Scientists at the University of Calgary have made a breakthrough in the study of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), one that could soon make it possible to test live animals for the disease using a simple and inexpensive blood test. Currently, the diagnosis of BSE — also known as mad cow disease — is done using brain samples from dead animals. But researchers with the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Medicine have discovered indicators of the disease in the DNA of infected animals — indicators that show up months before the animal exhibits any symptoms.
Lead researcher Christoph Sensen says finding evidence of the disease in DNA is very exciting, because it means a simple blood test kit can be developed to diagnose the disease.
"It’s very good news, because it makes it very cheap," Sensen says. "We can test every animal that goes to the slaughterhouse and only stop production if we find something."
The scientists’ original research was actually done on elk in relation to chronic wasting disease, a degenerative brain disease related to BSE that affects elk and deer. Sensen says preliminary testing on cattle in relation to BSE is showing similar results.
Sensen adds finding these indicative DNA patterns was like hunting for a needle in a haystack until the development of the latest DNA sequencing machine technology, which gives scientists the capacity to sift through a genome very quickly.
"I would certainly not be wrong to say that this will be the future of genome research as a whole," Sensen says. "Looking at what the body does and how it reacts will be a major topic for all kinds of disease research in the future."
Eddie Lang, owner of Lang Livestock in Medicine Hat, says the real question is whether a blood test for BSE could be cost-effective. He adds from the cattle industry’s point of view, BSE is a disease that gets caught anyway — there has never been a case of Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (the human variant of BSE) that originated in North America and none of the BSE cases that have been found in Canada entered the food chain.
However, Lang adds the breakthrough is still good news.
"Anything that makes our food industry safer is a good thing, properly implemented," he says.
Chuck MacLean, of Porter and MacLean Livestock Management in Medicine Hat, says some people believe a test of this kind would allow Canada to export more beef.
"But the reality of it is, most of the clients where we’re going — whether it’s Asia or wherever — it’s more about price and quality, because they already believe our product is as safe as anybody else’s," he says.
However, while MacLean says Canadian beef is already safe, he agrees that a simple test for BSE would be helpful.
"Anytime you can have a reliable short test for any disease, it’s a plus," he says.
