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Health & Nutrition: Food Safety and Quality

What is BSE or Mad Cow Disease?

On March 20, 1996, the British government announced a possible link between bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a chronic disease affecting the central nervous system of cattle, and ten cases of a variant form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a related disease among humans. At a World Health Organization consultation in April, a group of international experts concluded that there is no definite link between BSE and variant CJD but that circumstantial evidence suggests exposure to BSE may be the most likely explanation for the ten cases of variant CJD in the United Kingdom (U.K.).

No case of BSE has ever been reported among cattle in the United States, and, since 1989, no cattle have been imported from countries with confirmed cases of BSE. In addition, no beef has been imported from foreign countries with native cattle case of BSE since 1985.

Although BSE remains a disease among cattle in some foreign countries, the U.S. government is taking steps to increase prevention efforts for BSE and enhance surveillance and study of CJD among humans.

Source: Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition