Can You Get Aids From Steak Blood Can You Get Aids From Beef Blood
AIDS-Like Virus Is Found At High Rate in U.S. Cattle
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June 1, 1991
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After four years of research, scientists from the Department of Agriculture have found that a virus similar in genetic structure to the AIDS virus is more common in cattle in United States than researchers had anticipated. The scientists say there is no evidence that the virus can infect people.
The virus, bovine immunodeficiency-like virus, or BIV, is spread through the blood and is a member of a family of slow-acting viruses that have been shown to reduce the activity of an animal's immune system. Such immune suppression, veterinarians said today, can open the way for other infections. The virus, which was first isolated in 1969, has been shown to cause illness in calves, a top scientist at the Department of Agriculture said today. Scientists say they believe that the virus causes immune suppression in adult cattle, but how powerful it is remains uncertain.
Researchers said much more needs to be found out about the virus to understand its importance to the $55 billion cattle and dairy industries.
"We will continue to do research on this virus because it will help create a body of information that may provide a way to reduce the costs of production," said Dr. Harry Mussman, the deputy assistant Secretary of Agriculture for science and education. "It is very important that the public understands that this is not the AIDS virus. We do not have the AIDS virus in cattle." Millions Lost to Disease
Dairy and cattle producers now lose hundreds of millions of dollars each year because sick animals must be culled from their herds. In addition, cattle and dairy farmers spend $300 million to $500 million for anti-bacterial agents, antibiotics and other drugs to treat sick animals. The Food and Drug Administration has sought in the last two years to crack down on the use of such drugs because some are known carcinogens and residues have been found in meat and milk, posing a threat to public health. It is uncertain what the findings about the bovine virus infections will mean for the agency's effort.
Until now, most agricultural experts have attributed the rise in veterinary drug use to modern husbandry practices in which greater numbers of animals are being confined in pens and dairy barns. Whether the cattle virus is also related to the increasing drug use by causing immune suppression in adult cattle has not yet been studied, scientists said.
"The short-term research conducted so far won't give us an answer," said Dr. Matthew A. Gonda, a molecular virologist and head of the Laboratory of Cell and Molecular Structure at the Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center in Frederick, Md. "We really have to go back and do more research, take fresh isolates of the virus and put it into more animals and see what happens."
Another important consequence of the research on the cattle virus could be the effect on American exports of semen, embryos, and breeding stock, a $68 million-a-year industry, according to the Department of Agriculture. European countries, the major purchasers of American genetic material, are scrupulous about avoiding the risk of contamination by animal infections.
The bovine immunodeficiency-like virus was first isolated in 1969 by Dr. Martin J. Van Der Maaten, a veterinarian at the Agriculture Department's National Animal Disease Center in Ames, Iowa, who found it in a cow's blood serum collected in Louisiana.
The virus did not receive intense scientific scrutiny until the mid-1980's, when Dr. Gonda began to study the cattle virus and determined that its genetic structure was similar to the human AIDS virus. Both viruses have eight genes, Dr. Gonda said today, and magnified by an electron microscope, they look remarkably alike.
Prompted by a petition from The Foundation on Economic Trends, a Washington-based public interest group concerned about the virus's effects on the farm economy and human health, Dr. Van Der Maaten and his colleagues in Iowa began a new study in 1987. The research had four goals: to determine how prevalent the virus was in cattle, see whether it could produce illness in people, determine if it could cause significant infections in the nation's 99 million dairy and beef cattle and find out how it was spread. No Human Infection Found
The early research shows that the virus is much more common in cattle than Dr. Van Der Maaten thought. He and his colleagues in Iowa have identified the virus in blood serum collected from cattle in Louisiana, Texas, Kansas and Iowa.
Dr. Cecelia A. Whetstone, a microbiologist at the National Animal Disease Center who was in charge of the studies on human health, said in an interview that the "potential for human infection from BIV is zero." Laboratory workers who handled the virus in concentrated form, animal caretakers exposed to the virus and two workers who accidentally pricked themselves with infected needles are regularly tested for antibodies to the virus. The tests showed none of the workers had been infected.
There is circumstantial evidence that the cattle virus may be causing production problems in some herds. Dr. Van Der Maaten noted that dairy herds he has examined that had more illness from common diseases also had more cows infected with the virus than herds that were performing well. "We need a sound statistical study nationwide to help us understand what this could mean," he said.
Dr. Van Der Maaten and his colleagues also determined that the virus is spread in cattle through blood. Farmers could prevent infections from spreading by taking greater precautions in how they handle their animals. Using the same needle to draw blood or administer veterinary drugs on 60 or 70 animals is one way to spread the virus in a herd, he said.
The Foundation on Economic Trends today filed a formal petition with the Department of Agriculture asking the Government to take immediate steps to quarantine infected cattle, and accelerate the pace of research.
Al Strating, a director in the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Agriculture Department division that orders quarantines, said the Government had no plans for a nationwide program to quarantine or cull infected cattle.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/01/us/aids-like-virus-is-found-at-high-rate-in-us-cattle.html
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