광우병(Mad cow disease)의 확산을 막기 위해서 채택된 조치로 인하여, 미국산 소들이 광우병에 걸릴 확률은 매우 낮다고 금요일(현지시각)에 발표된 Harvard University의 연구 조사에서 보고되었다. 그리고 미국인들이 그 질환에 걸리게 될 가능성은 더 희박한 것으로 나타났다고 연구진들이 덧붙였다.
Mad cow disease unlikely to affect U.S., study says
Mad cow disease is highly unlikely to ever take hold in U.S. cattle because of measures taken to prevent its spread, according to a Harvard University study released Friday. Researchers also said the chances of human sickness are even more remote.
The study, conducted at the request of the government, said a 1997 ban on the feeding of meat and bone meal to cattle is the nation's most critical defense against an epidemic of the disease.
There are additional steps the government could take, including a ban on the rendering of animals that die on farms, that could further reduce the risk of the disease.
Mad cow, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is linked to a human brain-wasting disease, variant Creutzfeld Jakob Disease, that has killed about 100 people in Europe.
Neither mad cow nor its human version has ever been reported in the United States. But the Harvard study said there is as much as a 20 percent chance that mad cow was introduced into the country before imports of British cattle were banned in 1989. However, it is unlikely that those cattle caused any new cases, the study said.
"It would be silly to guarantee we won't have BSE in this country. Certainly, we can have one, or two," said George Gray, acting director of Harvard's Center for Risk Analysis.
"We can be quite confident that BSE is not going to become a major animal health or public health problem in this country," he added.
Because of the 1997 feed ban, the study estimated, the import of one sick animal would likely cause less than one new case of the disease during the following 20 years.
The ban is meant to prevent material from infected animals from being fed to other cattle. The study assumed there are sporadic violations of the prohibition. The Food and Drug Administration has found numerous violations of rules associated with the ban, including requirements for record keeping and labeling of feed bags.
About 1 million cattle in Britain are thought to have been infected with BSE caught from feed made from the carcasses of sheep infected with scrapie, an ovine form of the disease.
In the 1980s, 334 cattle were imported into the United States from Great Britain and some meat from 173 of those could have gotten into the food supply.
(소스: http://nandotimes.com/healthscience/v-text/story/183785p-1778193c.html)
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