June 9, 2004

Live BSE Test Invented in UK; Could Be On Market In 12 Months

A British neurophysiologist in Manchester has invented a live test for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or BSE, commonly known as Mad Cow Disease, that should be ready for commercial application in 12 to 18 months.
 
"It's kind of ready now and there are five products currently under field trials," Chris Pomfrett, the clinical scientist who invented the test at the Manchester Royal Institute, said Tuesday.
 
Pomfrett began working on a hand-held device that records the heart beat of a cow, or a human, in 1990 and filed for patent in 1996. He was granted the patent in the U.S. in 1999 and in Europe earlier this year.
 
The test uses the device to record heart activity which can give the probability of BSE.
 
"It works because there's a link between the heart and the brain stem, the region used in post-mortem tests," said Pomfrett. "With our test, the dysfunction in the brain stem is found by looking at the heart."
 
The technology has been used in recent years to monitor other diseases like diabetes, but this is the first live test that works for BSE and variant Creutzfeld-Jakobs disease, the human form of BSE.
 
Pomfrett said the idea is to monitor individual cattle throughout their life spans in order to keep records of herd health. BSE monitoring using a test could one day become part of the U.K.'s livestock passport system, he said.
 
In order for the test to be competitive with the post-mortem test and be viable for the beef industry, he said the test needs to cost around $1 per head.
 
According to Adrian Presbury, Director of TSEnce Diagnostics Ltd. in Nottingham, the company developing the live test for commercial distribution, the most likely starting point for the product would be as a commercial service.
 
"If a supermarket chain wanted to label their meat as BSE-free then we could do on-farm monitoring of their producers," said Presbury. "If BSE testing became legislated by the European Union, we would develop a different model where we would license operators to do the tests."
 
The E.U. currently has no testing regime for cattle slaughtered under 30 months of age, said Presbury.
 
He said TSEnce is currently applying for approval for the test from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the latest step being the publishing of Pomfrett's paper in the journal "Veterinary Record" in May. Pomfrett said the E.U. does not have the same kind of regulatory standards for a live test as the E.U. so it will most likely be the market where the test is first introduced.
 
"We felt the U.S. was going to be a very relevant market and in light of the discovery of BSE in the U.S. last Christmas Eve, we've been proven right," Pomfrett said.