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- Hello Jeff,
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- Just received this article. First of all only 21 sheep
are euthanized. That leaves the rest of 376 sheep alive and milking. If
the USDA does get custody of the sheep in question, it is quite possible
that some of the sheep will be kept alive and studied at Plum Island.
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- Will the incineration of the 21 BSE sheep neutralize
the infective prion?
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- Now for the rest of the story, and the comment by Sandy
Hays.
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- If you remember the other night on your program I said
that I felt Plum Island has received private funds to upgrade to level
4. Ergo, that is why I felt Plum Island brought in Dr. David Huxsoll, 30
year Ft. Detrick biowar researcher.
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- Ms Hays, whom I interviewed and who repeatedly denied
that Plum Island is a biolevel 5 facility, is once again discussing biocontainment
levels.
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- Jeff, I sent you the proof that Plum Island is a biolevel
5. According to Dr. Alfonso Torres, previous Plum Island director, and
Dr. Kiley of Plum Island, at a USAHA conference, "Plum Island is the
only biolevle 5 facility in the US."
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- I will send you the minutes of those US Animal Health
Association conferences. Now here is the article.
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- Patricia Doyle
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- Plum Island Sheep Detoured
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- By Gwendolen Groocock 7-30-00
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- No one knows when or if the remaining suspected infected
sheep from Vermont will be sent to the Plum Island Animal Disease Center.
First, the flock is going to court.
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- The U.S. Department of Agriculture agreed last Friday
that it would not seize, pending a legal ruling, two of the three flocks
of sheep totaling 376 animals that might be infected with some form of
transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE), also known as mad cow disease.
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- But it's too late for 21 of the animals. After their
owner voluntarily turned the sheep over for a fair market compensation
of $66,150, they were taken to an animal import quarantine facility at
Stewart Air Base near Newburgh, New York, where they were euthanized and
will be incinerated, USDA spokesperson Patrick Collins said Tuesday.
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- "At first, the USDA planned to take [the 21 sheep]
over to Plum Island via the North Fork by ferry, but they changed their
minds," Southold Supervisor Jean Cochran said on Tuesday. "We
raised a fuss here, and I think they decided on somewhere quieter."
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- Ms. Cochran met with Plum Island's new director, Dr.
David Huxsoll, and other USDA officials at Town Hall on Friday. Most recently,
she said, the USDA has been good about keeping the town informed about
the sheep situation. The supervisor and other local officials have been
critical in the past of being left "outside the loop" when it
comes to developments at Plum Island.
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- Tissue samples from the dead sheep have been taken for
research, and these samples have gone to Plum Island, she said.
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- No sheep currently are en route to Plum Island, Mr. Collins
confirmed. However, if the USDA does end up in possession of the sheep,
it is still possible that some animals will be taken to the island, he
said, but that hasn't been decided yet.
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- At 10 a.m. today, Thursday July 27, in Brattleboro, Vermont,
a judge will hear evidence about the efficacy of the tests conducted by
the USDA.
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- An "enhanced" form of the "western blot
test" has indicated that four of the sheep imported from Holland and
Belgium in 1996 are infected with a form of TSE that may or may not be
bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.
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- But the owners of the sheep, Linda and Larry Faillace
of East Warren and Houghton Freeman of Stowe, have called into question
these test results. They say the test used is not scientifically valid,
and that their sheep are not sick.
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- The USDA, however, stands by the test results, and claims
that members of the flock were possibly given feed containing BSE-contaminated
meat prior to their arrival in the U.S. The agency declared it still intends
to confiscate the potentially infected sheep, saying their destruction
will reduce risk to other animals, thereby protecting American livestock
from this possibly foreign form of TSE.
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- BSE can be transmitted to people who eat infected meat.
They then develop the human variant, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Over 60
people in the United Kingdom have died to date, and the second confirmed
case has just appeared in France, according to international reports.
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- The spread of BSE began with the practice of forced cannibalism,
feeding rendered cow, pig and chicken remains to livestock, scientists
say. This practice has been stopped in the U.K., but continues in the United
States.
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- If the flock does have BSE, it would be the first time
sheep have contracted the disease from feed outside a lab, and the first
time BSE has appeared in this country.
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- Biosafety Level 5?
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- A Karl Grossman column and an editorial in this newspaper
last week discussed evidence of a new level of activity at the Plum Island
Animal Disease Center. According to Sandy Hays, a USDA director of information,
it's all a matter of an outmoded numbering system. Here's the picture as
she outlined it last Thursday:
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- Currently the center is at BSL3, which is, according
to Plum Island literature, "a facility designed and operated to prevent
the escape of microorganisms from the laboratory into the environment."
A BSL4 rating, now being proposed for Plum, is a facility "designed
to prevent contact between microorganisms and laboratory personnel in addition
to preventing organisms from escaping into the environment."
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- But what's a 5? Doesn't exist, said Ms. Hays.
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- The confusion stems from two separate ranking systems,
one for organisms and one for facilities. There are four levels of facilities,
said Ms. Hays. And there are four levels of organisms. But once upon a
time there were five levels of organisms, the top rank reserved for animals
diseases forbidden in the mainland U.S.
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- The risk groups were realigned in 1996, and No. 4 was
made the top level, said Ms. Hays.
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