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BSE:
A Food Safety Issue
Fur-Chi
Chen
Cooperative
Agricultural Research Program
Seminar Series
Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN
September 4, 2002
Bovine
Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), commonly referred to as “Mad Cow
Disease,” is a transmissible, slowly progressive, degenerative, fatal
disease affecting the central nervous system of adult cattle.
BSE belongs to the family of diseases known as the transmissible
spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs).
Other TSEs include scrapie in sheep and goats, transmissible mink
encephalopathy, feline spongiform encephalopathy, chronic wasting
disease in deer and elk, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) in humans.
The agent that causes BSE and other TSEs has yet to be fully
characterized.
BSE
was first diagnosed in 1986 in the United Kingdom and since then has
been confirmed in many other European countries and, most recently, in
Japan.
The disease is most likely spread by feeding rendered parts of
cattle infected with BSE to other cattle in the form of meat and bone
meal.
Scientific and epidemiological studies have linked variant
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), a chronic and fatal neurodegenerative
disease that affects humans, to the consumption of beef products
contaminated with the BSE agent.
In March 1996, the United Kingdom announced the first cases of
this disease and linked it to BSE.
By May 2000, 61 people in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and France
had died from it, and the number and rate of new cases is increasing.
Neither
vCJD nor BSE has been detected in the U.S.
Since 1989, USDA has put in place a number of increasingly
stringent safeguards to prevent BSE from entering the country.
Imports of live ruminant animals and ruminant products from
countries where BSE has been found or is suspected have been banned.
As a precautionary measure, the FDA has also instituted a
mammalian-to-ruminant feed ban under which materials processed from the
slaughter of cattle, sheep and other animals cannot be used as feed for
ruminant animals.
Given
the actions already taken by USDA and FDA, the results of the risk
assessment conducted by Harvard University show that BSE is extremely
unlikely to become established in the U.S.
If BSE should enter the U.S., the assessment indicates that most
probably, only a small amount of potentially dangerous tissues would
reach the human food supply.
BSE agent is highly stable and resistant to enzyme degradation,
freezing, drying and normal cooking temperatures, including
pasteurization and sterilization, such as thermal processing of canned
products.
Therefore, it is urged that additional measures should be
considered to minimize human exposure to BSE agents through products
containing ingredients of bovine origin, such as some pharmaceuticals,
gelatin, and beef stocks, extracts, and flavorings.
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