About vCJD

From the United Kingdom (where it all began)
• UK’s latest tally of confirmed cases of vCJD
• UK’s Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance Unit
• The BSE Inquiry. The UK government’s official investigation into the history of BSE and vCJD and the adequacy of the nation’s response.

From the United Nations

• World Health Organization Fact Sheet on vCJD (December 2000)
• World Health Organization surveillance: Programme for surveillance and control of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. (requires Acrobat Reader)

From the United States

• 2001 review article by four world authorities on BSE and vCJD - Brown P, Will RG, Bradley R, Asher DM, Detwiler L.: Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy and Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease: Background, Evolution, and Current Concerns. Emerging Infectious Diseases 2001 Jan-Feb;7(1):6-16. (Full text)
• CDC: Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy and New Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
• CDC: Questions and Answers Regarding Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)
• FDA: BSE: Background, Current Concerns, and U.S. Response (March 1, 2001)
• National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center at Case Western Reserve University Homepage
• Report on suspected cases of CJD and vCJD in the U.S.

From Canada

• Canadian Food Inspection Agency Fact Sheet on BSE (Jan 2001)
• Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s Frequently Asked Questions about BSE (Feb 2001)

From industry

• National Cattlemen’s Beef Association: CJD, BSE, VCJD Information (Feb 2001)

Other Web sites

• The Official Mad Cow Disease Home Page
• Human BSE Foundation

About BSE

Official count of cases from the Office International Des Epizooties
• Cases in the UK
• Cases outside the UK

Which tissues are infective?

• UK’s information on Specified Risk Material
• European Community: Listing of Specified Risk Materials: a scheme for assessing relative risks to man (Jan 1998)

From the UK

• UK government’s authoritative source of information on BSE

From the United Nations

• World Health Organization Fact Sheet on BSE (December 2000)
• FAO warns that countries around the world should be concerned about BSE and vCJD because potentially infected cattle feed was exported by Western Europe, especially the UK, during and since the 1980s (Jan 26, 2001)
• FAO recommends precautions (Feb 2001)
• European Union’s 2000 assessment of which countries are and are not at risk of BSE: Final Opinion of the Scientific Steering Committee on the Geographical Risk of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (GBR)
• European Union’s 2001 assessments of which additional countries are and are not at risk of BSE
• European Union: Frequently asked questions about BSE (April 6, 2001)

From the United States

• USDA surveillance of BSE, BSE Surveillance, including latest total of cow brains analyzed for BSE
• 2001 review article by four world authorities on BSE and vCJD Brown P, Will RG, Bradley R, Asher DM, Detwiler L.: Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy and Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease: Background, Evolution, and Current Concerns. Emerging Infectious Diseases 2001 Jan-Feb;7(1):6-16. (Full text)
• USDA: BSE
• USDA: Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)
• FDA: Questions and Answers on Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
• DHHS Fact Sheet of February 5, 2001: Federal Agencies Take Special Precautions to keep "mad cow disease" out of the United States.
• FDA Consumer Magazine of March-April, 2001: Trying To Keep " Mad Cow Disease" Out of U.S. Herds.
• CDC: Questions and Answers Regarding Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)

From Canada

• Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) Fact Sheet
• Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) Frequently Asked Questions
• Canadian tally of worldwide BSE cases

From Australia

• Australian summary of EU’s assessment

Scrapie
• USDA summary

Chronic Wasting Disease

• USDA summary

About Feed Inspections

• FDA’s Guidance for Industry

FDA inspections
• FDA Update on Ruminant Feed (BSE) Enforcement Activities (Jan 10, 2001)
• GAO report on animal feed: Controls can be strengthened to reduce the risk of disease linked to unsafe animal feed (September 2000) GAO/RCED-00-255

Response from feed industry

• AFIA Strongly Encourages Completion of Industry Inspections
• AFIA Responds to FDA Report, Deluge of Media Calls

About Mechanically Separated Meat (MSM)

• USDA definition

About Advanced Meat Recovery (AMR)

• USDA’s Definition
• USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) Releases Survey of Advanced Meat Recovery Systems
• Revised results of 1996 FSIS Advanced Meat Recovery (AMR) Survey
  

  USDA Directives

  • FSIS Directive 7160.1
  • FSIS Directive 7160.2
  • FSIS proposes rule Federal Register: April 13, 1998 (Volume 63, Number 70)] pages 17959-17966
  • FSIS reopens comment period on December 16, 1999

  Background papers

  • Sparks Companies: Advanced Meat Recovery Systems - An Economic Analysis of Proposed USDA Regulations.
  • Lester M. Crawford of the Georgetown University’s Center for Food & Nutrition Policy: Advanced Meat Recovery Systems

About Gelatin

• FDA Talk Paper: Safety of Gelatin and Gelatin By-Products Reviewed
• FDA: Guidance for Industry [addresses safety of gelatin and how gelatin should be sourced and processed]
• European Community: Scientific Report and Opinion on The Safety of Gelatine (Jan 2000)

Travel advisories

• CDC
• Health Canada

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