Viewtrak implementation is critical to effective hazard control

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) first emerged in cattle in Great Britain in November 1986. Between then and September 2002, approximately 180 900 cases of BSE were confirmed in the United Kingdom (UK). By 1989, cases of BSE in cattle arose in other European countries, and in Israel and Japan, although in relatively small numbers.

BSE is one of a group of diseases that affect mammals. These diseases, known as Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs), are prion diseases. They result from the build-up of abnormal prion proteins in the brain and nervous system. TSEs are invariably fatal.

TSEs commonly infect sheep and goats (as scrapie), as well as mink and North American mule deer and elk. TSEs have a long incubation period. This means that it usually takes four to six years for cattle infected with BSE to show signs of the disease.

It is unknown how BSE first arose. It is suspected that it developed when meat products from sheep or goats infected with scrapie (a related disease), were incorporated in cattle feed. This mistake was magnified when meat products and bone meal from BSE-infected cattle were unknowingly recycled back into the food chain as cattle feed.

Because young cattle often show no BSE symptoms, the infected animals continued into the human food chain. Years later, people began showing symptoms of a variant of the human TSE, Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (vCJD). Over 100 people in the United Kingdom alone have died of variant CJD. It is unknown how many other people are incubating the disease. BSE can potentially be transmitted to humans through:

• Food containing beef
• Blood and blood products
• Meat and bone meal
• Human and bovine tissues used in biologicals
• Pharmaceuticals
  

The agent that causes BSE is extremely resistant to the controls that would normally kill infectious agents such as bacteria and viruses. Cooking does not kill BSE. The only way to keep BSE out of the food supply is to remove the infective agent from the food chain. Viewtrak technology – and the Beeftrak system in particular – is designed to facilitate such action to secure the food supply.
BSE risk is still urgent

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently urged countries around the world, not just those in Western Europe, to be concerned about the risk of BSE and its human form, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). In a statement issued in Rome, FAO called for action to protect the human population, as well as the livestock, feed and meat industries.

The FAO described recent emergence of BSE cases in the European Union and other countries as “an increasingly grave situation. … Much remains unknown about the disease and the infective agent. There is currently no method of diagnosis at early stages of infection and no cure for the disease, neither in animals nor in humans."

All countries that have imported cattle or meat and bone meal (MBM) from Western Europe, especially the UK, during and since the 1980s, can be considered at risk from the disease. FAO considers "that there is an urgent need to refine the risk assessment and to extend it to other countries and regions. Countries at risk should implement effective surveillance for BSE in cattle and controls on the animal feed and meat industries. …".

Within countries, FAO recommended applying the so-called Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point system (HACCP) which aims at identifying potential problems and taking corrective measures throughout the food chain. Some of the issues include the production of animal feed, the raw materials used, cross-contamination in the feed mill, labelling of manufactured feeds, the feed transport system, as well as monitoring imported live animals, slaughtering methods, the rendering industry and the disposal of waste materials.

More reading

World Health Organisation November 2002 BSE Fact Sheet
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs113/en/

World Health Organisation BSE Site
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/bse/en/

World Health Organisation Understanding the BSE Threat
http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/bse/BSEthreat.pdf