Mad Cow Threat to U.S. Blood Supply
L O N D O N, Jan. 16 -- The United States already has “mad sheep,” “mad deer,” and “mad elk,” but the government has issued assurances there is no “mad cow” disease — not yet.
However, the spread of mad cow disease across Europe is already having a damaging effect on the U.S. blood supply and the worst may be yet to come.
Three flocks of "mad sheep" were diagnosed in Vermont six months ago. A fatal "mad deer" disease is occurring at epidemic levels in deer and elk across the Western states. Both of these diseases are closely related to mad cow disease, or BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) — a chronic wasting disease spreading across Europe and linked to a deadly human variation called CJD.
The U.S. government has banned beef from BSE-infected countries, ordered vaccines from infected countries replaced and has placed bans on certain blood donations.
Efforts to protect America's blood supply from mad cow contamination — by donors who may have eaten contaminated beef — have already reduced the blood supply by 2.2 percent, the Red Cross reports. That translates to approximately 300,000 units or pints of blood, which is more than 120,000 transfusions.
New proposals could raise that percentage exponentially.
Blood Ban
Two years ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered a ban on British blood in an effort to protect against BSE, CJD and another human counterpart, vCJD (variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease).
Anyone who has lived in the United Kingdom or Ireland for more than six months between January 1980 and December 1996 is prohibited — for life — from donating blood.
The six-month benchmark was chosen when studies showed banning everyone who visited Britain during that period would devastate the American blood supply.
Expanding the Ban
Now, with reports of BSE and vCJD spreading to Germany, France and beyond, the bans on blood donations may be extended to include people who have spent time in other European countries.
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