A potential adverse animal and human health hazard that has not yet been considered by the FDA concerns the change in diet associated with rbGH use.
Cows receiving rbGH require more energy-dense food than control cows.
One major source of energy-dense food are the protein and energy supplements that come from rendering animals. Most is used as a protein source for high production dairy cattle and for feed lot cattle. Use of rbGH will increase the amount of rendered protein fed to dairy cows. These diseases have been shown to be transmissible, in part, by eating the meat of infected animals. The group of diseases gets its technical name from the fact that the brains of infected animals develop holes filled with tangled protein fibrils.