Your response: from Dr Chris Pomfrett

Are you representing a special interest group?

Yes. Lecturer in Neurophysiology applied to Anaesthesia

The University of Manchester

Comment:

Paragraph 86 'Research' and Annex H "..infectivity.."

It has been suggested that the vagus nerves are a potential route for prion neuroinvasion of the brainstem (Beekes et al, 1998 'Cerebral targetting indicates vagal spread of infection in hamsters fed with scrapie' J.Gen.Virology 79:601-607; Philips Inquiry Volume 2: 2.169 & 2.170).

I suggest the following:

1. Until disproved as infectious, vagus nerves should be removed from the food chain, including mechanically recovered meat.

2. Vagal tissue should be tested for potential infectivity as soon as possible.

3. The relative length of vagal nerves should be considered as a factor for incubation times of TSEs i.e. a young animal/human will have shorter vagus nerves, and small animals will have shorter vagus nerves than large animals.

4. Estimates of vagal nerve activity (vagal tone) should be determined in vivo and considered as a factor for incubation time i.e. an animal or human with high vagal tone may transport prions faster along the vagal nerves than one with little or no vagal tone.