Isn't this a bit back the front!

Karleen Gribble
Australia
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Clinic Tests Breast Milk for Mad Cow Disease
Reuters

Monday, February 26, 2001 


VIENNA, Feb 26 (Reuters) - An Austrian hospital is testing the breast milk from women aged 30 years and above to check whether the human form of mad cow disease has infiltrated their bodies. 

Scientists at the Innsbruck University clinic are running the checks to seek evidence of prions that trigger bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or its human form, new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD). 

Prions are proteins that are normally benign but which can take on a misshapen form that may damage the brain. 

The Innsbruck clinic has long been testing human milk for any impurities such as dioxin and lead, and amid the current mad cow crisis, decided to expand tests to search for BSE prions as well. 

Wolfgang Lechner, a doctor at the clinic, told Reuters that women older than 30 were being tested as the odds were greater that they may have already eaten BSE-infected beef. 

All tests had proved negative so far, he added. 

Austria is one of the few countries in Europe without a reported case of mad cow disease. More than 80 people in Britain and two in France have died from vCJD.

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