Komputer for Alle 1998 #6/1998 CD 6 (Gul).iso/web/ffa/wwwenv~1.org/arrs/digest/news50~6.htm/text0000.txt

Internet Message Format | 1998-04-03 | 47.2 KB

From: Vadivu Govind <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (TW) Tycoon plans park for stray dogs
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>The Sunday Times
AUG 24 1997

     Forget the dog house, tycoon plans park for Taiwan's
     strays


     ECCENTRIC Taiwanese tycoon Ke Tsu-hai has bought a huge plot of land to
house     Taiwan's stray dogs and plans to use it as the backdrop for a
film, "Extraordinary     Mission", the Taiwanese version of "101 Dalmatians".

     To date, he has adopted more than 400 stray dogs, the China Times
Express reported.     It costs NT$2 million (S$107,400) a month to feed and
clean them.

     The park for the stray dogs and the film project would set him back
further by another     few million, but the tycoon was not put off by the
high costs, said the newspaper.

     Pointing to 10 boxes of shares piled in a corner of his room, he
revealed that he had     made a lot of money on the stock market recently.

     He said he was angry with the government for treating the strays like
"trash" and for     exterminating them indiscriminately.
He wanted the dogs to live out their lives in his park in the Linkou
industrial area,     roaming freely on its 49,500-sq-m grounds (about half
the size of Haw Par Villa) and     fed by more than 10 park rangers.

     The movie "Extraordinary Mission", he said, would bring the problem of
Taiwan's stray     dogs international attention.

     In the film, the bad guys would be the presidential guards, Taipei
mayor Chen     Shui-bian and police officers, all bent on killing off the
stray dogs.

Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 01:48:34 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [UK]  Anger at pressure to build 'mad cow' furnaces
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>From The Electronic Telegraph - Sunday, August 24th, 1997

              Anger at pressure to build 'mad cow' furnaces
              By Greg Neale and Graham Hind


              COUNCILS have accused the Government of pressuring
              them to approve the building of controversial incinerators in
              its attempt to end the mad cow disease outbreak.

              The accusations come after a senior civil servant wrote to
              every chief planning officer in the country, saying extra
              incinerators were urgently needed to destroy the carcasses of
              hundreds of thousands of cattle slaughtered under the drive
              to wipe out BSE.

              In the letter - a copy of which has been passed to The
              Sunday Telegraph - Dr Brian Marker, a senior official in the
              minerals and waste planning division of the Department of
              the Environment, says the Government "considers it
              important that additional incineration capacity should be
              provided urgently".

              While Dr Marker's letter says that such incinerators "will not
              receive special, or less demanding treatment" from pollution
              control authorities, it urges councils to be "alert for
              opportunities to contribute to the provision of additional
              capacity".

              Before the election there was a "green welly" revolt in many
              shire counties - often including those with senior
              Conservative figures - against proposals to build incinerators.

              Since the election, a majority of councils have continued to
              resist applications by would-be incinerator operators. Experts
              say burning cattle remains is the best way to destroy the
              prion protein, thought to be responsible for the disease.
              Council officers contacted by The Telegraph said they felt
              under pressure to agree incinerator plans.

              Only two new incinerators have so far been approved for
              trial burning to begin - at Langar, Notts, and Flagg,
              Derbyshire.

              Villagers in Flagg, which is in the Peak national park, are
              divided over the issue. Sheenagh Mudford, a spokesman for
              an action group fighting the incinerator plan, said: "We
              accept that carcasses will have to be disposed of, but surely
              it should be at a secure industrial site, not next door to a
              village in a national park?"



             ⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.

Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 14:54:38 +0300
From: erez ganor <[e-mail]>
To: "[e-mail]" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Kibbutz Or-Haner will raise apes for labs (ISRAEL)
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A second farm for monkeys raised for lab experienses is being build
these days in Kibbutz Or-Haner in Israel.
The American company Primatis World Wed who is dealing with animal tests

has established contact with the kibbutz and offerd to supply young
monkeys that will be raised in Israel and later distributed to labs in
other countries.
The monkeys will be raised in cages in a site of a wadi hidden from the
eyes, about 3 kilometers from the kibbutz but still on its territories.
The Israeli Vet' authority togeter with the Israeli Nature reservation
Authority approved the facility.
A minority of Kibuttz members is getting organized against the brutal
and the exploitation of these animals just for the sake of few more
Shekels in the Kibbutz account.
Moshe Dardick the secretary of Kibbutz Or-haner said the deal is not
final yet and we are still negotiating with the american company. he
doesn't understand what the whole fass about since the kibbutz is
raising calves who get slaughtered and no one cares. is that better? he
also said that the experiments are not killing the monkeys and after all
it is all for the sake of human society.
The Israeli Nature reservation Authority approved the application of the
kibbutz after they were found fullfiling the standards set by Israel and
by the International treaty.
The firts Israeli Farm was established few years ago in Moshav Mazor not
far from the Ben-Gurion International Airport, and distributes its
monkeys to destinations in Europe and America.  The animals are
delivered by El-Al the Israeli National Airline, after European Airlines
refused to ship this kind of Cargo.

the Kibbutz Phone number is + 972 - 7 6802511
Fax No' [phone].
Please fax your protest letters to the Kibbutz secretary.
Also please send copies to the Israeli Embassies in your countries.

Thanks for your support,

Erez Ganor
The Israeli Cetacean Freedom Group
P.O.Box 3139 Roshon le-Zion 75308
Fax: [phone]
E-Mail: [e-mail]


Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 09:13:08 -0400
From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) The next bad beef scandal? [manure and dead cats]
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
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read what they really eat...
from US News Online:
-----------------------------------------
         The next bad beef scandal?

         Cattle feed now contains things like manure and dead cats

         Learn more about how to keep your food safe

         BY MICHAEL SATCHELL AND STEPHEN J. HEDGES

         It was about as exciting as things get in quiet Columbus, Neb.
         Last week, just a few days after their arrival, a SWAT team of
         agricultural inspectors forced the closing of the town's Hudson
         Foods Co. plant, declaring that a jumbled record system and
         questionable procedures made it difficult, if not impossible, to
         determine how E. coli bacteria had tainted the hamburger patties
         fashioned there. The bad meat, the inspectors found, came from
         one of seven slaughterhouses that supplied Hudson on June 5. Just
         which one wasn't immediately clear. Hudson recalled 25 million
         pounds of its meat, and Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman
         offered assurances that the plant would not open until "far more
         stringent safety standards" had been adopted. "All evidence at
         this point," he added, "indicates that we have contained the
         outbreak."

         Glickman's declaration may have been a tad premature. The true
         extent of the Hudson hamburger contamination will remain a
         mystery until inspectors know exactly which plants supplied the
         beef. From there, they will have to investigate further to
         determine if Hudson's suppliers also sent bad meat to other food
         companies. What is indisputable, however, is that the problems at
         Hudson represent only one of many threats to the nation's meat
         supply.

         Bargain breakfast. Agriculture experts say a slew of new and
         questionable methods of fattening cattle are being employed by
         farmers. To trim costs, many farmers add a variety of waste
         substances to their livestock and poultry feed--and no one is
         making sure they are doing so safely. Chicken manure in
         particular, which costs from $15 to $45 a ton in comparison with
         up to $125 a ton for alfalfa, is increasingly used as feed by
         cattle farmers despite possible health risks to consumers. In
         regions with large poultry operations, such as California, the
         South, and the mid-Atlantic, more and more farmers are turning to
         chicken manure as a cheaper alternative to grains and hay.

         Lamar Carter is one such cattle farmer. Carter recently purchased
         745 tons of litter scooped from the floors of local chicken
         houses, stacking it 12 feet high on his farm near Dardanelle,
         Ark. After allowing the protein-rich excrement to heat up for
         seven to 10 days, Carter mixes it with smaller amounts of soybean
         bran, and feeds this fecal slumgullion to his 800 head of cattle.
         "My cows are fat as butterballs," Carter says. "If I didn't have
         chicken litter, I'd have to sell half my herd. Other feed's too
         expensive."

         Health officials are not as enthusiastic. Chicken manure often
         contains campylobacter and salmonella bacteria, which can cause
         disease in humans, as well as intestinal parasites, veterinary
         drug residues, and toxic heavy metals such as arsenic, lead,
         cadmium, and mercury. These bacteria and toxins are passed on to
         the cattle and can be cycled to humans who eat beef contaminated
         by feces during slaughter. A scientific paper scheduled for
         publication this fall in the journal Preventive Medicine points
         to the potential dangers of recycling chicken waste to cattle.
         "Feeding manure that has not been properly processed is
         supercharging the cattle feces with pathogens likely to cause
         disease in consumers," says Dr. Neal Barnard, head of the
         Washington, D.C.--based health lobby Physicians Committee for
         Responsible Medicine, an author of the article.

         The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta
         estimates there may be as many as 80 million incidences of
         food-borne illness each year in the United States, and about
         9,000 deaths. Salmonella accounts for 4 million cases, of which
         500 to 1,000 are fatal. Campylobacter, which causes acute
         gastroenteritis, afflicts between 4 million and 6 million people
         annually, killing about 100. E. coli, the bacteria that was found
         in the tainted Hudson Foods beef, causes up to 250 fatalities and
         triggers serious illness in up to 20,000 people annually. At
         least 17 people have fallen ill from eating contaminated Hudson
         beef.

         Agricultural refuse such as corncobs, rice hulls, fruit and
         vegetable peelings, along with grain byproducts from retail
         production of baked goods, cereals, and beer, have long been used
         to fatten cattle. In addition, some 40 billion pounds a year of
         slaughterhouse wastes like blood, bone, and viscera, as well as
         the remains of millions of euthanized cats and dogs passed along
         by veterinarians and animal shelters, are rendered annually into
         livestock feed--in the process turning cattle and hogs, which are
         natural herbivores, into unwitting carnivores.

         The kitchen sink. Animal-feed manufacturers and farmers also have
         begun using or trying out dehydrated food garbage, fats emptied
         from restaurant fryers and grease traps, cement-kiln dust, even
         newsprint and cardboard that are derived from plant cellulose.
         Researchers in addition have experimented with cattle and hog
         manure, and human sewage sludge. New feed additives are being
         introduced so fast, says Daniel McChesney, head of animal-feed
         safety for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, that the
         government cannot keep pace with new regulations to cover them.

         No accurate statistics exist on how many farmers feed poultry
         waste to their cattle. Roger Hoestenbach, former president of the
         Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), which
         sets standards for the animal-feed industry, estimates it occurs
         to some degree in half to three quarters of the states.
         Regulating the safety of the nation's animal feed is the FDA's
         responsibility, but the agency only monitors interstate commerce.
         Waste products are rarely shipped over long distances, because
         transportation costs wipe out the savings from using cheaper
         materials. Manure is not used by the large, commercial
         livestock-feed manufacturers because they would be required to
         perform expensive tests to detect pathogens and toxins. But
         farmers don't have to use commercial feed; they are free to feed
         their animals anything they choose, and many use poultry litter.

         Distasteful as it may seem, chicken and turkey droppings can be
         fed safely if handled properly. This involves correctly stacking
         the manure for four to eight weeks while the naturally generated
         heat raises temperatures to 160 to 170 degrees Fahrenheit, high
         enough to destroy bacteria and toxins. However, farmers
         rarely--if ever--check the temperatures of manure piles or test
         to make sure the waste is pathogen free, according to interviews
         with university extension experts, state and federal agriculture
         officials, livestock feed-industry regulators, and beef growers
         in large poultry producing states. Some farmers say they feed
         chicken manure raw to cattle straight from the broiler house,
         which virtually ensures problems. Others "go by the smell" to
         judge when it is ready.

         Studies of manure-feed safety, argue the authors of the
         Preventive Medicine report, have been conducted largely in
         controlled environments, not in the casual, unregulated
         conditions on most farms. Few studies address public health
         aspects, and there is an overall dearth of published information.
         "Feeding manure may not be aesthetically pleasing, but it is safe
         if you process it properly," says the FDA's McChesney. "If you
         don't, it's like playing with matches around gasoline." Rodney
         Noel, secretary of the AAFCO feed-standards group, agrees there
         is a serious regulatory gap. "There should be some decent
         production oversight of these types of byproducts," he says,
         "particularly when there is a possibility of contamination."

         Mad cows. The contents of animal feed are attracting more
         attention as a result of the outbreak of so-called mad cow
         disease in Great Britain and concern that similar problems could
         occur here. More than a dozen Britons died after eating beef from
         cattle infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The
         cattle are thought to have contracted the disease by eating
         rendered brains and spinal cords of sheep infected with a
         condition called scrapie. While scrapie is far less common in the
         United States, on August 4 the FDA ordered a halt to feeding all
         slaughterhouse wastes to U.S. cattle and sheep as a BSE safety
         precaution. Seventy-five percent of the nation's 90 million
         cattle had been eating feed containing slaughterhouse byproducts,
         so the ban raises the possibility that more farmers and feed
         manufacturers will turn to cheap additives like manure and other
         questionable waste products.

         The Department of Agriculture recently instituted a high-tech
         regime of meat inspections to catch bacteria like E. coli, but
         those procedures are still being introduced into packing plants.
         In addition, the department is hobbled by old laws, as it was in
         the Hudson Foods case: It couldn't legally close the company's
         Columbus plant once problems were discovered but could only
         recommend the company suspend operations. Hudson complied, but
         the department's inability to act unilaterally, Glickman said,
         was a frustration. "One of the biggest loopholes out there is the
         fact that I do not have authority to order a recall of bad
         product or bad meat," he said. That may change if the
         administration succeeds in pushing through a legislative fix this
         fall. Consumers, meanwhile, who generally know little or nothing
         about what happens to meat on its way to their table, also have
         no way to learn if their beef has been fattened on chicken
         droppings. And maybe they don't want to know.

         With Linda Kulman

Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 09:16:35 -0400
From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) HIDDEN RISKS
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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useful for listing the hidden toxins most people don't know about
from US News Online:
-----------------------------------
          HIDDEN RISKS

          I'll take that burger well done!

          Learn more about how to keep your food safe

          Food-borne illness sickens up to 80 million Americans each year.
          Four common causes:

          E. coli. Flourishes in cattle intestines. Meat (usually ground
          beef) can be contaminated by fecal contact during slaughter. In
          humans, can cause cramping and diarrhea, progressing to kidney
          failure in severe cases. Prevention: Cook ground beef to an
          internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit, other beef to
          145-170 degrees.

          Salmonella. Can be present in raw meat. Symptoms of illness
          include nausea, vomiting, cramps, and fever. Prevention: Wash
          cutting surfaces and hands and cook meat thoroughly as above.

          Campylobacter. Found mainly in raw chicken, the bacteria can
          pass to cattle that feed on chicken manure, and then to humans
          if slaughter involved fecal contact. Prevention: Cook chicken to
          180 degrees Fahrenheit; for beef, see above.

          Toxic heavy metals. Arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury can
          collect in cattle organs and tissues. Effects on humans who eat
          tainted beef are uncertain. Prevention: Unclear. Some experts
          call for removal of more heavy metals from waste before it is
          used as feed or fertilizer.--L.K.

Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 07:11:41 -0800
From: IGHA/HorseAid Volunteer <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: State of CA vs. Tom Valter Sentencing
Message-ID: <v03110700b025fc49d203@[207.217.20.158]>
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Valter's motion for a new trial was denied and the motion to reduce the
four felony convictions to misdemeanors was also denied.  He was given 5
years felony probation and a $5,000.00 fine with a court order to maintain
humane practices in his training of horses, a violation of which would
result in his being sent
to state prison.

The civil lawsuit filed by Peggy Arnone and Katie Thompson against Mary
Anne Hogan who rescued their horse, Zooloog from Valter's torture has
been dismissed, as have all criminal charges against Ms. Hogan.
Contributions to offset the legal expenses and other costs of this rescue
effort may be sent to:  American Society for Animal Protection, 29201
Heathercliff Road, Suite 118, Malibu CA 90265

Two weeks ago, Mrs. Tom Valter sent IGHA/HorseAid e-mail threating us with
a civil lawsuit unless we removed our account of this case from our Web
site, but we refused.

It must be stressed that the brave actions of one very caring animal lover
named Mary Ann Hogan resulted in the charges being filed that led to this
conviction.

More info: http://www.igha.org/news.html


Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 13:16:50 -0400 (EDT)
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Oklahoma Weekly Hunting News
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>


A/w local Oklahoma City hunting news:

Public hearings will be held across the state on proposed hunting
regulations for the 1998 season.  This includes one authorizing
a 16 day deer gun season. The meetings will be held this next
week thru out Oklahoma.

Hunters who plan to take advantage of the Sept. teal season
must obtain a state duck stamp in addition to the federal stamp.
This year's Oklahoma Waterfowl Hunting Stamp features a pair
of common goldeneye standing on a snowy bank.  State duck
stamps cost $4 and are available at hunting and fishing license
dealers thruout the state.

A benefit archery shoot is scheduled for sept. 7th at the Rocky
Mountain Archery Range near Stilwell in northeastern Okla.
The proceeds goto help defray medical expenses of a two
year old cancer victim Haylie Beach of Westville. Both men
and women's eventrs are planned as well as contests for
younsters.

Every year deer are missed or wounded because hunters have
not taken the time to make sure their rifles are shooting where
they aim.  Two "Sight-In Days" will be held by the Oklahoma
City Gun Club.  Bring ear protection and plenty of ammo.
Club members will be on hand with spotting scopes to assist
shooters.

                                                   For the Animals,

                                                   Jana, OKC
Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 13:40:59 -0400 (EDT)
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Oklahoma's Dove Season Preview
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>


A/w Oklahoma City hunting news:

The Oklahoma dove season could be over before it starts if
the cool weather holds.  Since the dove season begins on
1 Sept., it usually heralds the arrival of the first serious cool
front since sometime in March.  Brisk weather may be enjoyable
for football fans but doves head south on the first north wind.
Oklahoma has had several cool fronts this August.  If they had
occured a bit later it would have been too much for the doves.

Although the season continues thru October, if the weather
turns cold doves will be so scarce that most hunters will simply
not bother.  Migrants from the north never take up the slack.
However, the Oklahoma Wildlife Dept encourages everyone,
especially beginners, to take advantage of one of the easiest hunts
available in the state.  And if any birds are still here, both residents
and non-residents can even hunt Sept. 6th thru the 7th without
a license.  "Free Hunting" has been authorized that weekend
by the Wildlife Commission. (There is a daily bag limit of 15.)

According to Mr. Alan Peoples, assistant Chief of Game, "Unlike
some other types of hunting, dove hunting is an easy sport to
get started in.  Dove hunting is offered on many public hunting
areas, and many private landowners allow courteous hunters to
hunt doves on their property, so finding a place to go isn't that
difficult."

A 12-guage or 20-gauge shotgun with improved cylinder of modified
choke and ammo with No. 8 or 9 shot are usually recommended.
Hunting tactics are fairly basic as well, although they do vary by
area of the state.

Out in the western part of the state water is often in limited supply
during dove season.  Cattle tanks, windmills, small ponds and
even puddles can produce fast action when birds come in to
water in the morning and the evening.  Active feed fields shouldn't
be overlooked either.  Active is the keyword, since dove feeding
and flight patterns tend to shift radically thru out the season.
Prehunt scouting is the only way to pin down what fields the birds
are using. And don't forget the recently picked agricultural fields.
Crops such as wheat, corn, sorghum, millet and rye are important
food sources where the birds can be found.  Weedy areas
containing sunflowers, croton, ragweed and pigweed are also
excellent bets.

                                                          For the Animals,

                                                          Jana, OKC
Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 15:51:15 -0400
From: Vegetarian Resource Center <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail], [e-mail]
Subject: ProMED Digest - BSE/CJD issues
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 10:06:13 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Gary Greenberg, MD" <[e-mail]>
Subject: OEM: New controversy on CJD / BSE in UK

---------- Forwarded message ----------
ProMED Digest             Saturday, 23 August 1997      Volume 97 : Number 212

In this issue:

        PRO/AH/EDR> Anthrax, human - Zimbabwe (Mashonaland)
        PRO/AH/EDR> Influenza, bird-to-man, first case?
        PRO/AH> Lyme's disease - Canada (Saskatchewan)
        PRO/AH> Rabies, fox - USA (Buffalo)
        PRO/AH> Vibrio poisoning, shellfish - USA
        PRO/AH/EDR> Influenza, bird-to-man, first case? (03)
        PRO/EDR> Typhoid - Dominican Republic (03)
        PRO/ALL> ProMED-mail award to outstanding contributors
        PRO/AH> CJD (new var.), vegetarian - UK

See the end of the digest for information on how to retrieve back issues.

...

From: [e-mail]
Date: Sat, 23 Aug 1997 23:06:23 -0400
Subject: PRO/AH> CJD (new var.), vegetarian - UK

CJD (NEW VAR.), VEGETARIAN - UK
********************************
A ProMEd-mail posting

[1]

Date:         Thu, 21 Aug 1997 20:30:50 -0700
Via:       Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy <[e-mail]>
From:         "Hans G. Andersson" <[e-mail]>
Subject:      New nvCJD victim - Vegetarian

Here's latest nvCJD news from British press:

A YOUNG woman who has been vegetarian for the past 12 years has the new
strain of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease which scientists have linked to "mad
cow" disease.

The case is highly unusual because the first clinical case of BSE was
recorded in cattle only in 1986 - a year after Clare X, now aged 24,
stopped eating meat. ( Vet. Colin Whitaker's first BSE case was reported
in April 1985. Nathanson, Wilesmith et al. reports suspected cases of BSE
from N Yorkshire, Kent, W Sussex, Hampshire, Somerset, Cornwall, Devon and
Dyfed in 1985. Source: Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy BSE): "Causes and
Consequences of a Common Source Epidemic", American Journal of
Epidemiology, Vol 145, No 11, June 1, 1997)

Her father said last night that he was told of the diagnosis a week and a
half ago by Professor John Collinge, professor of neuro-genetics at
Imperial College, London, and at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, where he
heads a specialist unit investigating CJD.

Her father said: "My daughter is still alive, but Professor Collinge told
me there was no doubt about the diagnosis, which was done by a biopsy of
the tonsils. There seems little doubt that she must have caught CJD from
mechanically recovered meat eaten before 1985. When we told doctors she
had been a vegetarian since 1985 there were a few raised eyebrows. They
were very very surprised. Clare was a very strict vegetarian, though she
did eat cheese and drink milk. She would not even eat biscuits if the
packet showed that they contained gelatine or animal fat, for example. We
used to joke that she was a bit of a pain about it."

Professor Collinge was abroad and not available for comment last night,
but Robert Will, head of the CJD Surveillance Unit in Edinburgh, said that
it was not impossible that people could have been exposed to BSE in meat
products before 1985. "Although the first clinical case of BSE in cattle
was not diagnosed until 1986, cattle incubating the disease could have
been entering the food chain before then," he said.

Another possibility was that Miss X might unwittingly have eaten food that
contained animal fat or mechanically recovered meat derived from cattle
spinal cord or brain. "We simply do not know all the kinds of food such
material might have gone into," Dr Will said.

An even more intriguing possibility suggested by the case is that the new
strain of CJD might not, after all, have been caused by BSE, but Dr Will
said he did not think that likely. Most scientists agree that
circumstantial evidence of a link is very strong.

Mr X said that Clare, who worked in the pet department of a garden centre
near her home in Tonbridge, Kent, and was engaged to be married, first
showed symptoms of the disease early last year. "She was a healthy seven
stone [Appoximately, 20 lbs if my memory serves me right. Mod. pc] and
then we noticed she began losing weight," Mr X said. "Clare looked as
though she was becoming depressed. She cried all the time and we realised
she had lost a stone in weight.

"She was diagnosed as suffering from depression and was on
anti-depressants for ten weeks, but they made no difference. Clare was
then given electro-convulsive therapy at a pyschiatric clinic and her
weight dropped to little over five stone."

Brain specialists at the Kent and Sussex Hospital in Tunbridge Wells first
suspected that Miss X had CJD earlier this year. She is now in an advanced
stage of the disease and needs 24-hour home nursing.

Source: The Times, August 22, 1997

- ---
Hans G. Andersson, NYC -- [e-mail]
Editor, Ebola section of OUTBREAK
http://www.outbreak.org/

***

[2]
Date:         Fri, 22 Aug 1997 13:50:02 +0100
Via:       Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy <[e-mail]>
From:         Oz <[e-mail]>
Subject:      Re: New nvCJD victim - Vegetarian

In message <[e-mail]>, Rachel
Shepherd <[e-mail]> writes

>Interesting.  Presumably she also came into contact with pet food and
animal- based fertilisers. Hmmmmm.

Fair comment. Indeed in many old-fashioned pet shops smaller quantities
were sold from 25kg bags loose using a small scoop to hand-fill small
paper bags. It is most unlikely that masks would be worn.

However it's hard to believe that a serious vegetarian such as the young
lady has been described as would work in such a place, or handle such
products.

Whilst the fairly strong circumstantial evidence is that nv-CJD is from
BSE, it is as well to bear in mind that it is still yet unproven.

- --
Hotz de Baar
England
***

[3]
Date:         Fri, 22 Aug 1997 14:36:05 +0200
Via:       Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy <[e-mail]>
From:         Roland Heynkes <[e-mail]>
Subject:      Re: New nvCJD victim - Vegetarian

This is really bad news because it demonstrates, that even very careful
consumers seem to have been without any chance to avoid a lethal BSE
infection.

The first cases have been observed by a field veterinarian in 1985.
Therefore there must have been infective cattle many years before.

>"When we told doctors she had been a vegetarian since 1985 there were a
few raised eyebrows. They were very very surprised.<

I was surprised too at the first moment. But there is no scientific reason
to be surprised.

(1.) It is in practice impossible to avoid products with animal origin.
You can hardly find drugs or cosmetics without tallow or gelatine. Also in
food, ingredients of cattle, sheep or pig origin are ubiquitous. It is
impossible to produce gelatine free of infectivity from BSE affected
cattle and british raw material has been used until 1996. Nobody can say,
if tallow, produced from BSE cattle is really free of infectivity. Who
knows how tallow is produced exactly. And is there really a substancial
difference between the infectivities of meat and milk? For both there is
only one report of successful transmission in the scientific literature.

(2.) According to the prion theory the incubation time is largely
determined by the dosis at the earliest uptake of infectious agent. After
the first few human prion proteins have been converted by cattle prions,
the reaction goes on at least one order of magnitude faster with human
prions which convert human prion protein. Once this process has been
started, further infections with foreign prions needs to be very heavily
to further increase the speed of the process substancially.

Therefore for those who became infected before 1985, it is not really
relevant, if they became vegetarians later on.

> An even more intriguing possibility suggested by the case is that the
new strain of CJD might not, after all, have been caused by BSE,
but Dr Will said he did not think that likely. Most scientists agree
that circumstantial evidence of a link is very strong.<

This is correct, but it is also possible that the so called new variant of
CJD is not really new and occured from time to time long before BSE became
a problem. Brown,P.; Rodgers-Johnson,P.; Cathala,F.; Gibbs,C.J. Jr. and
Gajdusek,D.C. reported already 1984 in "Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease of long
duration: clinicopathological characteristics, transmissibility, and
differential diagnosis. - Annals of Neurology 1984 Sep; 16(3): 295-304",
that 33 of 357 histopathologically verified cases belonged to a special
type of CJD with very long clinical course (often several years instead of
only a few months), younger age at onset (average, 48 years), and lower
frequencies of myoclonus (79%) and periodic electroencephalographic
activity (45%). I doubt that all this cases have been shown not to belong
to the group of nvCJD.

- ---
Roland Heynkes
***

[4]
Date:         Thu, 21 Aug 1997 22:23:44 -0400
Via:       Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy <[e-mail]>
From:         "Robert A. LaBudde" <[e-mail]>
Subject:      More bizarre news on BSE

Excerpted from FSNET (D. Powell, Univ. Guelph):

BRITAIN-CHARCOAL COWS
Aug. 21/97
AP

LONDON -- A north England utility is, according to this story, filtering
some of its water supply through the bones of sacred cows that have been
burned into charcoal and horrified vegetarians are turning off their taps.

Yorkshire Water PLC is cited as saying it uses only bones imported from
India, where cows are considered sacred and allowed to live out their
natural lives. Their old, brittle bones make perfect raw material for
charcoal filters. Using cattle from Western societies that slaughter them
young for beef would not work so well because "their bones, like a human
baby's, are still relatively soft," Yorkshire Water was cited as saying in
a statement.

Yorkshire Water added that, "we can't undertake to supply water which
meets individual dietary needs or individual religious, ethical or medical
needs." The company assures that because all bones are imported, there is
no way any of Britain's mad cows -- believed to cause a rare but fatal
human brain ailment -- could end up as water filter.

A spokesman for the Vegetarian Society, which campaigns against the use of
animal products, was quoted as saying, "Vegetarians throughout Yorkshire
will be sickened by this move. It is impossible for the consumer to choose
their water supply. Therefore, we are left in the frightening situation
where we can no longer trust what comes out of our taps."

Yorkshire Water spokesman Norman Hurst refused to answer questions.

- ---
Robert A. LaBudde
"Robert A. LaBudde" <[e-mail]>
..........................................mhj/pc
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Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 16:18:39 -0700
From: Andrew Gach <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Biocontrol at work
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
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Weevils go 'haywire' in biocontrol project


Copyright ⌐ 1997 Nando.net
Copyright ⌐ 1997 Reuter Information Service

WASHINGTON (August 21, 1997 6:40 p.m. EDT) - A weevil introduced in
North America to control rampaging European thistles has gone haywire
and started preying on native plants, scientists reported on Thursday.

They said the case illustrated the dangers of using living organisms to
control pests, and recommended that U.S. authorities be more careful
about what they let into the country.

European milk thistle and other, similar, species had long been the bane
of farmers and ranchers.

"It is just a hideous weed," said Don Strong, a professor of biology at
the University of California at Davis. "It renders rangeland and
agricultural land unusable because these thistles are so spiky and
noxious that cattle can't eat them. They are very aggressive colonizers
of open ground."

So in the late 1960s, experts came up with what seemed like a good idea
-- introduce something from the thistles' native land that eats them.
Enter the weevil Rhinocyllus conicus.

But the weevil liked all kinds of thistles, and started eating native
North American species, Svata Louda at the University of Nebraska and
colleagues at the University of Tennessee reported in the journal
Science.

"Weevils significantly reduced the seed production of native thistle
flowerheads," they wrote.

Writing a commentary on the findings, Strong called the weevil scheme "a
biocontrol project gone haywire."

He said the weevil really did prefer the European thistles. "But it
builds up populations on those and it goes over and clobbers the
natives," he said in a telephone interview. "The fear is that it is
evolving to specialize on the natives."

Strong and Louda's team both said the case taught a serious lesson about
the dangers of importing alien species.

Scientists will have to check more closely on what the controllers
really eat, how far they will spread and other possible ecological
effects, they said.

"The potential risks to both biodiversity and ecological stability are
high when a mistake occurs," Louda wrote.

Strong noted that public concerns about such issues were much stronger
elsewhere.

"Europe and Australia and New Zealand are way ahead of us on this," he
said.

"I think it's time for an open public discussion on biological control.
We've got funky regulations in the United States and a poorly developed
apparatus for contemplation of what organisms we
introduce for biological control."

Free markets made this difficult, Strong added. "But this is an issue
about free markets that we have to address."

By MAGGIE FOX, Reuters
Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 16:25:22 -0700
From: Andrew Gach <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Antibioti-resistent staph infection spread by hospitals
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria shows up in U.S.

The Associated Press

ATLANTA (August 21, 1997 9:22 p.m. EDT) -- A staph germ that has
resisted medicine's drug of last resort has shown up for the first time
in the United States, the government said Thursday.

"The timer is going off," said Dr. William Jarvis, a medical
epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We
were concerned it would emerge here, it has emerged here
and we are concerned we're going to see it popping up in more places."

A strain of staphylococcus aureus bacteria found in a Michigan man in
July showed an intermediate level of resistance to vancomycin -- one
step from immunity to the drug, the CDC said. The CDC and the Michigan
department of health would not identify the man or say where he lives.

The patient, who suffered kidney failure, had been taking vancomycin for
half a year for a recurring infection from an abdominal catheter used
for kidney dialysis. He now is being treated with a combination of
drugs, including vancomycin, Jarvis said.

The Michigan discovery came three months after a similar resistant
strain was found in Japan.

In May, the CDC reported that a 4-month-old Japanese infant developed
staph after heart surgery.  That strain of staph also showed an
intermediate resistance to vancomycin, and the baby was treated
with other drugs.

Jarvis said the new strain is rare and should not deter people from
seeking hospital care.

"The majority of people aren't going to be in danger of getting this,"
Jarvis said.

Nonetheless, U.S. hospitals were alerted to watch for the strain here.

"Now that you have two in such a short time, there will be heightened
concern," said Richard Schwalbe, director of clinical microbiology at
the University of Maryland.

Staph bacteria are the No. 1 cause of hospital infections. They are
blamed for about 13 percent of the nation's 2 million hospital
infections each year, according to the CDC. Overall, the 2 million
infections kill 60,000 to 80,000 people.

The bacteria can collect on clothing, blankets, walls and medical
equipment. Hospital workers can pass them on by hand, and they can cling
to tubes inserted into the body.

To combat their spread, many hospitals across the country have
restricted use of their most potent antibiotics and isolated their
sickest patients.

Dr. Robert Haley, chief of epidemiology at the University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said there's no reason hospitals
can't eradicate resistant staph.

"These are unique, special strains that can be eradicated," said Haley,
former chief of the CDC's hospital infections branch. "There needs to be
aggressive surveillance in hospitals. Once you see it,
don't let it stay and spread around the hospital until you can't get rid
of it."

For patients, the rise of drug-resistant germs means that the medicine
they get for their infection may not make them better, forcing doctors
to switch to one or more of the 100 antibiotics now on the market.

However, many fear the time is growing near when there will be no
alternative antibiotic to turn to.

Penicillin was a wonder drug that killed staph when it became available
in 1947. Within a decade, some strains grew resistant, a development
attributed to overuse of antibiotics and the failure of
some patients to take their medicine properly.

Then came methicillin in the 1960s, then vancomycin, which was so potent
it was regarded as the "silver bullet" against staph.

"There's going to be a lot of throwing up of arms with doctors saying
now we have to live with this," Haley said. "That is not true. We must
fight it vigorously. We are also going to have to be much more stingy
with our use of vancomycin."

Pharmaceutical companies are working to develop new antibiotics.

An experimental new antibiotic called Synercid, made by Rhone-Poulenc,
killed the strain found in the Japanese infant. In lab tests, it was
effective on the strain of staph in the Michigan man, but tests
showed his bacteria were not resistant to other antibiotics.

Synercid has not been approved yet for general use in the United States.

--By TARA MEYER, Associated Press
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 10:48:55 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (CN-HK) Rodent parts seen as tiger bone substitute
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


>South China Morning Post
 Internet Edition
                             Monday  August 25  1997

     Rodent parts seen as tiger bone substitute

     FIONA HOLLAND

     An international conference is to be told how rodent parts can be used
instead of tiger     bone in traditional Chinese medicine.

     The conference, which organisers hope will become an annual event, will
focus on     substitutes for tiger bone, used to cure rheumatism.

     Organisers said the rodent was found in Tibet, but details would only
be disclosed at     the December conference.

     The symposium will also be looking at substitutes for musk. Extracted