IMPORTANCE:
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or Mad Cow Disease, first diagnosed in the United Kingdom in 1986, is a chronic degenerative disease affecting cattle. The U.S. has had a very proactive and preventive approach to BSE. The identification of BSE in cows in the U.S. in 2003 and 2006 has raised issues surrounding the U.S. surveillance system for animal disease, as well as other regulatory and economic issues that could impact all animal species, including swine.

BACKGROUND:
BSE has had a substantial impact on the British cattle industry and has been confirmed in native cattle in several other European countries. BSE is classified as a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE). Other TSE’s include scrapie in sheep, transmissible mink encephalopathy, chronic wasting disease of deer and elk, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) in humans. The causative agent of BSE, as well as other TSEs, has not yet been fully characterized. Data suggests that BSE in the United Kingdom developed because cattle were fed feed containing contaminated meat and bone meal, likely from scrapie-affected sheep or previously undiagnosed TSE cattle. In an effort to prevent BSE in the U.S., USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) restricted the import of live ruminants and ruminant products from any BSE-affected country beginning in 1989, and in 1997, the Food and Drug Administration prohibited, with some exceptions, the use of mammalian protein in the manufacture of ruminant feeds.

NPPC POSITION:
NPPC supports the actions of FDA and USDA to prevent BSE in cattle in the U.S. NPPC also continues to work with the U.S. pork industry, Congress and USDA to further strengthen the U.S. animal health surveillance system by establishing a national animal identification program to prevent the spread of BSE. Such a traceability program must ensure that stringent measures are in place to provide accurate, affordable, fast and effective animal health information to protect the health of the U.S. livestock herd. While a natural transmissible spongiform encephalopathy has never been diagnosed in swine anywhere in the world, NPPC will continue to work closely with federal agencies and other livestock groups to provide a coordinated U.S. response to BSE. In addition, NPPC is committed to working with interested stakeholders to ensure continued consumer confidence in all U.S. animal protein products.