NR AXHU
AU Al-Zoughool,M.; Tyshenko,M.G.; Krewski,D.
TI Risk Management Case Study of the French BSE Outbreak
QU International Conference - Prion 2007 (26.-28.9.2007) Edinburgh International Conference Centre, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK - Book of Abstracts: Epidemiology, Risk Assessment and Transmission P04.31
IA http://www.prion2007.com/pdf/Prion Book of Abstracts.pdf
PT Konferenz-Poster
AB
The emergence a new infectious disease with serious economic, psychosocial and health consequences (like BSE) creates an enormous pressure on scientists, public health practitioners, and policy makers to evaluate the magnitude of the problem and identify the appropriate measures to minimize the risks. Several countries experienced a full-scale BSE epidemic and already surpassed the peak of the disease. In those countries, successes and failures of risk management practices that shaped their BSE crisis represent a valuable experience, and several lessons could be derived and applied to other countries in which the disease is still emerging.
France was the country where the first case of BSE was diagnosed outside the UK in February 1991 and currently has the second highest prevalence of vCJD. Throughout the epidemic, lack of appropriate risk assessment procedures and delay in adopting the necessary control measures contributed to the sharp increase of BSE cases in the late 90s. For example, early in the epidemic, the decision-making process was not based on scientific evaluation. Instead, scientific community was mobilized ex post in order to legitimize the decision. Another important feature in managing the BSE epidemic was that the French always lagged behind the UK in taking the proper precautionary actions. For example, British banned MBM for animal consumption in July 1988, while only in 1990 France banned MBM only for cattle. This has caused widespread cross-contamination of animal feed for different species. Also France banned the consumption of BSE-infective parts (brain, spinal cord, offal ... etc) in July 1996, almost six years after the British government adopted the same measure. This had probably led to the alarming increase of vCJD incidence at the beginning of 2000.
Despite these drawbacks, the French government accomplished great success in 2001 when they brought the epidemic under control after imposing and enforcing a complete ban on the use of MBM in animal feed.
The important lessons that can be learned from the French BSE experience are: relying on the available scientific knowledge in adopting decisions, acting rapidly in application and enforcement of the necessary control measures to prevent the spread the disease and protect human health, using other countries' experiences in managing BSE risks, and mobilizing the scientific community to embark on active and sound research on BSE basic science and epidemiology.
AD M. Al-Zoughool, M. Tyshenko, D. Krewski, McLaughlin Center for Population Health Risk Assessment, Canada
SP englisch
PO Schottland
EA pdf-Datei und Poster (Posterautoren ergänzt um S. Darshan)