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Spread of brain and spinal cord material during beef slaughter
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2002-04
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Report 54.pdf
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Spread of brain and spinal cord material during beef slaughter. The National Food Centre Research Report No. 54. Dyan J. Daly et al. Dublin; Teagasc, 2002. ISBN 1841702870
Abstract
Emboli of brain tissue in the lungs have been reported in cases following severe head injury (McMillan 1956) and birth trauma in people (Hauck e t al 1990) and in cattle following stunning (Bauer 1996; Garland 1996). This has important implications for food safety if the brain tissue of stunned cattle is infected with the prion responsible for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), (Prusiner 1991). BSE emerged following changes in the rendering process in the early 1980s which allowed the aetiologic agent to survive, contaminate protein feed supplement and infect cattle (Brown e t al. 2001). Within a short period of time after the first case of BSE, concerns were expressed regarding the transmission of BSE to humans and the likelihood of infection from consumption of beef and beef products. This has become increasingly significant with the discovery of the link between BSE in cattle and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) in man (Bruce e t al 1997).