The National Research Institute for Agriculture (INRAE) has confirmed the death of a retired employee, who had contracted Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The prion work she was working on has since been put on hold.
- A retiree from a laboratory working on prion diseases at INRAE died in November of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
- According to the first information, still to be confirmed, she cut herself at her workplace between 2004 and 2005.
- An internal investigation was opened and work on prions suspended.
A new victim of the “mad cow disease” in France: Tuesday November 30, the National Institute of Research for Agriculture (INRAE) announced the death on November 4 of one of its former employees. Now retired, this technician worked in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) in a prion laboratory and was therefore in contact with biological tissues infected with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. This is the second mad cow death recorded in France in the past two years.
A fatal neurodegenerative disease
Better known as “mad cow disease”, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a neurodegenerative disease “causing progressive neurological disorders with fatal outcome after a long and silent incubation period”explains INRAE on his website. Affecting humans, but also livestock and wild animals, prion diseases, including MJC, are characterized by rapid and fatal degeneration of the central nervous system.
Belonging to the Host-Pathogen Interactions (HAP) research unit within the National Veterinary School of Toulouse, the laboratory in which the technician worked was attached to the animal health department of INRAE. Its main objective was to “to understand the interactions between pathogenic microorganisms and their hosts”. The discovery of this case led to the suspension last July of work on prions in the laboratories of INRAE, ANSES, CEA, CNRS and Inserm. This suspension has since been extended until the end of the year.
A first case of MJC was detected in this same laboratory in 2019, resulting in the death of another 33-year-old laboratory technician.
An open internal investigation
According to the first information collected by the unions, the technician would have contracted the MJC after having “cut while working” in 2004 or 2005. INRAE has not yet confirmed.
“We cannot establish that this event is the cause of her illness. But we ask that all the light be shed. We are concerned that there are other contaminations. We cannot exclude that she fell sick from mad cow disease. But having two technicians working on prions die two years apart greatly limits the possibilities.”explains to France 3 Occitania a trade unionist on condition of anonymity.
An internal investigation has since been opened at INRAE to “gather the elements on the working conditions and possible sources of exposure of this retired agent”specifies the organization in a press release.
An inspection mission was also commissioned by the ministers responsible for research and agriculture. Hearings were conducted on November 8 and 9 in the laboratory, against the advice of the INRAE CHSCT, which wanted an external investigation. The conclusions of this report must be made by the end of the year and could lead to a legal action by the unions.
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