IVD Technology Magazine
IVDT Article Index

Originally published March, 1998

IVD Technology News

IVD logic prevails over BSE ban

Responding to fears over the possible transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) to humans, where it is thought to give rise to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), the European Union last July issued a ban on all products made from potentially infected cattle parts. The decision was to have taken effect January 1.

Because the countries involved have not been able to agree on the ban's conditions, however, implementation has now been postponed. Moreover, thanks to lobbying by diagnostic manufacturers, cattle raisers, and FDA, IVD products will almost certainly be excluded from the amended ban.

Many of the concerns expressed in the EU have been motivated by political forces and amplified by public alarm. John Place, director general of the European Diagnostics Manufacturers Association, says that "many countries not affected by so-called mad cow disease don't understand the need for such an all-encompassing ban. Almost everyone realizes that IVD products are not ingested or injected and pose little threat of spreading CJD."

Scheduled for review in April, the rewritten ban will either be agreed upon or subjected to another round of negotiations. And even less-stringent restrictions may be applied to countries certified as being free of BSE, like the United States. In any case, Place says, "there's no question that IVDs will be exempt from the new ban."—G.W.