brain. This, says Deslys, means that there is an even bigger risk than we thought that vCJD can be passed from one patient to another through contaminated blood transfusions and surgical instruments.


http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16922840.300-like-lambs-to-the-slaughter.html



Friday, August 27, 2010

NEW ATYPICAL NOR-98 SCRAPIE CASE DETECTED IDAHO NOW 5 CASES DOCUMENTED 2010


http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-atypical-nor-98-scrapie-case.html



Sunday, April 18, 2010

SCRAPIE AND ATYPICAL SCRAPIE TRANSMISSION STUDIES A REVIEW 2010


http://scrapie-usa.blogspot.com/2010/04/scrapie-and-atypical-scrapie.html



Thank You,

I am sincerely,

Terry S. Singeltary Sr.
P.O. Box 42
Bacliff, Texas USA 77518
flounder9@verizon.net