An international conference on mad cow disease on Thursday urged all countries to take preemptive measures to combat the fatal, brain-wasting illness, including banning the use of meat and bone meal in feed for ruminants. More than 150 veterinarians, food safety experts and health officials recommended that countries assess their risk of developing mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), not only within cattle herds but also in sheep and goats. "BSE...should be considered as an international issue as potentially infected BSE materials have been distributed throughout the world through trade of live cattle, certain cattle products and by-products," a joint statement issued at the end of the four-day meeting said. "Countries should not become complacent about their risk from BSE. The extremely low initial incidence and limited clustering of BSE cases, protracted latency and non-specific nature of the early clinical signs of BSE tend to mask the severity of the problem," the statement said. More than 100 people in Britain, France and Ireland have died or are believed to be dying from the human form of BSE, new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, which is thought to be caused by eating contaminated meat products. Source: Reuters
