Released: May 14, 2004

K-State Named BSE Testing Site

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State University’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory has been named as one of the 12 U.S. labs approved to begin testing for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

“There were seven identified initially, and we are one of five that have been added to those – who have been approved by the United States Department of Agriculture to screen and test for BSE,” said Ralph Richardson, dean of K-State’s College of Veterinary Medicine. The diagnostic laboratory is part of that college.

The USDA made the announcement earlier this week. K-State will begin screening for BSE June 1, 2004.

For several years K-State veterinarians have been involved in testing for other prion diseases, such as chronic wasting disease in deer and elk and scrapie in sheep, Richardson said. That expertise may have played a role in K-State’s designation as a testing site for BSE.

USDA area veterinarians-in-charge throughout the country will be sending brain samples to K-State and the other screening labs. The samples will come from older cattle that might have been at risk years ago of eating feed that could have contained meat and bone meal, he said.

“Those samples will be screened by a rapid diagnostic test, and we certainly hope all of them will be negative. Any animal that has demonstrated neurologic signs – any ‘downer’ animals – will be subjected to testing as well,” he said.

Tests for BSE, sometimes called mad cow disease, have recently been developed that provide results in a matter of minutes or hours. Previous tests took days, Richardson said.

K-State technicians have traveled as far away as Ireland for training in the test kits.

In the event a test at any one of the 12 screening sites is suspect or positive, further testing on the sample will be conducted by the National Animal Disease Laboratory in Ames, Iowa.

K-State is projected to test 2,000 to 5,000 samples per year for BSE.

Because of its work in recent years in food safety and biosecurity, the university was well positioned to take on this new responsibility, Richardson said.

K-State will break ground this summer on a $50 million biosecurity building, and the College of Veterinary Medicine recently remodeled part of its existing facilities to accommodate a high security laboratory.

With the testing being associated with the slaughter or rendering process, diagnosticians will likely have little interaction with cattle producers, he said. The carcasses of all tested animals will be quarantined until the results of the BSE screening test have been reported.

If a producer or veterinarian identifies an animal with neurologic abnormalities, the local veterinarian should notify the USDA area veterinarian-in-charge. The animal will be humanely killed and its carcass isolated while the brain is tested. Only after a negative test result will the carcass be allowed to enter the food chain or rendering process.

“Of course, I think by being more knowledgeable and having the capacity to be involved in the industry, all aspects of our college ... the College of Agriculture ... our entire university will be in a better position to talk not only about testing, but also about prion disease research,” Richardson said. “We see it as one part of a three-legged stool – of making a solid foundation for animal disease research, testing and policy – that Kansas State is so well-known for.”

Richardson credited Sen. Pat Roberts and other legislators for supporting K-State’s BSE testing application and its scientific and research efforts in general.

"I am pleased that Kansas State has received this prestigious designation,” Roberts said in a May 11 statement. “I know that K-State will have a nationwide impact on the analysis and testing of BSE. This further solidifies Kansas State as a national and world leader in animal and plant disease and food security research."

For more information about BSE, interested persons can visit these Web sites: http://www.usda.gov and  http://www.BSEinfo.org .

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K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.

Story by:
Mary Lou Peter
mlpeter@oznet.ksu.edu
K-State Research& Extension News