What does the World Health Organization recommend regarding BSE?

The World Health Organization continuously reviews the situation with regard to BSE and vCJD and provides expert advice to member countries on the epidemiology of the disease, surveillance, preventative measures and the safety of foods and pharmaceutical products. Some of WHO's recommendations include:

• All countries must prohibit the use of ruminant tissue in ruminant feed and must exclude tissues that are likely to contain the BSE agent from any animal or human food chain.
• All countries are encouraged to conduct risk assessments to determine if they are at risk for BSE in cattle, sheep and goats.
• No infectivity has yet been detected in skeletal tissue muscle (beef). Reassurance can be provided by removal of visible nervous and lymphatic tissue from meat (that is, specified risk material or SRM)
• Milk and milk products are considered safe. Tallow and gelatin are considered safe if obtained from a safe source and if prepared by a manufacturing process, which has been shown experimentally to inactivate the transmissible agent.
• Bovine materials for human and veterinary vaccines should be obtained from countries which have a surveillance system for BSE in place and which report either zero or only sporadic cases of BSE. These precautions apply to the manufacture of cosmetics as well.