The U.S. Food and Drug Administration introduced a series of measures to further protect cattle and consumers from mad cow disease and its human equivalent Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

First, meat from so-called ‘downers’, cattle which are too sick to stand or walk to slaughter, will be prohibited from use in canned soup, pizzas, dietary supplements and cosmetics.  The FDA has also strengthened its 1997 ban on using meat from infected cattle in feed given to other cattle. The stronger rules prohibit the use of blood from cattle being fed to other cattle. New research has identified blood from slaughtered cattle as a potential means for transmitting mad cow disease. It can no longer be used to feed calves to replace milk.

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