{
  "id": "RL32269",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "RL32269",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 104278,
      "date": "2004-03-01",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-08T14:26:27.803775",
      "title": "Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs), Including \"Mad Cow Disease\": Public Health and Scientific Issues",
      "summary": "On December 23, 2003, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture announced that a cow in Washington\nstate\nhad tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or Mad Cow disease), representing\nthe first domestic case. The Secretary announced expanded protections against BSE on December\n30, 2003. On January 26, 2004, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services announced\nadditional safety measures for products regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)\nto protect public health. Both have stressed that the human health impact of finding one BSE\npositive cow is believed to be minimal.\n  BSE is a member of a group of diseases called Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies\n(TSEs). Although the predominant theory is that TSEs are caused by  prions  or\nproteinaceous\ninfectious particles (a novel disease mechanism first described in the 1980s), some scientists believe\na virus may eventually be identified as the infectious agent. While some TSEs, such as scrapie in\nsheep, have been known for over 200 years, others, including BSE, appear to have emerged quite\nrecently. Some TSEs seem to affect only one species and others, like BSE, appear to have jumped\nthe \"species barrier\" to infect more than one species. This event has transformed prion diseases from\na rare and esoteric area of research to a matter of significant public health concern. BSE is believed\nto have been transmitted to people who ate contaminated beef, leading to the identification in 1996\nof a new human disease, variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (vCJD), in the United Kingdom.\n  As attention has focused on the finding of BSE in the United States, government control efforts\nhave been scrutinized. Some have argued that prevention programs, begun in 1988 and strengthened\nat points since then, are robust, and that the finding of a BSE-positive cow represents an isolated case\nand a negligible health risk to humans. Others believe that shortfalls in government prevention\nefforts are serious, and that BSE may be entrenched in the United States, albeit at low levels. The\nspectrum of opinions about the public health risk from BSE underscores the myriad uncertainties\nsurrounding prion diseases, and especially their modes of transmission, and detection.\n  This report examines known and purported human health risks from BSE and related diseases,\nthe status of efforts to detect and prevent these diseases in humans, and the scientific basis of these\nefforts. For a discussion of BSE prevention efforts in the agricultural sector (including FDA\nmeasures to assure the safety of animal feed, and USDA measures to assure the safety of beef), refer\nto CRS Issue Brief IB10127,  Mad Cow Disease: Agricultural Issues for Congress , by\nGeoffrey S.\nBecker, and  CRS Report RL32199 ,  Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, or 'Mad Cow\nDisease'): Current and Proposed Safeguards , by Sarah A. Lister and Geoffrey S. Becker.\n  This report will be updated as circumstances warrant.",
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      "typeId": "REPORTS",
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  "topics": [
    "Foreign Affairs",
    "Science and Technology Policy"
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}