Innovation Anthology #508:

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In cattle, the rogue prions that cause mad cow disease or BSE, concentrate in the brain and the intestines.

According to Dr. Kevin Keough, scientists with the Alberta Prion Research Institute are discovering novel ways to dispose of potentially infected material.

DR. KEVIN KEOUGH: One of the prion researchers that we have funded and other partners have funded too, has found a way to break down the material that normally we would be removing from cattle, break it up, reassemble it into plastic like material. They are now looking for ways that those plastics could be used. And so it enables the potential for converting a cost of getting it out to something that now could be sold as a material for other things. And it now becomes a revenue source for the industry as opposed to a cost. And that could be making the difference between a viable and a non-viable operation. It also has the ability to change the way in which we direct some of that material.

Dr. Keough says currently the removed cattle tissue is either burnt or buried.

Thanks today to Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions.

I’M CHERYL CROUCHER

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Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions

The Alberta Innovates consolidation launched on November 1, 2016.

As part of the Alberta Innovates system, AI Bio Solutions invests in research and innovation to grow prosperity in Alberta’s agriculture, food and forestry sectors. The publicly funded board-governed corporation works with partners to identify, coordinate and fund research projects. AI Bio Solutions helps solve industry challenges with solutions that deliver economic, environmental and social benefits.

Program Date: 2012-10-30