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Food Safety and Inspection
Service United States Department of Agriculture Washington, D.C. 20250-3700 |
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Food Safety and Inspection
Service United States Department of Agriculture Washington, D.C. 20250-3700 |
Congressional and Public Affairs
Andrea McNally (202) 720-9113
WASHINGTON, Jan. 16, 2002—The United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service is announcing the availability of its current thinking paper on possible actions to minimize human exposure to products that could contain the infective agent that causes Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy.
BSE is a slowly progressive degenerative disease that affects the central nervous system of adult cattle. Research indicates there may be an association between BSE and a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a slow degenerative disease that affects the central nervous system of humans.
BSE has not been detected in the United States. The recently released risk assessment on BSE, conducted by Harvard University’s School of Public Health under contract with USDA, finds that actions the U.S. government has already taken have resulted in a high resistance to the introduction and spread of BSE in the United States. However, additional measures may be warranted to ensure the safety of the nation’s food supply.
The current thinking paper outlines additional possible regulatory actions FSIS may take to limit the risk of human exposure to BSE. The paper includes the following options: prohibiting the use of brain and spinal cord from specified cattle in human food; prohibiting the use of central nervous system tissues in boneless beef products, including meat from Advanced Meat Recovery systems; and prohibiting the use of the vertebral column from certain categories of cattle, including downed animals, in the production of meat from AMR systems. FSIS requests public comment on the options discussed in this paper, as well as the Harvard University risk assessment.
This notice will publish in the Federal Register on Jan. 17. Written comments should be submitted to the FSIS Docket Clerk, FSIS Docket Room, Room 102, 300 12th Street, SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-3700. Copies of the current thinking paper, as well as the Harvard University risk assessment, are available on the Internet at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/oa/topics/BSE.htm or can be requested by mail from the FSIS Docket Clerk.
For Further Information, Contact:
FSIS Congressional and Public Affairs Staff
Phone: (202) 720-9113
Fax: (202) 690-0460