2017 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 65-72
FSCJ conducted assessments on human health risk associated with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in relation to the proposed revision of the domestic measures, in response to requests from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW). Using the findings obtained from published documents and reference materials /documents submitted by the MHWL, FSCJ first completed the risk assessment of the limit of cattle age for BSE testing, and subsequently will conduct the assessment of definition of Specified Risk Materials (SRMs).
For the age limit, FSCJ thoroughly assessed the possible risk of development of human prion diseases including vCJD linked with BSE prions through consumption of cattle meat and offal in association with the proposed cease of BSE testing of healthy slaughtered cattle for human consumption.
As the result, regarding the limit of cattle age for BSE testing, a difference between the following two measures would be extremely small in their influences on the risk to human health. One is to test continuously healthy slaughtered cattle over 48 months of age for human consumption, and the other is to cease BSE testing of healthy slaughtered cattle for human consumption. Therefore, FSCJ considers that the risk to human health arisen from the change of the measure on BSE testing from the former to the latter is negligible.
