IFT Summarizes Knowledge About TSEs

Media coverage of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), particularly bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), has attempted to oversimplify a complex scientific issue and obscure the fact that Americans enjoy beef. Beef continues to pose an extremely low food safety threat—there are currently no endogenously derived cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the United States—particularly when compared to other potential, higher-prevalence foodborne maladies.

Stories frequently conf…