Usage of meat and bone meal in animal, poultry and fish feeds: A survey
and risk analysis for the occurrence of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
in Bangladesh
Abstract
Background: Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is an emerging
zoonotic disease of cattle associated with prion protein (PrPsc)
transmitted via meat and bone meal (MBM). Although Bangladesh did not
experience a BSE outbreak but the country could not export animal
products to developed countries as has not yet been declared BSE free
country by OIE due to lack of scientific risk evaluation for BSE. The
objectives was identification of hazard, release and exposure pathways
of prion protein through MBM and analysis of risk for the occurrence of
BSE in Bangladesh. Methods: The scientific data were reviewed, hazards
were scheduled and surveys were conducted - on livestock production
system, import of MBM and its use to identify the hazards present in
Bangladesh context. The analysis was done by the “OIE Risk Analysis
Framework 2006 and European Union (EU) Scientific Steering Committee
(SSC) 2003”. From the historical reviews, import of MBM and its use was
identified, as external hazards. Results: The analysis revealed that,
this hazards had negligible or moderate risk, for the introduction of
infectious PrPsc as Bangladeshi cattle are vegetarian cattle. No milk
replacer was used and use of slaughtered waste in the animal feed
industry is absent. Un-consumable bones are processed to produce bone
chips, fertilizers and bone meal for poultry feeds. Scrapie was never
prevalent in Bangladesh. Therefore, risk from the internal challenge was
negligible in Bangladesh for the occurrence of BSE. This prevented the
propagation of BSE infectivity and eliminated BSE infectivity from the
system very fast, if that was present. Conclusion: It was concluded
that, introduction of PrPsc into cattle population of Bangladesh through
MBM was very negligible. Key Words: MBM, risk assessment, risk analysis,
BSE