JERUSALEM, Israel (Reuters) — Israeli researchers say they have developed a simple urine test for bovine spongiform encephalopathy that can prevent blood donations by infected humans and large-scale culling of unaffected cattle.
Examining brains after death is currently the only definitive way to test for BSE and the fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease that humans can catch by eating BSE infected beef.
“Researchers have never tried to find it in urine because they thought, if it can’t be found in blood, it also can’t be found there,” said Dr. Ruth Gabizon from Jerusalem’s Hadassah University.
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The findings, published in the June edition of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, indicate that a urine test can identify the prion or protein particle that causes the disease before symptoms appear.
Urine samples from infected hamsters, cattle and humans all revealed the presence of prions before clinical signs became evident.
“The goal and hope is to develop a test that could be widely used for the detection of the disease,” Gabizon said. “This would avert the necessity of killing herds of cattle upon the discovery of one affected cow.”
The research team also said that examining human urine would prevent the danger of infection via blood donations since those with a positive urine sample would not be allowed to donate blood or organs.
At least 100 people in Great Britain and France have contracted new variant CJD from eating BSE contaminated beef.
While there is no evidence that Europeans have contracted new variant CJD from a blood transfusion, an advisory panel to the U.S. government has recommended a ban on donations from people who spent three months or more in Britain between 1980 and 1996.
It also suggested a blood donation ban on people who have spent five years in Europe since 1980, in an effort to keep the U.S. blood supply from being tainted with new variant CJD.
Several companies are racing to develop an easier test for the disease, using blood samples or swabs from easily reached parts of the body such as the back of the throat.
Prions, which are the nerve proteins that cause BSE, CJD and related diseases such as scrapie — are normally benign, but can take on a misshapen form that can cause holes in the brain.
