PULLMAN, Wash. - Medical researchers have long thought - but never been able to prove - that rheumatoid arthritis may be caused by a mysterious virus that is gone by the time the disease’s crippling symptoms appear. Now, ARS scientists have identified a virus responsible for a similar disease in goats and are in vestigating its potential as a model for the human ailment. Caprine arthritis-encephalitis (CAE), sometimes called “big knee disease,” may infect more than 80 percent of the U.S. domestic dairy goat population. Although the disease surfaced in the 1960’5, not until 1977 was its cause identified as a retrovirus - a virus that persists throughout the life of the host and produces the disease only after a long in cubation. “This is the only virus to date that’s been proven to cause chronic arthritis in a mammal,” says veterinary researcher D. 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BEST IN DESIGN, PRICE AND EXPERIENCE Goats may help arthritis victims Adams believe%that CAE virus in goats can serve as a model for rheumatoid arthritis in humans and that a better understanding of one could lead to a better un derstanding of the other. Adams and his team are working with the rheumatology section of the University of Washington’s medical school in Seattle. “Though a vaccine against CAE has yet to be found,” says Adam, “control measures have been developed.” CAE is transmitted to newborn goat kids mainly through colostrum and milk from infected mothers. Adams’ research team has found that heat can kill the virus without harming protective antibodies in the colostrum. (Though pasteurization and subsequent processing inactivate the CAE virus, there is no proof that CAE is not transmissible to humans.) “Separating kids from their mothers at birth and feeding them colostrum that has been heated for 1 hour at 56*C (133*F), and pasteurized milk until they are Swine Systems Specialists weaned, prevents further in fections and can eventually eradicate the disease from a herd,” says Adams. Contact between does and kids should be kept to a minimum, he adds, as some transmission could occur through a mother’s saliva and other secretions. “Uninfected goats should be kept separate from infected goats as much as possible for the same reason.” CAE-infected adult goats may suffer from the swollen, disfigured joints of arthritis, and kids may show symptoms of encephalitis and progressive paralysis. However, only a few goats - about 3 percent in this country - ever show any signs at all of the disease. But even without symptoms, infected goats can transmit CAE, creating a major problem for the U.S. goat industry. Developing nations that import goats fromt he United States have a low prevalence of the disease and are anxious not to see their fortune changed. A situation recently arose where symptom-free but CAE-infected -.'■awr w* GSI QUALITY BINS MADE IN U.S.A. early order discounts now in effect o*' GSI FEED BINS & ACCESSORIES r l!.: jl;; goats from the United States were accidentally introduced into Kenya as part of an aid program to im prove goat production. Three years later a large proportion of the goats developed CAE disease ind the Bee pollen contains pests COLLEGE PARK, Md. - How do new and potentially harmful insect pests get into the United States? According to scientists at the University of Maryland and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, one of their passports may be the thousands of pounds of bee pollen the U.S. health food industry imports into this country each year. “Pollen collected by bees is an attractive shelter and food source for insects and mites,” says Qiaries Reichelderfer. associate professor of entomology at the University of Maryland. “Many small insects get trapped in the harvested pollen and are able to survive shipping conditions from another country to this country,” adds Reichelderfer. In a recent survey, the Maryland entomologist and two USDA scientists examined 509 samples of bee-collected pollen. Of the 49 samples from imported sources outside the United States, 32 contained insects and mites, according to Reichelderfer. WON OUR PRAISE ///■ /* * ' f • FEED DINS • WET HOLDING TANKS • BUCKET ELEVATORS • DRYING AND AERATION FANS • GRAIN CLEANERS incaster Farming, Saturday, December 3,1983—€7 \ \ \ \ Adams there to help. Using procedures developed in the ex periments of his research team, he was able to bring the disease under control and prevent it from spreading to Kenyan herds. Although! they found insects in more than 65 percent of the foreign samples, only two types of mites and “a few parasitic wasps” could be considered “illegal aliens,” says Reichelderfer. The remaining types of insects were also found in pollen samples coming from the United States and are common in this country. Even so, Reichelderfer says the possibility exists that new and potentially harmful insect pests could be introduced to this country in imported bee pollen. Equally hazardous is the potential for introducing new and foreign diseases to bees in this country, Reichelderfer adds. He says some of the survey’s imported pollen samples contained indications of diseases harmful to domestic bees. He and USDA scientists recommend that all pollen he treated at harvest time using a process that includes air drying and freezing the pollen, then removing small bits of plant debris on which insects lay their eggs. • MAIN BINS • UTILITY, FLIX, TRANSPORT, INCLINE, VERTICAL AND BIN UNLOADINO AUOERS • AERATION FLOORS
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