Swiss Find First Case of "Mad Cat Disease"
From Susan Gordon - [email protected]
ZURICH, July 17 (Reuters) - A Swiss cat has been put down after it was found
suffering from an illness related to mad cow disease, the Swiss veterinary
office said on Tuesday.
The office said it was the first case of feline spongiform encephalopathy
(FSE) in Switzerland, but in Britain, 90 cases of the brain-wasting illness,
with symptoms similar to mad cow disease, or BSE, are known. The first was
registered in 1990.
FSE, which like bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cows leads to
severe disorders of the central nervous system, could spread to humans
through cat consumption, the office said.
"We could only get the disease if we ate cats' brains," spokesman Heinz
Mueller told Swiss television, counseling people who eat cat to no longer do
so.
While the exact cause of FSE is unknown, the Swiss assume the six-year-old
cat ate food containing animal brain tissue or bone marrow that was raw or
insufficiently heated.
"Swiss cats are not in jeopardy," Mueller said, referring to a 1996 ban on
the use of brain and marrow tissue, or of recycled dead cats and dogs, in cat
food.
Meat and bone meal (MBM), a cheap source of protein made from ground-up
remains of livestock, is thought to transmit BSE, although experts say that
as long as the animals used in MBM did not have BSE, it is safe in cat and
dog food.
The Swiss office said that in various countries, big cats in zoos, like
pumas, tigers and lions, have been diagnosed with FSE.
From Susan Gordon - [email protected]
ZURICH, July 17 (Reuters) - A Swiss cat has been put down after it was found
suffering from an illness related to mad cow disease, the Swiss veterinary
office said on Tuesday.
The office said it was the first case of feline spongiform encephalopathy
(FSE) in Switzerland, but in Britain, 90 cases of the brain-wasting illness,
with symptoms similar to mad cow disease, or BSE, are known. The first was
registered in 1990.
FSE, which like bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cows leads to
severe disorders of the central nervous system, could spread to humans
through cat consumption, the office said.
"We could only get the disease if we ate cats' brains," spokesman Heinz
Mueller told Swiss television, counseling people who eat cat to no longer do
so.
While the exact cause of FSE is unknown, the Swiss assume the six-year-old
cat ate food containing animal brain tissue or bone marrow that was raw or
insufficiently heated.
"Swiss cats are not in jeopardy," Mueller said, referring to a 1996 ban on
the use of brain and marrow tissue, or of recycled dead cats and dogs, in cat
food.
Meat and bone meal (MBM), a cheap source of protein made from ground-up
remains of livestock, is thought to transmit BSE, although experts say that
as long as the animals used in MBM did not have BSE, it is safe in cat and
dog food.
The Swiss office said that in various countries, big cats in zoos, like
pumas, tigers and lions, have been diagnosed with FSE.
