Brain emboli in the lungs of cattle after stunning

Garland, Tam; Bauer, N.; Bailey, Mark

doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(05)64821-0

Cited by 46 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 1 publication

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The spread of brain tissue as a result of stunning is now well established and has been demonstrated elsewhere for cattle by a number of workers (1,2,9). All these studies report the presence of emboli in the lungs of cattle after stunning, using a variety of captive bolt guns.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…For example, brain emboli in the lungs have been reported previously for humans following severe head injury (19) or birth trauma (12), as well as for cattle following stunning (2,9). Such distribution of CNS tissues may have important food safety implications, as it means that brain tissue of stunned cattle infected with the prion responsible for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) (22,26) may be distributed into other tissues within the derived carcass.…”

mentioning

confidence: 97%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Use of a Marker Organism To Model the Spread of Central Nervous System Tissue in Cattle and the Abattoir Environment during Commercial Stunning and Carcass Dressing

Daly

Prendergast

Sheridan

et al. 2002

Appl Environ Microbiol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Due to concerns about a link between variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans and similar prion protein-induced disease in cattle, i.e., bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), strict controls are in place to exclude BSE-positive animals and/or specified risk materials including bovine central nervous system (CNS) tissue from the human food chain. However, current slaughter practice, using captive bolt guns, may induce disruption of brain tissues and mobilize CNS tissues into the bovine circulatory system, leading to the dispersion of CNS tissues (including prion proteins) throughout the derived carcass. This project used a marker (antibiotic-resistant) strain of Pseudomonas fluorescens to model the effects of commercial captive bolt stunning procedures on the movement of mobilized CNS material within slaughtered animals and the abattoir environment. The marker organism, introduced by injection through the bolt entry aperture or directly using a cartridge-fired captive bolt, was detected in the slaughter environment immediately after stunning and in the abattoir environment at each subsequent stage of the slaughter-dressing process. The marker organism was also detected on the hands of operatives; on slaughter equipment; and in samples of blood, organs, and musculature of inoculated animals. There were no significant differences between the results obtained by the two inoculation methods (P < 0.05). This study demonstrates that material present in, or introduced into, the CNS of cattle during commercial captive bolt stunning may become widely dispersed across the many animate and inanimate elements of the slaughter-dressing environment and within derived carcasses including meat entering the human food chain.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

mentioning

confidence: 97%

Use of a Marker Organism To Model the Spread of Central Nervous System Tissue in Cattle and the Abattoir Environment during Commercial Stunning and Carcass Dressing

Daly

Prendergast

Sheridan

et al. 2002

Appl Environ Microbiol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Visibly recognisable CNS emboli were detected in some previous studies of Garland et al (1996) and where pneumatic air injection stunning was used. However, subsequent studies involving visual examination of dissected lungs from cattle (n=1049 lungs) stunned with cartridge operated guns failed to detect any CNS emboli (Horlacher et al, 2002;Lücker et al, 2002;Munro, 1997).…”

Section: Lung Examinationmentioning

confidence: 81%

“…The current methods to detect the presence of central nervous system (CNS) tissue in blood, lungs or meat include gross tissue dissection and visual examination. In addition to being very labour intensive, this process often requires the identified emboli to be tested with immunochemistry as well as immunohistochemistry to verify that they are CNS material Garland et al, 1996;Horlacher et al, 2002, Love et al, 2000.…”

Section: Gross Tissue Dissectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Opinion of the Scientific Panel on biological hazards (BIOHAZ) on BSE risk from dissemination of brain particles in blood and carcass following stunning

2004

EFSA Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

SUMMARYThe European Commission (EC) requested the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and its Scientific Panel on Biological Hazards for an update of the latest SSC opinion of 2002 related to the risk of dissemination of brain particles into the blood and carcass when applying certain stunning methods.The Scientific Panel on Biological Hazards concludes that brain damage caused by both penetrating and non-penetrating captive bolt stunning in cattle, as well as that caused by penetrating captive bolt stunning in sheep, can result in occurrence of Central Nervous System (CNS) tissue emboli in venous blood draining the head. Therefore, the nonpenetrating method currently used cannot be considered as an alternative method to the penetrating method. It also concluded that following penetrating captive bolt stunning, the likelihood of CNS tissue embolism is higher in sheep than in cattle. New data, based on the results of detection methods currently available, confirm the occurrence of CNS embolism following penetrating or non-penetrating stunning methods. However, methods for examination of different tissue/organs for the presence and quantification of the CNS material have not been optimised. It was also concluded that analysis of the available data can not confirm either an association, or the absence of an association, of CNS tissue embolism with a number of alternative methods, including electrical stunning method.The Scientific Panel on Biological Hazards recommends that further studies in particular on modifications of the current captive bolt stunning methods so as to prevent CNS embolism are required. Alternatively, the replacement of these methods should be investigated. In addition, also validation studies on the occurrence of stunning-associated CNS embolism conducted under commercial conditions are required. Such studies should focus on the involvement of systemic arterial circulation in the distribution of CNS emboli. Research should also focus on optimized methods for the detection and quantification of stunning-induced dissemination of CNS material to different organs/tissues and on optimal sampling methods/plans, which can provide comparable results between various studies.

show abstract

“…[44] Studies have also found that an air-injection stunner forced visible pieces of CNS tissue into the circulatory system of stunned cattle and sheep. [46,47] This device has been shown to cause the formation of grossly visible brain tissue in the left and right branches of the main pulmonary artery in 2.5-5% of cattle, [46] in the jugular venous blood of cattle and sheep, [48][49][50] and in the aortic blood from sheep. [47] Particles of brain tissue as large as 20 µm in diameter can pass through the ovine pulmonary capillary network and enter the systemic arterial circulation during stunning, suggesting that this technique could easily disperse PrP Sc throughout the edible carcass.…”

Section: Penetrative Stunning With Air Injectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spread and Control of Prion Diseases in the Food and Feed Chains

Rao¹,

Hsieh²

2016

Significance, Prevention and Control of Food Related Diseases

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Prion diseases, or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), are a group of chronic, progressive, and fatal neurodegenerative disorders that affect a variety of mammalian species. This chapter discusses the issues raised by two foodborne prion diseases, namely bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), particularly those related to their spread in cattle and humans, the contamination of specified risk material (SRM) in meat, the relevant regulations, and appropriate detection methods for surveillance.

show abstract

Brain emboli in the lungs of cattle after stunning

Cited by 46 publications

References 1 publication

Use of a Marker Organism To Model the Spread of Central Nervous System Tissue in Cattle and the Abattoir Environment during Commercial Stunning and Carcass Dressing

Use of a Marker Organism To Model the Spread of Central Nervous System Tissue in Cattle and the Abattoir Environment during Commercial Stunning and Carcass Dressing

Opinion of the Scientific Panel on biological hazards (BIOHAZ) on BSE risk from dissemination of brain particles in blood and carcass following stunning

Spread and Control of Prion Diseases in the Food and Feed Chains

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About