Treatment and Prevention
There is no cure, treatment, or vaccine for BSE, CJD, or vCJD.
The best way to prevent the disease is to avoid feeding cattle rendered material from slaughtered animals, and to isolate and destroy all infected animals. Most countries have developed policies for monitoring BSE in their cattle herds and procedures for dealing promptly and thoroughly with BSE cases when they do arise.
The United States government has taken many steps to prevent BSE or vCJD from occurring in this country. These steps include:
- The USDA has prohibited the importing of live ruminant animals, such as cows, and most ruminant products from Europe and BSE at-risk countries.
- testing all US cattle exhibiting abnormal neurological behavior for BSE.
- The FDA has prohibited the use of animal protein in the manufacture of animal feeds given to ruminant animals.
- The FDA has prohibited the use of the highest-risk materials in all animal feed.
- The FDA has recommended that medications not use animal tissues that come from a country with BSE.
- The FDA has issued guidelines to blood centers which deny people who have spent 6 or more cumulative months in the UK between 1980 and 1996 from donating blood.
- The CDC conducts regular studies to detect vCJD among Americans.
- The NIH conducts ongoing research on BSE, CJD, vCJD, and related neurological diseases.
Kevin Sheth, MD, Department of Neurology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.