Title: Continued risk management of the diminishing bovine spongiform encephalopathy outbreak in the UK

Authors: Michael G. Tyshenko, Daniel Krewski

Addresses: McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment, Institute of Population Health, University of Ottawa, 1 Stewart St., Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5, Canada. ' McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment, Institute of Population Health, University of Ottawa, 1 Stewart St., Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5, Canada; Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, 451 Smyth Road, Ottawa Ontario, K1H 8M5, Canada

Abstract: The UK was the first country to detect bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in 1986, and has reported the vast majority (over 97%) of the world|s BSE cases. BSE resulted in large economic losses, disbanding of the lead government agency responsible for managing the outbreak and a loss of public trust in government. Despite a World Organization for Animal Health designation of |controlled BSE risk|, and the near eradication of BSE in the UK, over 100 countries still maintain live cattle and beef bans against the UK. A review of the evolution of outbreak from 1986 to 2008 shows that risk assessment, risk management and risk communication efforts changed markedly over that time. Early management in the UK was confounded by high degrees of uncertainty and notable delays when implementing appropriate risk assessment, management and communication policies. Later, BSE management efforts were characterised by a greater reliance on science-based risk assessments, coupled with improved risk communication, transparency in decision making and public outreach.

Keywords: bovine spongiform encephalopathy; BSE; UK; risk management; risk assessment; risk communication; United Kingdom; science-based assessment; transparency; decision making; public outreach; mad cow disease; food safety; variant CJD; vCJD; variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRAM.2010.035242

International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management, 2010 Vol.14 No.1/2, pp.3 - 16

Published online: 17 Sep 2010 *

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