NR AWRY
AU Lasmezas,C.I.; Adams,D.B.
TI Risk analysis of prion diseases in animals. Introduction
QU Revue Scientifique et Technique de l'Office International des Epizooties 2003 Apr; 22(1): 13-9
IA http://www.oie.int/eng/publicat/rt/2201/A_R2211.htm
PT Editorial
VT
There has been a deluge of reports, reviews and original scientific papers on bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) and prions since BSE was first described in cattle in the United Kingdom (UK) in 1987. All have been valuable because they recorded concrete advances in science, collated current knowledge in a form applicable to rational action, or contributed to the vigour of discussion that has energised the response throughout the world. However, clear gaps remain. One is related to the indirect impacts of diseases like BSE and other TSEs on world trade: impacts that have necessitated the application of risk analysis. Another is the surprising dearth of papers on the implications of BSE and other TSEs for ruminant production systems wherever and however they operate.
Information on BSE has been collated in some influential public documents published by institutions in the UK, the United States of America (USA) and other countries of Europe, including the European Union. These include the UK BSE Review (the Phillips Report) published in 2000, the Harvard Report from the USA published in 2001, and the host of useful reports and opinions prepared by the Scientific Steering Committee of the European Commission. By their nature, these reports are aimed at the implications of BSE for individual countries or regions. None of them has an intentional focus on the world scene.
The present issue of the Scientific and Technical Review seeks to provide a compendium of current and established knowledge of BSE and TSEs that is both relevant to the process of risk analysis and world-wide in scope. The underlying theme is support for the process of risk analysis. As at 2003, risk analysis, and the resulting standards of the OIE International Animal Health Code which have been updated every year since the beginning, have demonstrated their worth in preventing the virtual paralysis of world trade in ruminants and ruminant products that could easily have been precipitated by BSE. Risk analysis provides the rational framework for assembling and then analysing the evidence relating to risk and presenting the results in a form that is easy to understand and then act upon fairly and effectively.
An attempt has been made at comprehensive coverage of issues relevant to risk analysis. Essential background in this issue of the Review is provided by general overviews of the TSEs, BSE, scrapie, the TSEs in non-domestic animals, the possibility that BSE has taken root in sheep populations and the potential for TSEs in non-ruminant livestock and fish. A second component of the Review is composed of papers on risk assessment, risk management and risk communication. A case study on risk assessment comes from Canada and is supported by papers on risk management in Europe, North America, South America and Asia. Other relevant matters dealt with are the nutrition of ruminants in Europe and the tropics, rendering practices and the destruction of TSE infectivity, and diagnostic tests for animal tissues in feeds for animals. It is hoped that the paper on the differential diagnosis of BSE in Western Europe will lead to corresponding papers for other regions of the world.
For the first time since the initial examination of the TSEs in the Review, a slackening of public pressure on the BSE issue can be perceived in Europe, probably due to the progressive decrease in BSE numbers in the UK and most European countries.
Monumental progress in the underlying science of the TSEs since 1992 has awakened hope that innovative control and treatment measures can be achieved, if efforts do not wane.
The role of the prion protein in the pathogenesis of these neurodegenerative conditions has been defined in such a way that this protein can be a target for therapy. It is now less of a dream that the immune system can be manipulated to protect against the TSEs. Powerful tools are now available for the management of BSE. Clear and certain hindsight about the mechanisms of spread of this disease and rapid diagnostic tests are prime examples.
Progress made is no excuse for arrogance. The ?BSE crisis? must not be allowed to fade away without all the lessons being taken from it. We still need to learn how to manage a disease that has been recognised for centuries, scrapie, and to properly address a new emerging disease, chronic wasting disease. In addition, there are still too many uncertainties about the aetiological agent of these still enigmatic diseases. Any slowing of the pace of fundamental research on TSEs will endanger overall progress in the knowledge and understanding of all human cerebral neurodegenerative diseases and will thwart further developments for controlling their animal counterparts.
The present issue of the Review is definitely not designed as the last word on risk analysis for BSE and the TSEs. Rather, the book has been designed to continue an evolving and necessary process and to provide a reference point that indicates the state of development in 2003.
We are indebted to Gill Dilmitis and her editorial team at the OIE for their supreme professionalism, which lightened our load and added pleasure to our task of co-ordination.
AD Corinne Ida Lasmézas, Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, Laboratoire de Pathogenèse des Prions, Service de Neurovirologie, Direction des Sciences du Vivant / Département de Recherche Médicale, Fontenay-aux-Roses, France; David Adams, Principal Research Scientist on TSEs, Animal Health Science, Product Integrity, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry ? Australia, Canberra, Australia
SP englisch
PO Frankreich
OR Sonderheft vorhanden