美国目前还未出现疯牛病恐慌
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2001年2月1日
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Officials and top scientists said on Wednesday they see no reason for panic in the United States over mad cow disease despite reports of contaminated animal feed and imported candy.
Instead of dismissing such reports, however, they said they welcome them because they help regulators figure out where the potential for ``human error'' lies.
Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE (news - web sites)), is being found in herds across Europe, exciting worries that people may get a human version of the fatal, brain-destroying disease from eating or using products made from the cattle.
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Nearly 90 people in Britain and France have died from or been diagnosed with the human version, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites) (vCJD).
But experts said American consumers should not worry about getting vCJD from eating beef products -- including a wide range of medicines, candies, capsules and other food products made with gelatin.
``The Texas cattle thing is a non-event. The candy in New York thing is a non-event,'' Paul Brown, a researcher at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) who has done extensive work on BSE and related diseases, said in a telephone interview.
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Late on Tuesday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) (FDA) said 1,200 cattle in a Texas feedlot had been fed the ground-up remains of other cattle -- which violates safety regulations.
But the FDA said Purina Mills Inc., which supplied the feed, would buy the cattle and would not use them for human food.
BSE has never been detected in the United States, the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) (USDA) both say. The banned feed used in Texas contained U.S. cattle parts.
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And the FDA said the amount of feed the cattle got was so small that, even had it been contaminated with BSE -- which they do not think it was -- none of the cows that ate it would have been likely to become infected.
The FDA said it was investigating a report that some imported German candy sold in New York may have been made with gelatin coming from German cattle at risk of BSE. Again, FDA officials and Brown said they doubted anyone who ate the candy was in danger.
, 百拇医药
``Gelatin is made from hooves and hides, which don't carry any BSE anyway,'' Brown said.
Murray Lumpkin, senior medical adviser in the FDA commissioner's office, said he did not think anyone was panicking just yet, despite media coverage of mad cow fears.
``People Need To Be Serious''
``I don't think there is a matter of overreacting in the sense that people need to be serious about it,'' Lumpkin said in a telephone interview.
, 百拇医药
``If we are going to have any chance of keeping BSE out of the country, we as regulators, the rendered feed lot operators and so on are going to have to redouble efforts,'' he added.
``When you have incidents like this it gives you the opportunity to determine how this happened and whether it was due to random human error. We are going to have some of that because people are not 100 percent perfect,'' Lumpkin added.
The infectious protein that transmits BSE, known as a prion, has been found in the brains, spinal cords, lymph nodes, lower intestines, eyes and a few other parts of animals.
, 百拇医药
These parts are included in meat and bone meal (MBM) used in feed and in some food products such as sausages.
When BSE swept through British herds in the 1980s and then was found to cause vCJD, U.S. officials worked to make sure it could not be imported here.
No livestock may be imported into the United States from countries affected by BSE. People who have lived in affected countries for a certain period may not donate blood, which carries a slight risk of transmitting BSE.
, http://www.100md.com
But there is a huge pool of other products that potentially could carry the BSE agent, such as gelatin, extracts from cattle used in supplements, blood products and so on.
``When you start looking at products that have bovine parts in them, you find that we as a culture have learned to use the cow quite well,'' Lumpkin said.
Brown serves on a committee that advises on how to raise barriers to dangerous imports and prevent any risky use of animal products that might transmit BSE or its cousins to people or to valuable livestock.
, http://www.100md.com
``I think the USDA has done a pretty good job and as near as I can tell it is not being breached very often or very easily,'' Brown said.
But cattle prices on Tuesday took a big hit. Cattle futures at Chicago Mercantile Exchange fell to a two-week low.
Beef consumption in Germany has plunged 30 percent and has fallen 70 percent in Italy, where the country's first native case of mad cow disease was reported earlier this month., 百拇医药
Instead of dismissing such reports, however, they said they welcome them because they help regulators figure out where the potential for ``human error'' lies.
Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE (news - web sites)), is being found in herds across Europe, exciting worries that people may get a human version of the fatal, brain-destroying disease from eating or using products made from the cattle.
, http://www.100md.com
Nearly 90 people in Britain and France have died from or been diagnosed with the human version, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites) (vCJD).
But experts said American consumers should not worry about getting vCJD from eating beef products -- including a wide range of medicines, candies, capsules and other food products made with gelatin.
``The Texas cattle thing is a non-event. The candy in New York thing is a non-event,'' Paul Brown, a researcher at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) who has done extensive work on BSE and related diseases, said in a telephone interview.
, 百拇医药
Late on Tuesday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) (FDA) said 1,200 cattle in a Texas feedlot had been fed the ground-up remains of other cattle -- which violates safety regulations.
But the FDA said Purina Mills Inc., which supplied the feed, would buy the cattle and would not use them for human food.
BSE has never been detected in the United States, the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) (USDA) both say. The banned feed used in Texas contained U.S. cattle parts.
, 百拇医药
And the FDA said the amount of feed the cattle got was so small that, even had it been contaminated with BSE -- which they do not think it was -- none of the cows that ate it would have been likely to become infected.
The FDA said it was investigating a report that some imported German candy sold in New York may have been made with gelatin coming from German cattle at risk of BSE. Again, FDA officials and Brown said they doubted anyone who ate the candy was in danger.
, 百拇医药
``Gelatin is made from hooves and hides, which don't carry any BSE anyway,'' Brown said.
Murray Lumpkin, senior medical adviser in the FDA commissioner's office, said he did not think anyone was panicking just yet, despite media coverage of mad cow fears.
``People Need To Be Serious''
``I don't think there is a matter of overreacting in the sense that people need to be serious about it,'' Lumpkin said in a telephone interview.
, 百拇医药
``If we are going to have any chance of keeping BSE out of the country, we as regulators, the rendered feed lot operators and so on are going to have to redouble efforts,'' he added.
``When you have incidents like this it gives you the opportunity to determine how this happened and whether it was due to random human error. We are going to have some of that because people are not 100 percent perfect,'' Lumpkin added.
The infectious protein that transmits BSE, known as a prion, has been found in the brains, spinal cords, lymph nodes, lower intestines, eyes and a few other parts of animals.
, 百拇医药
These parts are included in meat and bone meal (MBM) used in feed and in some food products such as sausages.
When BSE swept through British herds in the 1980s and then was found to cause vCJD, U.S. officials worked to make sure it could not be imported here.
No livestock may be imported into the United States from countries affected by BSE. People who have lived in affected countries for a certain period may not donate blood, which carries a slight risk of transmitting BSE.
, http://www.100md.com
But there is a huge pool of other products that potentially could carry the BSE agent, such as gelatin, extracts from cattle used in supplements, blood products and so on.
``When you start looking at products that have bovine parts in them, you find that we as a culture have learned to use the cow quite well,'' Lumpkin said.
Brown serves on a committee that advises on how to raise barriers to dangerous imports and prevent any risky use of animal products that might transmit BSE or its cousins to people or to valuable livestock.
, http://www.100md.com
``I think the USDA has done a pretty good job and as near as I can tell it is not being breached very often or very easily,'' Brown said.
But cattle prices on Tuesday took a big hit. Cattle futures at Chicago Mercantile Exchange fell to a two-week low.
Beef consumption in Germany has plunged 30 percent and has fallen 70 percent in Italy, where the country's first native case of mad cow disease was reported earlier this month., 百拇医药