Vaccines and hormones were imported fromb Britain and other BSE-infected countries in 1992 and 1999, according to the report. The greatest risk of variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob infection in Canadians is from British beef products imported at the height of the epidemic, including baby food, the report states. Several children's vaccines were produced in Britain using bovine materials at the peak of the BSE epidemic and were not recalled. Data on the possible importation of these vaccines was not available to the researchers. The risk from imported blood, tallow, gelatin, semen, embryos and milk products is uncertain, but food supplements pose a risk, the report says.
Further investigation is needed, it suggests.
Pigs and poultry have been shown to be susceptible to BSE in experiments, although there have been no confirmed cases. Live pigs have been imported from Britain.