Regional BSE Seminar and Workshop (Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh, Malaysia, 28 October-1 November 2002)
The Regional Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Seminar and Workshop was jointly organised by OIE, USDA, DVS and JLTA in Malaysia on 28 October-1 November 2002; the Seminar was held at Eastin Hotel in Kuala Lumpur on 28 October and the Hands-on Training Workshop at the Veterinary Research Institute (VRI) in Ipoh on 29 October-1 November 2002.
About 200 people participated in the Seminar from various fields including animal health and public health. National participants were from Cambodia (two government officers), Hong Kong, China (one), Indonesia (two), Japan (one speaker), Laos (two), Malaysia (10 and observers), Myanmar (one), People's Republic of China (two), Sri Lanka (two), Switzerland (one speaker), United States of America (one of the organisers and two speakers), and the OIE (one of the organisers, Regional Representation for Asia and the Pacific based in Tokyo).
Welcome addresses were delivered by Dr Aziz Mangkat, Chairperson of the Organizing Committee and Director of Epidemiology and Veterinary Medicines of DVS; Dr Robert Tanaka, Regional Director of Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) of USDA, Dr Teruhide Fujita, OIE Regional Representation for Asia and the Pacific and Dr Hawari bin Hussein, Director General of DVS.
During the Seminar, Dr Lisa Ferguson, Senior Staff Veterinarian, APHIS, USDA spoke about the BSE disease status worldwide including the chronology of BSE, occurrences in various countries and control measures, current science of BSE including clinical signs, etiology, transmission and research.
Dr Allen Jenny, Veterinary Medical Officer, National Veterinary Services Laboratories, USDA gave an update of other Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs) and various laboratory diagnosis. He drew up various methods of diagnosis including histopathology, bioassay, immunoblotting, immunohistochemistry and Scrapie associated fibrils.
Prof. Ulrich Kihm, Director of the Swiss Federal Veterinary Office, gave lectures on BSE, sharing their experiences of BSE surveillance and the rapid tests in Switzerland and the EU. Under passive surveillance a compulsory notification is important, factors of which include disease awareness, willingness to notify cases and laboratory competence. Switzerland has implemented the targeted surveillance programme of animals older than 30 months, all fallen cows, all emergency slaughter cows and random sampling of slaughter cows.
BSE preventive and control strategies at the national level were reported by the representatives of the USA and Japan, one of which is free from BSE and the other with the infection of the disease.
Dr Ferguson reported the USA surveillance programme applied in the country. She elaborated on the strategies including import regulations, feed ban, surveillance programme, formal risk assessments and the response plan and the trigger.
Dr Kazuhiro Yoshida, Deputy Director of Animal Health Division, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries spoke about the Japan's programme for BSE control measures based on their recent experiences of BSE occurrences in the country. They included import restriction measures, measures against animal feeds, public health measures and surveillance. Japan established the new BSE measures in October 2001, after the first case on 10 September 2001, to prevent distribution of cattle at risk of BSE, surveillance applied to all dead cattle with CNS signs and 4,500 dead cattle over 24 months of age which will be expanded to all cattle with CNS signs and all dead cattle over 24 months of age in 2003. On the other hand, all cattle slaughtered at abattoirs have been compulsorily tested for BSE with the rapid test (ELISA) in Japan.
At the VRI, Ipoh, about 50 participants including local professionals joined the BSE lecture course by the three speakers.
About 30 participants joined the hands-on training course of sampling oblongata (obex) from cattle heads prepared by the VRI for the course, after the special lecture and demonstration were given by Dr Jenny on how to take the brain sample out from the skull properly.
Prof. Kihm lectured on the rapid tests for diagnosis of BSE, in particular the tests for surveillance, together with video and slide presentations including BSE clinical signs. An emphasis was put on the importance of risk analysis to be made by each country during a questions and answers session.
Invited private laboratories producing re-agents of the rapid tests joined the discussion during the Workshop and presented scientific reports on the rapid tests, namely ELISA and Western Blot.
Dr Jenny gave lectures on preparation and histopathological findings of brain tissues of TSEs, and all the participants joined the hands-on training course to observe positive cases of Scrapie and Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), both of which have been recognised in the USA.
The participants were then split into two groups to continue their studies of immunohistochemistry with histopathology in the laboratory and risk assessment in the lecture room.
On the final day of the Workshop, discussions for evaluation of the Seminar and Workshop by the participants took place for the improvement of future plans of OIE meetings. The participants highly evaluated the courses provided for BSE and requested future opportunities to participate in this type of meeting or workshop.
- USDA = United States Department of Agriculture
- DVS = Department of Veterinary Services, Malaysia
- JLTA = Japan Livestock Technology Association