June 30, 1999

An arm of the American Medical Association finds the risk to U.S. consumers from bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), related to the "mad cow" disease that struck Europe, is "minimal." BSE hasn't turned up in the United States, and adequate regulations exist to prevent it from developing in this country, the panel says.

The American Medical Association's Council on Scientific Affairs has issued a report that says parts of an infected cow carrying the disease agent would have to be consumed by humans, either as food, medication, biological products, biological devices or cosmetics, the report says. But the risk "currently is minimal."

Adequate regulations exist to prevent the entry of foreign sources of BSE, either as live cattle or as bovine-derived products, into the United States, the council says. Also, adequate regulations exist to prevent undetected cases of BSE from uncontrolled amplification within the US cattle population and adequate preventive guidelines exist to prevent high-risk bovine materials from contaminating produces intended for human consumption.