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BSE statistics by country
Country BSE cases vCJD cases Country BSE cases vCJD cases
Austria 5 0 Belgium 125 0
Canada 10 1 Czech Rep 9 0
Denmark 15 0 Falkland Islands 1 0
Finland 1 0 France 900+ 11
Germany 312 0 Greece 1 0
Hong Kong 2 0 Israel 1 0
Italy 117 1 Japan 26 1
Lichtenstein 2 0 Luxembourg 2 1
Netherlands 75 1 Oman 2 0
Poland 21 0 Portugal 875 2
Republic of Ireland 1353 4 Slovakia 15 0
Slovenia 7 0 Spain 412 2
Sweden 1 0 Switzerland 453 0
Thailand n/a 2 UK 183823 160
US 3 3 Total 188535 170 (+ 6 results pending)
Dark green areas are countries that have confirmed human cases of
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and light green are countries that have bovine
spongiform encephalopathy cases.The table to the right summarizes reported cases
of BSE and of vCJD by country. BSE is the disease in cattle, while vCJD is the
disease in people.
The tests used for detecting BSE vary considerably as do the regulations in
various jurisdictions for when, and which cattle, must be tested. For instance,
in the EU the cattle tested are older (30 months+), while many cattle are
slaughtered earlier than that. At the opposite end of the scale, Japan tests all
cattle at the time of slaughter. Tests are also difficult as the altered prion
protein has very small levels in blood or urine, and no other signal has been
found. Newer tests are faster, more sensitive, and cheaper, so it is possible
that future figures may be more comprehensive. Even so, currently the only
reliable test is examination of tissues during an autopsy.
It is noticeable that there are no cases reported in Australia and New Zealand
where cattle are mainly fed outside on grass pasture and, mainly in Australia,
non-grass feeding is done only as a final finishing process before the animals
are processed for meat.
As for vCJD in humans, autopsy tests are not always done and so those figures
too are likely to be too low, but probably by a lesser fraction. In the UK
anyone with possible vCJD symptoms must be reported to the UK Creutzfeldt-Jakob
Disease Surveillance Unit and so it is unlikely that any cases would be missed.
In the U.S., the CDC has refused to impose a national requirement that
physicians and hospitals report cases of the disease. Instead, the agency relies
on other methods, including death certificates and urging physicians to send
suspicious cases to the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center (NPDPSC)
at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, which is funded by the CDC.
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