Conference misery::feline_v1

4103.0. "FSE - an update" by XNOGOV::LISA (There must be a pony) Tue Oct 23 1990 12:23

Copied without permission from Cat World October 1990
    
    FSE - Feline Spongiform Encephalopathy
    
    By
    
    Geoffrey West MRCVS
    
    
The first known victim of this disease was a 5 year old Siamese living in the
Bristol area. The cat had not responded to treatment for a nervous system
illness, one of the signs of which was an unstaedy gait, with a tendancy to
fall; then being unable to get to its feet without help. Euthanasia was decided
upon by vetinary surgeons at Bristol University, where a post-mortem
examination revealed spongiform encephalopathy. That was in May of this year.
Four other cats in the same household remain well.

The second case was diagnosed after a vet practising in the Belfast area
suspected FSE, and contacted the Stormont Vetinary Research Laboratory in the
same month. By the 15th August the total had reached seven.

Spongiform encephalopathy hasd been defined as the degenerartion of the grey
matter of the brain stem, with the formation of microscopic cavities called
vacuoles.

In May Mr Keith Meldrum, Chief Vetinary Officer, Ministry of Agriculture,
stated that there was no evidence that FSE was transmissible; nor had it any
known connection with other animal encephalopathies.

In July the Pet Food Manufacturers Association emphasised that their members do
not use in their cat foods those cattle tissues which have been banned from use
in human food; and they quoted British Vetinary Association advice: "Feed your
cat a quality proprietary cat food, or meat that is sold by a butcher or
supermarket for human consumption."

It is quite possible that FSE is not a new disease, but has occurred before
1990. If so, readers might ask, why was it not discovered earlier? The reason
could be simply that the brains of cats dying, or put down, after showing the
symptoms described above, were not autopsied at all, or, if they were, brain
tissue was not subjected to a microscopical examination. A great many cat
owners are understandably averse to post-mortem examination of their pets.

The precise cause of FSE has not been established for certain.

BSE
This type of brain disease in cattle was first recognised in England in 1986.

Affected cattle become apprehensive, excitable, walk in an abnormal manner or
lie down and cannot get up again, and become aggressive. In making a clinical
diagnosis, BSE has to be differentiated from five other diseases.

In the annual report for 1988/89 the Agricultural and Food Research Council
stated that Scrapie may appear within a few months in susceptable animals, or
be delayed for several years in resistant ones; but now the combined AFRC and
Medical Research Councils Neuropathogenesis Unit has developed a blood test
which can identify resistant animals within a matter of days.

But what causes Scrapie? An editorial in the Lancet this year commented: "All
the spongiform encephalopathies have a feature in common - the involvement of
an aberrant form of a normal cell protein called prion protein.

A prion was defined by Dr S P Prusiner in Science (1982) as a self replicating
infectious protein.

In June this year, the United States Depatment of Agriculture's Dr J L
Hourrigan and Dr W W Clark provided what they believe to be the first direct
evidence for the experimental transmissibility of Scrapie from sheep and goats
to cattle.

    
    Lisa,
    
    Thank you for taking the time to enter that note for us.  We really
    apreciate the information.
    
    Feline Well Informed,
    
    Sue & Panther & Spot

    If I remember, this is the infamous Spongy Brain Disease that had some
    a** h*** politician stating he AND his children ate British beef.
    (The EEC had banned British beef because of the transfer of SBD.)
    
    It's a "slow virus" that means you can pick it up many years before
    symptoms appear.  The human version of scrapie was proven to have 
    been passed from a cornea donor, to the cornea recipient, which shook 
    the medical world a bit.	
   

    To be perfectly honest, it was reading the article about the politician
    eating British Beef which convinced me that no way was I or my cats
    going to even touch the stuff.
    
    I mean, look what it's done to HIM!!