Scientists fear BSE was passed on to calf

Susan Watts,Science Correspondent
Saturday 05 February 1994 00:02 GMT
Comments

MINISTRY of Agriculture officials have confirmed a suspected case of BSE - the 'mad cow' disease - having passed from a cow to its offspring, increasing fears that 'maternal transmission' could prolong the epidemic.

The calf was born in 1989, almost a year after the official ban on feed containing animal protein, which is thought to have eliminated the main source of BSE infection. But there have been several BSE cases whose route of infection is hard to explain.

The ministry is seeking a full history of the feed given to the calf, a female Friesian-Holstein whose demise is described in a letter in today's Veterinary Record.

Officials believe some contaminated feed was used after the ban. But the North Yorkshire farmer concerned is adamant that feed cannot be blamed in this case. He says he ordered fresh feed monthly and stored no old stock.

If scientific evidence of maternal transmission is produced, this would have implications for the persistence of BSE among British cattle. John Wilesmith, head of epidemiology at the Central Veterinary Laboratory in Weybridge, confirmed that of the 4,853 animals found to have BSE since the feed ban, 156 had mothers who also died of the disease.

Single cases of what might look like maternal transmission had limited bearing on his understanding of the overall spread of the disease. 'This has to be put in context. We have a number of question marks . . . including BSE animals born into herds with no previous record of the disease.' In April, he expects to publish results of a study of all BSE cases in the United Kingdom. This has meant scouring all feed and calving records.

'The reason for worrying and looking to see if there is any evidence of maternal transmission is because it is likely to be the earliest thing detectable in the learning process of our study of the epidemiology of BSE.'

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in