Description
This article is from the Food Science
FAQ, bypking123@sympatico.ca (Paul E. J. King) with numerous
contributions by others.
10. With regard to BSE, is British beef safe to eat?
BSE is an extremely serious disease of cattle, the eradication
of which is of primary importance to safeguard herds, and hence
future supply of dairy and bovine meat products for the human and pet
food chains, together with important bovine by-products. For there to
be any risk to humans consuming beef, two conditions would both have
to be fulfilled: that BSE could be transmitted from cows to humans;
and that parts of the animal capable of carrying the infective agent
could enter the human food chain.
As to the first, the emergence in the UK during 1994 to early
1996 of ten anomalous cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) of a
previously unrecognised pattern, reviewed by the UK CJD Surveillance
Unit (CJDSU), led the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee
(SEAC), in the absence of other explanation at the time, to the
conjecture that the UK cases were "most likely" to have been caused
by exposure to infected cattle brain or spinal cord before 1989 (at
which time they were banned from the food chain). Since then the
number of cases has slowly increased to over 20, and research has
resulted in some scientific evidence consistent with transmission, at
least to some humans.
As to the second, while the BSE infective agent can be detected
in the brain, spinal cord and retina of BSE-infected cows, extensive
tests have so far failed to detect it in muscle meat or milk of
infected cows. Measures have been taken, and strengthened, to exclude
from the food chain certain parts of the animal (specified bovine
materials, SBM), including all those parts shown to be capable of
carrying the infective agent. These measures require the most
stringent enforcement and heavy penalties for evasion. These
safeguards do not, of course, protect against possible consequences
of having consumed infective SBM in the past.
Having regard to the present scientific evidence, therefore, and
provided that the above measures are fully implemented, consumption
of muscle meat, milk and tallow from British cows, would appear to
involve virtually no risk of causing CJD, i.e. to be safe within the
normal meaning of the term. SEAC has stated that, if there is any
risk to humans, it is extremely small, and no greater for children,
hospital patients, pregnant women or people who are
immuno-compromised than for healthy adults.
As regards animal health, measures have been taken, and
strengthened, to reduce the incidence of BSE in cows and these have
led to a dramatic reduction in new cases and are expected to lead to
the virtual elimination of the disease.
On the basis of present scientific knowledge, no further
animal-related measures are needed.
While that sums up the present state of knowledge, scientists always
have to keep open minds. They have to act on existing knowledge while
recognising that further research will bring new information and
knowledge, which may in turn lead to revised conclusions.
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