The short answer is that U.S. meat seems safe. However, Consumers Union believes the federal government should take added steps to end practices that could undermine the safety of meat. Our Consumer Policy Institute has been fighting for such changes for years. Mad-cow disease is one of several similar fatal brain diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, or TSEs. All are believed to be caused by a mutant protein that can apparently induce normal proteins to mimic its shape.
Evidence suggests that the disease can jump from species to species when a diseased animal is eaten.
At least 80 people in Britain and 2 in France have died. In the wake of the outbreaks abroad, U.S. officials have already taken some action. And in 1999, the FDA prohibited blood donations from anyone who had spent six months or more in the United Kingdom from 1980 to 1996. In the most recent ban, in December, the USDA prohibited all imports from Europe of rendered animal-protein products, regardless of species. But Consumers Union believes there's more to do.