Canadian and US firms to develop CJD blood test

A Canadian firm has joined forces with a US company to develop a blood test to detect the human form of mad cow disease.

Caprion Pharmaceuticals Inc, a small firm based in Montreal, is working with Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics of New Jersey to develop the test to spot Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease.

The test would be designed to screen donated blood.

"Right now, there's simply no blood test for mad cow disease, for cows or for humans," said Caprion president Lloyd Segal .