Blood. It’s in you to give.That is, unless you lived in the UK, France or Ireland at anytime since the Mad Cow scare in the 1980s and 1990s.But now after 30 years of surveillance, Health Canada is crediting research advancements for lifting a two-decade ban on donors from those three countries from donating the life giving elixir.After December 4, approximately 70,000 people will be eligible to give the gift of life, following the removal of a similar ban in Quebec on Tuesday.."We continuously review available research, advances in blood testing and manufacturing and guidance from blood operators around the world to assess and update donor screening criteria and help ensure continual improvement in blood safety and availability,“Dr. Aditi Khandelwal, Canada Blood Services .The eligibility criteria was put into place in the late 1990s as a precaution after the human variant, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), was found to have contaminated European beef supplies and triggering near-hysteria over the safety of food supplies.Similar bans were imposed around the globe. But starting in February of last year, people who lived or spent time in Saudi Arabia, Germany, Italy, Netherlands (Holland), Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein were allowed to donate blood and plasma. The move aligns Canada with other blood operators that no longer have the rule in place, including the US (2022), Australia (2022) and Israel (2023). .When the mad cow outbreak occurred, little was known about the human form and the possibility of it being transmitted through blood. Some researchers speculated the transmitting agent responsible for the disease, or prions, had an incubation period that could last for 25 years or more. But after three decades of surveillance, research has now demonstrated removing criteria related to potential exposure to beef products and transfusions in specific countries will not lead to an increase in vCJD, Canada Blood Services said in a news release."We continuously review available research, advances in blood testing and manufacturing and guidance from blood operators around the world to assess and update donor screening criteria and help ensure continual improvement in blood safety and availability," said CBS medical officer Dr. Aditi Khandelwal. .Classic bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was first detected in the UK in 1986 but was thought to be present in the country’s herd since the 1970s. Since then it has been found in 25 countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North America.After 2003, when BSE appeared in this country, the Canada Food Inspection Agency introduced bans on so-called ‘specified risk materials’ — potentially infectious tissues from the nerves, brains and spinal cords of slaughtered animals — from all animal feeds, pet foods and fertilizers.Canada had previously banned the practice of feeding cattle protein and bone meal rendered from the brains and spines of infected cattle and sheep after 1997.That doesn’t mean Mad Cow has entirely gone away. Since 2003, when the feed ban was put in place, there have been 19 cases in Canada, including 14 in Alberta. The last case was detected in 2015, well outside the seven-year window thought to be considered safe for BSE to reoccur. But given that BSE occurs naturally in one-in-a-million animals, it is considered atypical.Under current Canadian monitoring guidelines, 30,000 high-risk animals 30 months and older are tested annually and provides cost reimbursements for disposal.
Blood. It’s in you to give.That is, unless you lived in the UK, France or Ireland at anytime since the Mad Cow scare in the 1980s and 1990s.But now after 30 years of surveillance, Health Canada is crediting research advancements for lifting a two-decade ban on donors from those three countries from donating the life giving elixir.After December 4, approximately 70,000 people will be eligible to give the gift of life, following the removal of a similar ban in Quebec on Tuesday.."We continuously review available research, advances in blood testing and manufacturing and guidance from blood operators around the world to assess and update donor screening criteria and help ensure continual improvement in blood safety and availability,“Dr. Aditi Khandelwal, Canada Blood Services .The eligibility criteria was put into place in the late 1990s as a precaution after the human variant, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), was found to have contaminated European beef supplies and triggering near-hysteria over the safety of food supplies.Similar bans were imposed around the globe. But starting in February of last year, people who lived or spent time in Saudi Arabia, Germany, Italy, Netherlands (Holland), Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein were allowed to donate blood and plasma. The move aligns Canada with other blood operators that no longer have the rule in place, including the US (2022), Australia (2022) and Israel (2023). .When the mad cow outbreak occurred, little was known about the human form and the possibility of it being transmitted through blood. Some researchers speculated the transmitting agent responsible for the disease, or prions, had an incubation period that could last for 25 years or more. But after three decades of surveillance, research has now demonstrated removing criteria related to potential exposure to beef products and transfusions in specific countries will not lead to an increase in vCJD, Canada Blood Services said in a news release."We continuously review available research, advances in blood testing and manufacturing and guidance from blood operators around the world to assess and update donor screening criteria and help ensure continual improvement in blood safety and availability," said CBS medical officer Dr. Aditi Khandelwal. .Classic bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was first detected in the UK in 1986 but was thought to be present in the country’s herd since the 1970s. Since then it has been found in 25 countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North America.After 2003, when BSE appeared in this country, the Canada Food Inspection Agency introduced bans on so-called ‘specified risk materials’ — potentially infectious tissues from the nerves, brains and spinal cords of slaughtered animals — from all animal feeds, pet foods and fertilizers.Canada had previously banned the practice of feeding cattle protein and bone meal rendered from the brains and spines of infected cattle and sheep after 1997.That doesn’t mean Mad Cow has entirely gone away. Since 2003, when the feed ban was put in place, there have been 19 cases in Canada, including 14 in Alberta. The last case was detected in 2015, well outside the seven-year window thought to be considered safe for BSE to reoccur. But given that BSE occurs naturally in one-in-a-million animals, it is considered atypical.Under current Canadian monitoring guidelines, 30,000 high-risk animals 30 months and older are tested annually and provides cost reimbursements for disposal.
