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Iowa BSE lab procedures OKBut investigating panel suggests further precautions to safeguard water supply AMES, Iowa (AP)--A U.S. government lab properly disposed of waste from animals used in bovine spongiform encephalopathy research but should take further precautions to safeguard the city's water supply, a panel of scientists said. The eight-person panel investigated complaints that the National Animal Disease Center failed to properly treat the waste--including necropsy waste from animals that died of infectious diseases such as BSE and chronic wasting disease--before it was sent to the city's sewage treatment plant. "We don't feel that there's any way that there could have been any significant exposure from the practices that (the lab) currently has in place," said panel member Bob Rohwer, director of the molecular neurovirology laboratory at the VA Maryland Health Care System. The panel, which studied the issue for months at the request of federal and city officials, met in Ames Nov. 17 to release a summary of its report. The final version was to be released Nov. 21. From the start, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the lab, denied the waste was improperly handled, and the panel agreed. "It is highly unlikely for animals and humans to be exposed in such a way to cause transmission and disease," the summary said. However, the scientists recommended that the lab pretreat high-risk waste before sending it to its in-house treatment plant and remove any solid waste left after pretreatment of wastewater before it's discharged to the lab's sanitary sewer, among other measures. Date: 11/29/06
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