Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, is transmitted primarily through cattle feed containing material from infected animals. Scientists say they believe the disease can be transmitted to humans as a new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, an incurable and fatal brain affliction. The disease is caused by a little-understood agent called a prion. Scientists on both sides of the Atlantic are concerned that consequences could be devastating if it became endemic among humans. The EU's scientific steering committee recommended stricter controls this month on the sale of meat, including a ban on meat sold on the bone, such as T-bone steaks, and on a variety of mutton products.
Sheep suffer from a related disease called scrapie.
Britain banned sales of beef on the bone this month after a scientific committee said that BSE possibly could be transmitted through bone and marrow. Britain will also prohibit a wide range of meat products from its EU neighbors as of Jan. 1 because of a possible disease risk. The ban will not affect imports of meat on the bone provided it is deboned before sale to the public. The EU banned global exports of British beef last year after scientific evidence that mysterious cases of Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease among young adults had been caused by eating infected meat. The World Trade Organization ruled in favor of the United States and Canada this year over their complaints about a 1989 EU prohibition of meat imports containing hormones.