CFIA investigated for muzzling scientists
Posted Apr. 5th, 2013by Barry WilsonNo Comments
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is one of seven government departments
and agencies that the federal information commissioner is investigating for
alleged lack of information transparency.
Commissioner Suzanne Legault received a complaint from the University of
Victoria’s Environmental Law Clinic (ELC) and the Ottawa-based advocacy group
Democracy Watch that government muzzling of scientists is a violation of the
Access to Information Act.
The complaint about the CFIA is based on an incident in Calgary late last
year during a briefing on a massive beef recall because of E coli contamination
discovered in product from the XL Foods Inc. plant in Brooks, Alta.
“George Da Pont, president of the CFIA, attended a live news conference to
discuss the government’s handling of the recall and answer questions,” said the
complaint sent to Legault.
“However, the conference was abruptly ended when an assistant of
agriculture minister Gerry Ritz interrupted Da Pont mid-sentence and ushered him
away from the cameras.”
Meagan Murdoch, the minister’s director of communications at the time,
directed Da Pont away from the microphone, abruptly ending a news conference
being televised nationally.
Democracy Watch co-ordinator Tyler Sommers said the Calgary incident is the
only evidence submitted on CFIA information practices.
“The information commissioner may be working on other information as well,
but that is all we submitted,” he said.
The agency issued a statement indicating it is co-operating.
“As Canada’s largest science-based regulator, the CFIA is proud of the
contributions we make to the quality of life of Canadians,” it said.
“The CFIA continuously strives to be transparent and accountable in how it
does business. We will fully cooperate with whatever we are asked to provide
over the course of the investigation.”
Also under investigation are the departments of environment, fisheries and
oceans, national defence, natural resources, treasury board and the National
Research Council of Canada.
In the request for an investigation, the ELC and Democracy Watch accused
the federal government of “systematic efforts to obstruct the right of the
media, and through them the Canadian public, to timely access to government
scientists. There are few issues more fundamental to democracy than the ability
of the public to access scientific information produced by government
scientists, information that their tax dollars have paid for.”
It included a 130-page report, Muzzling Civil Servants: A Threat to
Democracy.
CENSORSHIP IS A TERRIBLE THING $$$
Canada has had a COVER-UP policy of mad cow disease since about the 17th
case OR 18th case of mad cow disease. AFTER THAT, all FOIA request were ignored
$$$
THIS proves there is indeed an epidemic of mad cow disease in North
America, and it has been covered up for years and years, if not for decades, and
it’s getting worse $$$
Thursday, February 10, 2011
TRANSMISSIBLE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY REPORT UPDATE CANADA FEBRUARY 2011
and how to hide mad cow disease in Canada Current as of: 2011-01-31
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Canada, U.S. agree on animal-disease measures to protect trade, while
reducing human and animal health protection
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
REPORT ON THE INVESTIGATION OF THE SIXTEENTH CASE OF BOVINE SPONGIFORM
ENCEPHALOPATHY (BSE) IN CANADA
Thursday, August 19, 2010
REPORT ON THE INVESTIGATION OF THE SEVENTEENTH CASE OF BOVINE SPONGIFORM
ENCEPHALOPATHY (BSE) IN CANADA
Friday, March 4, 2011
Alberta dairy cow found with mad cow disease
Increased Atypical Scrapie Detections
Press reports indicate that increased surveillance is catching what
otherwise would have been unreported findings of atypical scrapie in sheep. In
2009, five new cases have been reported in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, and
Saskatchewan. With the exception of Quebec, all cases have been diagnosed as
being the atypical form found in older animals. Canada encourages producers to
join its voluntary surveillance program in order to gain scrapie-free status.
The World Animal Health will not classify Canada as scrapie-free until no new
cases are reported for seven years. The Canadian Sheep Federation is calling on
the government to fund a wider surveillance program in order to establish the
level of prevalence prior to setting an eradication date. Besides long-term
testing, industry is calling for a compensation program for farmers who report
unusual deaths in their flocks.
another atypical Nor-98 Scrapie case documented in Canada for 2012
Date confirmed Location Animal type infected May 31* Quebec Sheep
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Scrapie confirmed at quarantined sheep farm Canada CFIA
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
20120402 - Breach of quarantine/Violation de la mise en quarantaine of an
ongoing Scrapie investigation
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Atypical Scrapie NOR-98 confirmed Alberta Canada sheep January 2012
***
The potential impact of prion diseases on human health was greatly
magnified by the recognition that interspecies transfer of BSE to humans by beef
ingestion resulted in vCJD. While changes in animal feed constituents and
slaughter practices appear to have curtailed vCJD, there is concern that CWD of
free-ranging deer and elk in the U.S. might also cross the species barrier.
Thus, consuming venison could be a source of human prion disease. Whether BSE
and CWD represent interspecies scrapie transfer or are newly arisen prion
diseases is unknown. Therefore, the possibility of transmission of prion disease
through other food animals cannot be ruled out. There is evidence that vCJD can
be transmitted through blood transfusion. There is likely a pool of unknown size
of asymptomatic individuals infected with vCJD, and there may be asymptomatic
individuals infected with the CWD equivalent. These circumstances represent a
potential threat to blood, blood products, and plasma supplies.
Friday, November 09, 2012
*** Chronic Wasting Disease CWD in cervidae and transmission to other
species
Sunday, November 11, 2012
*** Susceptibilities of Nonhuman Primates to Chronic Wasting Disease
November 2012
Friday, December 14, 2012
Susceptibility Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in wild cervids to Humans 2005
- December 14, 2012
The chances of a person or domestic animal contracting CWD are “extremely
remote,” Richards said. The possibility can’t be ruled out, however. “One could
look at it like a game of chance,” he explained. “The odds (of infection)
increase over time because of repeated exposure. That’s one of the downsides of
having CWD in free-ranging herds: We’ve got this infectious agent out there that
we can never say never to in terms of (infecting) people and domestic
livestock.”
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has a small laboratory that does some
work on CWD, but only for game-ranched animals. It does not participate in
monitoring programs.
The disease slowly kills animals, shortening females' reproductive lives,
and will eventually cause numbers to drop. If the number of fawns that survive
to become reproducing adults drops to less than one per female, "there'll be no
stopping it the longer we wait, not that we know how to stop it now," Leighton
said.
Research needs to be maintained, and it will take time for current research
to translate into new tools for trying to reduce the impact of the disease, he
said.
badam@thestarphoenix.com
© Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix
===================================================================
"From the data that we do have, it's quite astonishing ... This disease is
on the march in a major way," said Ted Leighton, executive director of the
Canadian Co-operative Wildlife Health Centre at the University of Saskatchewan
college of veterinary medicine.
"This is getting to levels where we can start to be concerned about actual
effects on wild deer populations," he said.
In February, a yearling elk found dead in a Nipawin farmyard was the first
wild elk in the province to test positive for CWD.
The disease has been tracked among farmed elk populations for a number of
years.
Between 13 and 24 per cent of a small sample of wild cervids (deer and elk)
tested in the Nipawin area northeast of Prince Albert have been found to have
CWD. It has also been found in a moose in Alberta, and experiments have shown it
can be transmitted to caribou, though none have been found in the wild.
The disease is caused by little-understood agents, called prions, that
attack the brain and cause death.
Prions also cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad
cow disease in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.
Higher rates of CWD infection are found in cervids along the South
Saskatchewan River toward the Alberta border, where it has been studied the most
intensively, Leighton said.
===================================================================
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
CWD found in wild deer, elk Saskatchewan a slowly spreading epidemic
there'll be no stopping it the longer we wait
very disturbing...tss
Wednesday, December 05, 2012
CANADA CWD VOLUNTARY HERD CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 2012-12-05 Accredited
Veterinarian's Manual / Manuel du vétérinaire accrédité
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Chronic wasting disease on the Canadian prairies
snip...
This apparent apathy comes at a time when evidence is accumulating that CWD
will cause population declines and altered age structures. In the only
population of free-ranging deer in Canada being closely monitored for changes in
CWD prevalence and survival, we estimate CWD prevalence in adult deer is now
approximately 50% and is the main cause of mortality in adult deer. The study
area is immediately adjacent to one of the first elk farms to test positive for
CWD and it is likely that close to 15 years of infection in this wild population
has resulted in ever increasing environmental burdens of prions which is now
driving the outbreak. Detailed radio-tracking and motion sensitive photography
is showing that mule deer in this area repeatedly and heavily use anthropogenic
sites such as leaking grain bins, cattle salt blocks, hay bales, etc. Increased
congregation and contamination of these sites with urine, saliva and feces
increases the risk of CWD transmission. In essence these wild deer are behaving
similar to deer on game farms except their movement isn’t constrained by a
fence. The outcome is likely to be the same, extremely high infection rates and
drastic population declines. ...
snip...
Because of their close taxonomic relationship and similarities in DNA
sequences of the prion protein (PrP) coding region to deer and wapiti, it had
been hypothesized that moose (Alces alces shirasi) would be naturally
susceptible to infection if sufficient exposure to the CWD agent occurred
(Williams, 2005).
A recent experiment using oral exposure to infectious brain tissue in
captive moose confirmed that this species is susceptible to CWD (Kreeger et al.,
2006). Here, we report a natural case of CWD in a free-ranging moose from north
central Colorado.
Anim Genet. 2006 August; 37(4): 425–426. doi:
10.1111/j.1365-2052.2006.01466.x PMCID: PMC1592321
Polymorphisms of the prion protein gene (PRNP) in Alaskan moose (Alces
alces gigas)
“Genetic similarities, susceptibility in the laboratory setting and
overlapping geographical ranges suggest the lack of a barrier to the
transmission of prion disease from mule and white-tailed deer to moose.”
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease Human TSE report update North America, Canada,
Mexico, and USDA PRION UNIT as of May 18, 2012
type determination pending Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (tdpCJD), is on the
rise in Canada and the USA
Sunday, December 2, 2012
CANADA 19 cases of mad cow disease SCENARIO 4: ‘WE HAD OUR CHANCE AND WE
BLEW IT’
Thursday, February 14, 2013
The Many Faces of Mad Cow Disease Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy BSE and
TSE prion disease
Thursday, March 29, 2012
atypical Nor-98 Scrapie has spread from coast to coast in the USA 2012
NIAA Annual Conference April 11-14, 2011San Antonio, Texas
16 YEAR OLD SPORADIC FFI ?
Monday, January 14, 2013
Gambetti et al USA Prion Unit change another highly suspect USA mad cow
victim to another fake name i.e. sporadic FFI at age 16 CJD Foundation goes
along with this BSe
Monday, December 31, 2012
Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease and Human TSE Prion Disease in Washington State,
2006–2011-2012
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
CREUTZFELDT JAKOB TSE PRION DISEASE HUMANS END OF YEAR REVIEW DECEMBER 25,
2012
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease Human TSE report update North America, Canada,
Mexico, and USDA PRION UNIT as of May 18, 2012
type determination pending Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (tdpCJD), is on the
rise in Canada and the USA
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease CJD worlds youngest documented victim, 11 years
old, shall we pray
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Variably protease-sensitive prionopathy in the UK: a retrospective review
1991–2008
Brain (2013) 136 (4): 1102-1115. doi: 10.1093/brain/aws366
IT is of my opinion, that the OIE and the USDA et al, are the soul reason, and responsible parties, for Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy TSE prion diseases, including typical and atypical BSE, typical and atypical Scrapie, and all strains of CWD, and human TSE there from, spreading around the globe.
I have lost all confidence of this organization as a regulatory authority on animal disease, and consider it nothing more than a National Trading Brokerage for all strains of animal TSE, just to satisfy there commodity. AS i said before, OIE should hang up there jock strap now, since it appears they will buckle every time a country makes some political hay about trade protocol, commodities and futures. IF they are not going to be science based, they should do everyone a favor and dissolve there organization.
JUST because of low documented human body count with nvCJD and the long incubation periods, the lack of sound science being replaced by political and corporate science in relations with the fact that science has now linked some sporadic CJD with atypical BSE and atypical scrapie, and the very real threat of CWD being zoonosis, I believed the O.I.E. has failed terribly and again, I call for this organization to be dissolved. ...
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
O.I.E. BSE, CWD, SCRAPIE, TSE PRION DISEASE Final Report of the 80th General Session, 20 - 25 May 2012
http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2012/07/oie-bse-cwd-scrapie-tse-prion-disease.html
Thursday, December 20, 2012
OIE GROUP RECOMMENDS THAT SCRAPE PRION DISEASE BE DELISTED AND SAME OLD BSe WITH BOVINE MAD COW DISEASE
http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2012/12/oie-group-recommends-that-scrape-prion.html
TSS
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