February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The company, Enfer Scientific, is run by Irishmen Louis Ronan and Michael O’Connor and their diagnosis kit has been sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for approval.
A green light from the USDA would open privately held Enfer to considerable market growth.
In the U.S. Enfer has a powerful ally, Abbott Technologies, its marketing and distribution partner. Abbott is pressuring the USDA to approve the kits swiftly.
The kits allow quick diagnosis of the disease, which can pass from cows to humans if contaminated meat is eaten.
Scientists do not yet know the full scale of the mad-cow epidemic, as it is believed to take up to 20 years for the human form of the disease, Creutzfeldt Jakob disease, to manifest itself.
A handful of cases have been diagnosed in the UK — victims typically experience a devastating collapse of the central nervous system and enter a vegetative state after a few months of illness.
If USDA approval of Enfer’s kits is swift, it will be a second growth spurt for Enfer, whose year end accounts for 2002 showed the company paid out dividends of