News

After a recent report about a 'probable variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease' case, the EUROCJD group replies in a public letter why it considers the diagnosis 'unlikely'. The group states that 'the diagnosis of vCJD cannot be regarded as correct unless there is neuropathological verification of this diagnosis'.

Fish and spices the most common sources

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A new synopsis in EID by Saunders et al. summarizes 'Occurrence, Transmission, and Zoonotic Potential of Chronic Wasting Disease'.

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Lamont et al. report observing MaP cultures going into a 'spore-like morphotype' under stress conditions. This has important implications for strategies to control MaP.

Long awaited, a key reference in our 'Recommended Risk Management Plan for Paratuberculosis' has finally become available online. You can find the paper 'Assessment of Sources of Exposure for Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis in Food and Water' by Mihajlovic et al. in Int. food risk anal. j., 2011, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1-22, here. The paper represents another compilation of studies on MAP in food and water.

Pribylova et al. report finding MaP bacteria in intestine (used for sausage casings), masseter (chewing muscle) and diaphragm of dairy cattle. They state that "due to the changing behaviour of consumers, both of these muscles have started to be widely used in cuisine" and suggest that "processing of cows with paratuberculosis in abattoirs without any precautions (restrictions) and the usage of meat for human consumption should be rethought."

Münster et al. report finding about 17% of a random sample of German cattle MaP positive.

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