Canada’s Trade Minister Mary Ng and Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau announced the move Friday, saying Taiwan’s decision “will offer an opportunity to expand Canadian beef exports to Taiwan and diversify export markets in the Indo-Pacific region.”

“Expanding our trade relationships in the Indo-Pacific region is a top priority for the Government of Canada, and Taiwan presents many opportunities for Canada’s beef sector,” Bibeau said Friday in a release.

Ng had telegraphed Taiwan’s pending decision late last month during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) trade ministers’ meeting in Detroit, noting ongoing negotiations between Canada and Taiwan on a foreign investment promotion and protection arrangement.

Taiwan, among many other countries, had blocked imports of Canadian beef in 2003 following the discovery of Canada’s first domestic case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). It began accepting boneless Canadian beef from animals under age 30 months (UTMs) in 2007, though it paused those imports in 2015-16 on the discovery of Canada’s 19th BSE case, the first to be born after Canada’s “enhanced feed ban” was imposed in 2007.

The 30-month cutoff has been based on a safeguard imposed in Britain in the 1990s during that country’s BSE crisis. UTM cattle are believed to pose a lower risk of BSE infectivity even if those animals carry the agent that causes the disease.

Since then, however, Canada’s BSE-related beef safety cred has reached its highest possible ranking internationally. It was officially recognized in 2021 by the World Organization of Animal Health (WOAH) as having “negligible risk” status for BSE.

Canada last year was the seventh-largest supplier of beef and beef products to Taiwan, valued at almost $14 million out of Taiwan’s $1.9 billion total beef import market that year.

The Canadian Cattle Association said last month it’s “grateful for Taiwan’s decision to adhere to science-based trade,” noting the Indo-Pacific region “holds the greatest potential for beef export diversification.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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USDA said the animal never entered slaughter channels and the agency did not expect any trade impacts as a result.

It was the seventh detection of BSE in the U.S. since 2003 and all but one have been atypical.

“This finding of an atypical case will not change the negligible risk status of the United States and should not lead to any trade issues,” USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) said in a statement.

— Reporting for Reuters by Caroline Stauffer.

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Manila had announced its temporary ban following the confirmation in mid-December of atypical BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) in a beef cow in central Alberta. Korea imposed and later lifted a similar ban, while China’s similar import suspension remains in place.

Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau announced the Philippines’ decision Saturday on Twitter, describing it as “great news for livestock producers and their high-quality beef.”

The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association later tweeted it’s “appreciative of the collaborative efforts to make this happen. Growing and maintaining access to diverse markets remains our top trade priority.”

According to export development agency Canada Beef, as of last March the Philippines was ranked as the 12th biggest importer of Canadian beef by volume and 13th by value.

For the first three quarters of 2021, Canada Beef put Canadian beef exports to the Philippines at 4,467 tonnes, with a value of $12.6 million.

“Atypical” BSE refers to a form of the brain-wasting bovine disease that occurs naturally and spontaneously in cattle and is expected to occur at extremely low levels in all cattle populations worldwide, regardless of any BSE control measures in place.

Atypical BSE has never been reported to transmit to people — unlike “classical” BSE, which caused 17 of the 20 BSE cases confirmed in domestic Canadian cattle between 2003 and 2015 and is caused by consumption of feed contaminated with BSE-infected materials.

Canada last May was upgraded from “controlled risk” to “negligible risk” for BSE at the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). That designation, meant to provide assurance to importing nations of an exporting nation’s beef safety, remains in place. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Friday it has notified the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) of a case of “atypical” bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in an 8-1/2-year-old beef cow on a farm in central Alberta’s Ponoka County.

Atypical BSE, a rare form of the disease, develops naturally and sporadically in affected cattle and is expected to occur at extremely low levels in all cattle populations worldwide, regardless of any BSE control measures in place.

The case announced Friday is the third atypical case to be found in Canada, following one each in 2006 and 2007.

Atypical BSE has never been reported to transmit to people, unlike “classical” BSE, which caused the other 17 cases confirmed in domestic Canadian cattle between 2003 and 2015 — and which occurs in cattle when an animal eats feed contaminated with the misfolded protein that causes the disease.

According to CFIA, about 92 per cent of atypical BSE cases found worldwide have been detected in animals over eight years old; the youngest reported was age five years, seven months.

Alberta’s Agriculture Minister Nate Horner, in a separate statement Friday, said atypical BSE “spontaneously happens at a rate of about one in one million cattle regardless of how well a producer takes care of their herd.”

Atypical BSE, he noted, “has been reported six times in the U.S., most recently in 2018, as well as a few other countries.”

The new case “will not affect the OIE negligible risk status of Canada and market access for Canadian animals and beef products should be unaffected,” CFIA said in a statement Friday.

That said, the federal government “will work with the cattle and beef industries to maintain the confidence of international trading partners to maintain market access for Canadian animals and products.”

Since the new case has been confirmed atypical, no further actions on the animal’s home farm are required, CFIA said, meaning no quarantines or other restrictions are to be put in place there.

Horner said the “quick discovery of this atypical case proves how effective the Canada and Alberta BSE surveillance program is and how dedicated our producers are to eliminating BSE in Canada’s cattle herd.”

According to CFIA’s report to the OIE, the cow in question was seen by a veterinarian on Dec. 6 after appearing injured and showing some “neurological signs.” BSE was confirmed Thursday by CFIA’s Lethbridge reference lab; the carcass was held and did not enter the food or feed supply chains.

Provincial and CFIA officials will meet Monday with stakeholders from across Alberta’s cattle industry, he said, “to answer questions and reassure them that all levels of government are working together on this case.”

To maintain negligible-risk status at the OIE, a country must show its last case of “classical” BSE was born more than 11 years ago and effective control measures and surveillance systems are in place. Canada’s last such BSE case was in a cow born in 2009.

BSE is in the family of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) such as scrapie in sheep, chronic wasting disease in deer and elk, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in people.

No treatment or vaccine against BSE is yet available, and no method yet exists to confirm the BSE agent’s presence in live animals.

From a public health perspective, the deaths of about 230 people worldwide from a variant form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) are believed to be connected to consumption of contaminated beef from BSE-infected cattle.

According to Health Canada, no cases of vCJD have ever been linked to eating Canadian beef and BSE in Canada poses an “extremely low” risk to human health. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

Updated, Dec. 20, 2021: Further details from CFIA’s report to the OIE are now included.

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Singapore has approved the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s certificate for exports of all Canadian beef, including beef offal, with no restrictions on the age of the cattle from which the beef was harvested.

Singapore’s decision, effective Friday (Aug. 20), makes it the first to remove BSE-related trade restrictions on beef that were held over from Canada’s previous “controlled risk” status.

Singapore had until now approved all Canadian boneless beef and bone-in beef from animals under 30 months of age (UTMs).

That said, Singapore hasn’t bought any Canadian beef since 2019, in which it took 1.79 tonnes, worth $31,000. Its biggest year for BSE-era beef imports from Canada was in 2014, when it took 53.77 tonnes, worth $586,000.

“While Singapore is not currently a large market for Canadian beef, (the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association) is pleased with the market access progress as diverse market access leads to trade resiliency and the highest overall value for Canadian farmers and ranchers,” CCA president Bob Lowe said in a release Tuesday announcing Singapore’s decision.

“We are encouraged by Singapore’s change and hope others will follow soon.”

Delegates to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) formally recognized Canada’s “negligible risk” status in late May, putting it on the same footing as beef-producing and -exporting nations such as the U.S., Australia, Argentina, Brazil, India, New Zealand, Mexico and Ireland.

The discovery of Canada’s first case of BSE in domestic cattle in May 2003 led many countries to halt and/or restrict imports of Canadian beef — decisions which are estimated to have led to losses of up to $5.5 billion for Canada’s beef cattle sector in the years 2003 to 2006 alone.

Canada achieved “controlled risk” status for BSE in 2007. To get to negligible-risk status, a country must show its last case of “classical” BSE was born more than 11 years ago and effective control measures and surveillance systems are in place.

The last of Canada’s 19 domestic BSE cases, discovered in 2015, was in a cow born in 2009.

A progressive, fatal disease of the nervous system in cattle, crudely called “mad cow disease,” BSE is in the family of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) such as scrapie in sheep, chronic wasting disease in deer and elk, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in people.

No treatment or vaccine against BSE is yet available, and no method yet exists to confirm the BSE agent’s presence in live animals.

From a public health perspective, the deaths of about 230 people worldwide from a variant form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) are believed to be connected to consumption of contaminated beef from BSE-infected cattle.

According to Health Canada, no cases of vCJD have ever been linked to eating Canadian beef and BSE in Canada poses an “extremely low” risk to human health.

Most of Canada’s major beef export markets already approved all Canadian beef, based on their previous recognition of controlled-risk status.

However, the CCA said Tuesday, “several” key trading partners including China, Taiwan and South Korea haven’t yet done so.

Most of the remaining import bans are on Canada’s bone-in beef, offal and/or beef from animals over 30 months of age (OTMs), which are believed to be the highest-risk age group for development of BSE.

China, Russia and Peru, for examples, still accept Canadian bone-in beef only from UTMs, and boneless beef from OTMs. South Korea, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia and Egypt accept Canadian beef but only from UTMs. Indonesia accepts Canadian boneless beef from both UTMs and OTMs. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) on Thursday announced it has delivered “negligible risk” status for BSE to both Canada and Ireland.

Canada, which has had “controlled risk” status for BSE since 2007, had applied to the OIE last July for the upgrade.

The OIE’s Scientific Commission for Animal Diseases in March this year ruled Canada fulfilled the requirements for negligible risk, and the World Assembly of OIE Delegates announced its vote of approval Thursday.

Thursday’s decision marks “a historic closing of the BSE era for Canada which brought unprecedented hardship to our industry in the early 2000s,” Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) president Bob Lowe said in a release.

Many countries halted and/or restricted their imports of Canadian beef after Canada’s first case of BSE in domestic cattle was discovered in May 2003 — a “significant impact,” the CCA noted, as about half of Canada’s beef production goes to exports.

“Although difficult to fully quantify the direct economic impacts of BSE, between just 2003 and 2006, losses were estimated to be between $4.9 (billion and) $5.5 billion,” the CCA said. Since then, the beef sector has faced “opportunity costs of continued limited market access and additional processing costs.”

Between 2006 and 2011, the CCA said, 26,000 beef producers left the industry and over 2.22 million acres of pasture were converted to other uses.

The change in status from controlled-risk to negligible-risk “will help facilitate expanded access to foreign markets for various beef products currently limited by BSE era restrictions,” the association said.

Specifically, it “enhances (Canada’s) negotiation position in efforts to gain access to additional export markets for Canadian cattle, beef and beef products among countries that require products to originate from countries with negligible BSE risk status,” the federal government said Thursday in a separate release, noting it will inform those countries of the upgrade.

As of mid-March, remaining BSE-related export restrictions in some countries include a few all-out bans on Canadian beef — such as in Australia, Brazil, Malaysia, Bolivia and Uruguay.

Others, meanwhile, maintain import bans on Canada’s bone-in beef, offal and/or beef from animals over 30 months of age (OTMs), which are believed to be the highest-risk age group for development of BSE.

China, Russia and Peru, for examples, still accept Canadian bone-in beef only from cattle under 30 months (UTMs) and boneless beef from OTMs. Others such as South Korea, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia and Egypt accept Canadian beef but only from UTMs. Indonesia accepts Canadian boneless beef from both UTMs and OTMs.

‘Continued observance’

Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Thursday hailed the decision as “confirm(ing) that Canada’s beef production system is sound, safe and respected.”

The upgrade puts Canada on the same BSE risk level as many major beef-producing and -exporting nations including Australia, Argentina, Brazil, India, New Zealand, Mexico and, since 2013, the United States.

For negligible-risk status, a country must show its last case of “classical” BSE was born more than 11 years ago and effective control measures and surveillance systems are in place. Canada’s last BSE case, discovered in 2015, was in a cow born in 2009.

BSE in infected cattle concentrates in nervous system tissues classified as specified risk materials (SRMs), which are removed from all Canadian cattle slaughtered for human consumption. SRMs include the skull, brain, eyes, tonsils, spinal cord and nerve ganglia attached to the brain and spinal cord, plus the distal ileum portion of the small intestine.

To limit the disease’s spread among cattle, the federal government banned most proteins, including SRMs, from cattle feed in 1997, and since 2007 has banned SRMs from all feeds, pet foods and fertilizers.

The OIE requires negligible-risk-level countries to show evidence of an “effective” ban on ruminant-to-ruminant feeding for at least eight years and “negligible risk with regard to the BSE agent for at least seven years.”

As with controlled-risk countries, negligible-risk countries must also show “intensive” active surveillance for BSE over at least a seven-year period, and maintained over time, the OIE says.

BSE risk status, according to the OIE, only applies in relation to “classical” BSE, which is transmitted through infected feed sources, rather than “atypical” BSE, forms of which are believed to occur spontaneously in cattle populations at a very low rate. All but one of the cases seen in the U.S., for example, were deemed to be “atypical” BSE.

Maintaining OIE status for BSE “is dependent on the continued observance of OIE standards,” the federal government cautioned Thursday. “Failure to comply provides ground for the OIE to revoke the given status.”

‘Great day’

For its part, the CCA said Thursday it will now focus on getting remaining BSE-era market access restrictions removed, and on the “alignment of packing house requirements with international recommendations.”

“We thank everyone involved in helping us attain this status including the government of Canada, veterinarians across Canada and Canadian farmers and ranchers,” Lowe said. “We also thank Canadian consumers who supported Canada’s beef industry during the hardest times of BSE when Canadian beef couldn’t be exported.”

“This is a great day for beef producers across the country, many of whom remember the devastation caused by BSE when it first emerged in Canada over 15 years ago,” federal Trade Minister Mary Ng said Thursday. “With this recognition, Canada is positioned to negotiate greater access to international export markets for our top-quality beef products.”

Most of Canada’s major beef export markets have already approved all Canadian beef based on their recognition of controlled-risk status, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency noted Thursday.

Those include the U.S., which took in $2.5 billion worth of Canadian beef in 2020, along with Japan ($305 million), Hong Kong ($109 million), Mexico ($106 million), Vietnam ($41 million), the Philippines ($5.1 million) and the United Arab Emirates ($3.8 million).

Earlier this month, Canada reached an agreement granting beef export access to Oman. Full market access for Canadian beef was also restored this month in Kuwait following a similar agreement reached in mid-March, ending a BSE-related ban in that country.

Guatemala last month also confirmed approval for all Canadian beef, where previously its Canadian imports were limited to boneless UTM beef.

“On the negative side of the market access balance sheet, Qatar has reduced Canada’s previous full beef access to boneless UTM beef only,” the CCA noted in a statement last month.

Canada between 2003 and 2015 confirmed 19 cases of BSE in domestic cattle. A progressive, fatal disease of the nervous system in cattle, crudely called “mad cow disease,” BSE is in the family of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) such as scrapie in sheep, chronic wasting disease in deer and elk, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in people.

No treatment or vaccine against BSE is yet available, and no method yet exists to confirm the BSE agent’s presence in live animals.

From a public health perspective, the deaths of about 230 people worldwide from a variant form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) are believed to be connected to consumption of contaminated beef from BSE-infected cattle.

According to Health Canada, no cases of vCJD have ever been linked to eating Canadian beef and BSE in Canada poses an “extremely low” risk to human health.

Among other decisions announced Thursday, OIE delegates also voted to deem Italy and Paraguay free of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP), three zones of Brazil free of foot and mouth disease (FMD), and two zones of Russia and one zone of Colombia FMD-free where vaccination is practised. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Scientific Commission of the OIE (World Organization for Animal Health), which last met virtually over Feb. 1-12, has recommended to OIE delegates that Canada’s application seeking “negligible risk” status for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) “fulfills the necessary requirements,” the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Friday.

The six-member commission’s recommendation has been submitted to the OIE’s 182 delegates, who are expected to vote on Canada’s application at the next general session of the World Assembly of OIE Delegates, to be held virtually May 24-28.

According to the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA), OIE member countries now have 60 days to ask for any information that’s included in Canada’s BSE dossier.

Canada, since 2007, has been on a short list of cattle-producing countries and regions deemed instead to be a “controlled risk” for BSE. Among others on the list are England, France, Scotland, Ireland and Ecuador.

For Canada, that status is based on surveillance and eradication measures set up since the country’s first domestic case of the disease was confirmed in an Alberta cow in 2003.

An upgrade to negligible risk would give Canada the same BSE status as beef-exporting nations such as Brazil, India, Australia, the U.S., Argentina, New Zealand and Mexico, among others.

That promotion “would help secure and negotiate access for Canadian cattle and beef products to trade markets that require products to originate from negligible BSE-risk status countries,” CFIA said Friday.

“Although we still need to await the final vote, I am optimistic that this will soon allow (cattle producers) to expand their markets for cattle and beef exports to the U.S. and other foreign markets,” federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said in a release.

In a separate release Friday, CCA president Bob Lowe hailed the commission’s recommendation as “an important first step,” adding that the CCA “respects the OIE review process and will await the final determination in May.”

Requirements

The OIE’s current requirements for negligible-risk status include having shown “negligible risk with regard to the BSE agent for at least seven years” and having had no domestically-produced case of BSE born less than 11 years ago.

The most recent of Canada’s 19 home-grown cases of BSE was confirmed in 2015, in an Alberta beef cow born in 2009. The case was spotted through Canada’s BSE surveillance program and no part of it went into any food or feed supply chain, CFIA said previously.

Case 18, meanwhile, was an Alberta dairy cow confirmed with BSE in February 2011, and born in August 2004 — meaning Canada was just seven months shy of being able to seek negligible-risk status when Case 19 appeared.

The OIE also requires negligible-risk countries to show evidence of an “effective” ban on ruminant-to-ruminant feeding for at least eight years.

As with controlled-risk countries, negligible-risk countries must also show “intensive” active surveillance for BSE over at least a seven-year period, and maintained over time, the OIE says.

BSE risk status, according to the OIE, only applies in relation to “classical” BSE, which is transmitted through infected feed sources, rather than “atypical” BSE, forms of which are believed to occur spontaneously in cattle populations at a very low rate.

All but one of the cases seen in the U.S., for example, were deemed to be “atypical” BSE.

For its part, Ottawa “worked closely with provinces and industry to put forward a strong application based on data” to the OIE, and the “diligence” of that approach shows in the commission’s ruling, CFIA said Friday.

A progressive, fatal disease of the nervous system in cattle, crudely called “mad cow disease,” BSE is in the family of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) such as scrapie in sheep, chronic wasting disease in deer and elk, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in people.

No treatment or vaccine against BSE is yet available, and no method yet exists to confirm the BSE agent’s presence in live animals.

From a public health perspective, since the 1990s, about 180 cases of a variant form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) in people in Europe have been connected to consumption of contaminated beef from BSE-infected cattle.

Health Canada has said no cases of vCJD have ever been linked to eating Canadian beef and BSE in Canada poses an “extremely low” risk to human health. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The ministry said the case of BSE, also known as mad cow disease, was detected in a 17-year-old cow. It said it collected the necessary material for tests and incinerated all other parts of the cow.

“No part of the animal entered the food chain, there are no risks for the population,” the statement said.

The case was considered “atypical” as the animal contracted the BSE protein spontaneously, rather than through the feed supply. “Classical” BSE cases are caused when cattle are fed brain or spinal tissue of other ruminants, which is now forbidden in nearly all beef-producing countries including Brazil and Canada.

In 2012 in Brazil tests showed that a cow that had died two years earlier in Parana state had developed prions — the proteins that cause BSE — though the animal never developed the disease and died of natural causes.

The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) maintained Brazil’s status as a country with “negligible risk” of BSE at that time, after it confirmed the atypical Parana case.

Even so, several countries including South Korea, China and Egypt banned some or all beef imports from Brazil, the world’s top exporter. That trade was later reopened.

Brazil’s agriculture ministry said it had informed all importers on Friday about the case, as well as the OIE.

The OIE on Thursday announced two new BSE certifications, recognizing Serbia as a “negligible risk” country and Ecuador as having “controlled risk” status, the same as Canada’s.

— Reporting for Reuters by Roberto Samora and Marcelo Teixeira. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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A quarantine area has been put in place around the farm while inspectors try to identify the origin of the disease.

“I have activated the Scottish government’s response plan to protect our valuable farming industry, including establishing a precautionary movement ban being placed on the farm,” Scotland’s farming minister, Fergus Ewing, said in a statement.

The infected animal did not enter the food chain and food safety body Food Standards Scotland said there was no risk to human health as a result of the isolated case.

BSE was first detected in Britain in the late 1980s, spreading from there to other parts of Europe and ravaging cattle herds until the early 2000s. It has been linked to the brain-wasting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.

World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) data show that the two most recent cases in Britain were in 2015.

“The epidemic of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle in the UK is largely over but there is still the odd detected case,” said Matthew Baylis, chair of veterinary epidemiology at the University of Liverpool.

He said it was too early to say if the case was significant.

“It is described as ‘classical BSE’, like the vast majority of cases we have seen in the UK. This form of BSE is acquired by cattle from BSE-contaminated food,” Baylis said.

“At this stage, we need to know if it was a very old animal, infected long ago, or if it is younger and there is still an active source of infection on the farm, such as a contaminated feed bin.”

Scotland had been classified by the OIE as a zone with a negligible risk of BSE, a status it may now lose. England and Wales have a higher “controlled risk” classification.

“Whilst we lose our negligible risk status, it is not unexpected to see a new case and demonstrates the efficacy of the surveillance measures in place,” Andrew McCornick, president of NFU Scotland, said.

“This simply brings us back in line with the rest of Great Britain, reverting back to where we were 18 months ago.”

Britain’s beef exports were banned by many countries after the original outbreak and in some cases it took many years before measures were lifted. China only lifted a ban on British beef earlier this year.

“Our current export activity is not affected (by this case) and this emphasizes to the world the effective and robust surveillance systems we have in place in the UK,” the British industry- and farmer-funded Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) said in a statement.

— Reporting for Reuters by Andrew MacAskill, Kate Kelland and Nigel Hunt.

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The cow tested positive for the atypical L-type of BSE after exhibiting clinical signs at an Alabama livestock market, USDA said in a press release. Atypical BSE can arise spontaneously in cattle herds, usually in animals eight years old or older.

“This animal never entered slaughter channels and at no time presented a risk to the food supply, or to human health in the United States,” USDA said. “Following delivery to the livestock market the cow later died at that location.”

The Alabama cow is the fifth detection of BSE in the U.S., four of which were atypical.

“This finding of an atypical case will not change the negligible risk status of the U.S., and should not lead to any trade issues,” the USDA added.

The only classical BSE case was an animal found in 2003 at a Washington farm that was imported from Canada and born before a 1997 ban on the use of cattle feed containing brain or spinal tissue, which can result in transmission of the disease.

China last month resumed imports of U.S. beef for the first time since banning them following the 2003 scare.

First detected in Britain in the 1980s, classical mad cow ravaged herds in parts of Europe until the early 2000s and was linked to the brain-wasting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.

— Reporting for Reuters by Michael Hirtzer in Chicago.

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