NR AWRX
AU Vallat,B.
TI Risk analysis of prion diseases in animals
QU Revue Scientifique et Technique de l'Office International des Epizooties 2003 Apr; 22(1): 7-12
IA http://www.oie.int/eng/publicat/rt/2201/A_R2210.htm
PT Preface
VT
This special issue of the Scientific and Technical Review returns to a topic that was first reviewed by the journal in June 1992, five years after bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was first described and the same year that the epidemic reached its peak in the United Kingdom (UK). Although the BSE epidemic in the UK and in some other countries of Europe has subsided and entered a protracted elimination stage, the disease has been detected in fourteen other countries and has triggered some unparalleled actions to protect animal and human health. Furthermore, the repercussions of the epidemic continue to be felt throughout the world.
The present review is necessary because the history of BSE is a prime example of how to deal with uncertainty and how control measures are based on the best possible knowledge at a given time. Great advances have been made in the scientific understanding of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) and prions since 1992 and have led to innovations in the diagnosis and management of these diseases. Rapid diagnostic tests are one example. Progress in the underlying science of the TSEs has been monumental since 1992.
The BSE experience has shown the great value of risk analysis in guiding a rational approach to animal disease control within countries and on the world scene. Risk analysis and the resulting standards of the OIE International Animal Health Code have provided the world with benchmarks for managing the risk of BSE and at the same time maintaining trade. However, risk analysis is not static and must be informed by advances in science in order to ensure topicality, quality and validity.
Hindsight may show whether the control measures flowing from risk analysis were either adequate or inadequate and proportionate or disproportionate in regard to the risks linked to BSE. The abiding lesson from BSE may, however, be the value of risk analysis as an evolving tool for dealing with certainties and uncertainties as knowledge unfolds. One of the functions of the OIE is to ensure that risk analysis and the resulting OIE Code standards do this very thing and can provide a means for harmony on animal health matters throughout the world. The present issue of the Review will provide working material not only for this hindsight but also for foresight in the form of risk assessment.
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy is the archetype for a class of emerging zoonotic diseases that may arise through factors in animal husbandry. Although the effects of the disease on cattle are sufficient alone to make it a major concern, its causal link with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in people places it on a higher plane of dread and fear compared with virtually every other disease of animals. This causal link was unclear when the Review examined the topic of the TSEs in 1992. Furthermore, BSE has cast a shadow on other contemporary TSEs in animals: scrapie in sheep and chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer. What exactly are the public health implications from these two diseases?
Deep inroads into confidence about the safety of the human food supply have been created by BSE which has led to a range of food safety laws and policies in various countries. These actions may have been necessary but it must be emphasised that ultimate and decisive control of the public health risk from BSE lies in control measures applied to animals. These control measures will be most effective if they are informed by systematic risk analysis and permanent updating of the Code.
Fear and dread about BSE is said to have reduced confidence about the value of science in dealing problems in the living world. This drop in confidence may be true and the polemics surrounding BSE are unprecedented. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile reflecting upon the dire course of events if sound epidemiological investigations had not occurred in the UK, if a series of experiments to clarify key unknowns had not been initiated, if the weight of the world?s scientific research capacity had not been brought to bear on the problems, if the painstaking processes of risk assessment had not been undertaken and if there had not been well established international forums such as the OIE to co-ordinate international effort and cooperation.
Progress in understanding the complexities of the biology of the TSEs has been astounding since 1992 and has shown the immense value of comparative medicine in action. As a consequence, there is a dawning hope that TSEs could be removed as a problem at some time in the future. The proviso is that current efforts are not relaxed and that the TSEs continue to be treated with the seriousness they deserve. To this end, the OIE will persist with its tasks of guaranteeing the transparency of the animal disease status world-wide, collecting, analysing and disseminating veterinary scientific information, providing expertise and promoting international solidarity for the control of animal diseases and zoonoses, while guaranteeing the sanitary safety of world trade by developing sanitary standards for international trade in animals and animal products.
AD Bernard Vallat, Director General
SP englisch
PO Frankreich
OR Sonderheft vorhanden