Parts of cattle at high risk for harboring the infectious agent for BSE include the skull, brain, eyes, vertebral column, and spinal cord of cows at least 30 months of age. The tonsils and a portion of the small intestine of all cattle also may contain the agent Graphic: FDA/Michael Ermarth

New research could lead to a method to diagnose bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in live animals. This would represent a major advance over the tests currently in use, which detect the presence of the disease in brain tissue, and can only be performed on dead animals.

Canadian researchers found that a change in levels of a protein in cattle urine indicates the presence of BSE with 100% accuracy. The study involved a small sample of eight cows, four of them infected in different stages of the disease. It was also determined that changes in the relative abundance of a set of proteins corresponded with the advancement of the disease.

"A reliable ante-mortem test would provide an alternative to the routine culling of herds when a confirmed case of BSE is detected,” says the paper, published in the journal Proteome Science and authored by scientists at the Public Health Agency of Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory (NML), Canadian Food Inspection Agency's BSE Reference Laboratories, the Federal Research Institute for Animal Health in Germany, and the University of Manitoba.

"This is an important discovery and we are hopeful that it will eventually lead to a useful diagnostic test that will simplify surveillance and reduce costs," says Stefanie Czub,Virology Section & Quality Assurance manager at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. 

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