BSE tests shipped to South Africa

South Africa becomes the first country in the southern hemisphere to initiate BSE surveillance in line with EU programme

ARC-Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute (ARC-OVI) has initiated a national programme of BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) screening on behalf of South Africa's National Department of Agriculture (NDA).

No cases of BSE have been reported in South Africa, however, in 2002, the NDA took the decision to instigate an active and targeted surveillance programme for BSE as part of ongoing efforts to ensure consumer confidence in South African agricultural products.

This means that for the first time screening for BSE is being undertaken in the southern hemisphere.

Testing kits and equipment have been shipped to South Africa by Bio-Rad Laboratories, US manufacturer and distributor of life science and clinical diagnostics products, to help establish South Africa's first BSE screening laboratory situated at the ARC-OVI.

The move is to ascertain the possible risk of infection within the country's 12 million cattle population.

The surveillance programme, approved by epidemiologists, will include samples from 'high risk' cases (cattle that have shown symptoms of possible neurological disease) as well as large numbers of samples from cattle that are presented for routine slaughter.

In addition, technicians and veterinaries, tasked to perform the post-mortem procedure, have also undergone intensive assay test and sample extraction training from the test's manufacturers to ensure reliable samples are taken and accurate diagnoses are made.

The selected, EU approved, Bio-Rad Elisa test is considered within the scientific community as the most reliable and sensitive available and its fast and highly accurate identification of infection is relied upon by many other countries including Belgium, Germany and Sweden for their national testing programmes.

The procedure results in the detection of an abnormal prion protein (PrPres) in brain tissue, the only specific bio-chemical marker currently known for BSE.

It is hoped that testing will give reassurance to consumers and those in the meat industry, particularly those importing South African beef, that the national herd is confirmed, as far as scientifically possible, BSE free.

The ARC-OVI will assist the National Department of Agriculture in its BSE surveillance strategy by providing laboratory diagnostic capacity.

Chris Rew of Bio-Rad Laboratories, who has been working alongside the ARC-OVI to set up a testing infrastructure says: "We've been able to share the knowledge gained from our long-standing work on TSE screening with other European countries and more recently Japan, as well as our expertise on Chronic Wasting Disease in the USA, with South Africa to ensure they mount an effective and highly reliable testing procedure.

This is paramount to accurately establish their country's BSE status." The consumption of BSE infected meat has been linked to the development of Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (vCJD) in humans, a degenerative and fatal disease of the brain.

In the UK, deaths from vCJD, confirmed by the Department of Health as of February 2003, stands at 122.

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