China invites Nobel Laureate to help combat mad cow disease

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 ◆ China invites Nobel Laureate to help combat mad cow disease

D. Carleton Gajdusek, winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize in medicine, was invited by the Beijing Inspection and Quarantine Bureau to act as a consultant for the bureau's mad cow disease lab.

Gajdusek, awarded the Nobel Prize for his discoveries concerning "new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious disease," said he would help China improve its research and prevention of mad cow disease.

Wei Chuanzhong, director of the bureau, said the issue of food safety has increasingly become a concern for all governments and the spread of mad cow disease poses a threat to mankind.

He said he believes that with the American laureate's expertise, the lab will advance in terms of testing methods for the disease.

The bureau's mad cow disease lab is China's first and has mastered a number of ways to test for the disease. A research center is in the planning to further the country's fight against the deadly disease.