Nobel Prize Winner Says Mad Cow Disease is in USA

Reprinted from www.mad-cow.org <http://www.mad-cow.org>

Mad cow disease must be found in US Cows in low levels, says research
Food Chemical News ... 3 June 1996

After more than two decades of research on prions, Stanley Prusiner of UCSF
suggested that mad cow disease must be present in US cows at low levels.

Prusiner, who spoke at a May 30 congressional caucus luncheon, said the
longer animals live, the more likely they are to develop the disease. He
said he agreed with a Wisconsin researcher [Prof. R.F. Marsh], who believes
mad cow disease was linked to US cows in the mid-1980's.

Prusiner criticized the British government for setting up an expert panel
with members chosen by the government, rather than by an independent body
such as the National Academy of Sciences. He stopped short of recommending
measures to halt the potential spread of the disease in the US, citing the
complex chain of economic, political, and scientific variables affecting
policy decisions.

Many factors conspired to cause mad cow disease in Britain, including the
deregulation of the rendering industry, he said. The fat content increased
in meat and bone meal fed to cows. While more than 160,000 cattle have come
down with the disease, the numbers peaked in 1992 and are beginning to drop
off there. The practices that led to the disease's spread stopped in the
late 1980's, he said. Today, there are an estimated 1,000 cows dying of the
disease every month.

The California researcher said scientists still don't know whether diseased
cows can affect humans. He said it's still unclear what route exposes cows
to the disease, whether through cuts in their mouths or [infectious agent]
carried by white blood cells.

He took the opportunity to urge Congress to step up funding of biomedical
research.