§ Baroness Byfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether there have been any searches for prions in the muscles of BSE or scrapie-infected animals since March 2002; and, if so, what the results have been. [HL4393]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty)Research to investigate the possible presence of BSE agent in muscle from infected cattle is being funded by the Food Standards Agency. Muscle tissue from cattle experimentally challenged with BSE has been injected into groups of non-infected cattle. This bio-assay technique is currently the most sensitive means of determining the presence of BSE infectivity. Muscle for testing has been taken from BSE challenged animals at several time points after infection. The study was initiatied in 1996 and is projected to continue until 2013. The recipient animals are at various stages in the study, but none have been found positive for BSE infection. At present the longest interval after exposure of recipients is 82 months with no evidence of infection.
Note:
These studies are designed to detect transferrable infectivity rather than the detection of prions in muscle. At present the quantitive relatiolnship between prions and infectivity is not determined.