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| A seminar on the discovery, detection and prevention of Mad Cow Disease will take place Aug. 20-21 at the Kellogg West Conference Center and Lodge. |
The campus community is invited to attend a seminar on the discovery, detection and prevention of Mad Cow Disease and its rare but fatal human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. The two-day symposium on the public health threat of the diseases via blood or blood products is scheduled Aug. 20-21 at the Kellogg West Conference Center and Lodge.
This topic is of special interest to symposium organizer Michele Rash, an assistant professor in Animal Health Science. Her 14-year-old grandson suffers from severe hemophilia, and regularly uses blood products to survive. He received a contaminated batch of blood from a donor who died of a new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, which has an incubation period of up to 25 years.
“This is a topic of grave concern for the hemophilia community, but it's also a hot topic in health and medicine,” says Rash.
The keynote address on the history of mad cow disease's transmissibility will be given by Stephen Morse, director of the Center for Public Health Preparedness at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.
Speakers during the symposium include educators from USC and Colorado State University who specialize in mad cow disease (clinically known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) and the chief medical officer of the American Red Cross.
The conference is $150, which includes breakfast and lunch. Students may attend for free. Tickets to attend the keynote address and dinner are $50 each.
For more information, visit www.bsecalpoly.com or contact Michele Rash at (909) 869-2219 or merash@cpp.edu.