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BSE as a National and Trans-Boundary Food Safety Emergency

Year of publication 2002

Author Nutrition Division

Product type Meeting

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) A new cattle disease, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) was first identified in 1986. This belongs to a group of diseases known as a Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSE). Although initially the infective agent for BSE was not thought to be capable of infecting humans, there is now evidence to suggest that BSE and a variant of the human TSE, Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (vCJD), are the same infective agent. These diseases are invariably fatal. The agent that causes BSE is extrem ely resistant to the controls that would normally kill infectious agents such as bacteria and viruses, including cooking. Normal food hygiene measures are therefore ineffective against BSE. The only effective control in relation to human health is therefore to remove the infective agent from the food chain.

Meeting symbol GF 01 7

Language English

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