Specified risk material (SRM) is any of various tissues of

ruminant Ruminants (suborder Ruminantia) are ungulate, hoofed herbivorous grazing or browsing mammals that are able to acquire nutrients from plant-based food by Enteric fermentation, fermenting it in a specialized stomach prior to digestion, principally ...

animals that cannot be inspected and passed for human food because scientists have determined that

BSE BSE may refer to: Medicine * Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease, a neurodegenerative disease of cattle * Breast self-examination Stock exchanges * Bahrain Stock Exchange, Bahrain * Baku Stock Exchange, Azerbaijan * B ...

-causing

prions Prions are misfolded proteins that have the ability to transmit their misfolded shape onto normal variants of the same protein. They characterize several fatal and transmissible neurodegenerative diseases in humans and many other animals. It i ...

concentrate there. The term was referred to in the United Kingdom's ''Specified Risk Material Order 1997'' ( S.I. 1997/2964), in the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...

's, and in the

Canadian Food Inspection Agency The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA; french: Agence canadienne d'inspection des aliments) is a regulatory agency that is dedicated to the safeguarding of food, plants, and animals (FPA) in Canada, thus enhancing the health and well-being o ...

's regulatory response to the first confirmed U.S. BSE case in December 2003.CRS Report for Congress: Agriculture: A Glossary of Terms, Programs, and Laws, 2005 Edition - Order Code 97-905
These can include brains, eyes, spinal cord, and other organs; the exact definition varies by jurisdiction. Under the new US regulations (69 FR 1862, January 12, 2004), SRMs are: the brain, skull, eyes,

trigeminal ganglia A trigeminal ganglion (or Gasserian ganglion, or semilunar ganglion, or Gasser's ganglion) is the sensory ganglion at the base of each of the two trigeminal nerves (CN V), occupying a cavity ( Meckel's cave) in the dura mater, covering the trige ...

, spinal cord, vertebral column (with some exclusions),

dorsal root ganglia A dorsal root ganglion (or spinal ganglion; also known as a posterior root ganglion) is a cluster of neurons (a ganglion) in a dorsal root of a spinal nerve. The cell bodies of sensory neurons known as first-order neurons are located in the do ...

(DRG) of cattle 30 months of age and older, the tonsils and distal

ileum The ileum () is the final section of the small intestine in most higher vertebrates, including mammals, reptiles, and birds. In fish, the divisions of the small intestine are not as clear and the terms posterior intestine or distal intestine ma ...

of the small intestine of all cattle.

BSE

The BSE infective agent has been found to concentrate in specific tissues of BSE-infected cattle.

BSE SRMs

The

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

(U.S.) is considered as negligible BSE risk country and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

is considered as controlled BSE risk country, SRMs are defined as:

skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, the ...

brain A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a v ...

(nerves attached to brain and close to the skull exterior), eyes,

spinal cord The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissue, which extends from the medulla oblongata in the brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column (backbone). The backbone encloses the central canal of the spi ...

, distal ileum (a part of the

small intestine The small intestine or small bowel is an organ in the gastrointestinal tract where most of the absorption of nutrients from food takes place. It lies between the stomach and large intestine, and receives bile and pancreatic juice through the p ...

), and the

(nerves attached to the spinal cord and close to the

vertebral column The vertebral column, also known as the backbone or spine, is part of the axial skeleton. The vertebral column is the defining characteristic of a vertebrate in which the notochord (a flexible rod of uniform composition) found in all chordata, ...

) of cattle aged 30 months or older. On January 12, 2004, the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the

USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

published new rules banning such materials from the human food supply. In countries classified as undetermined risk, the OIE code recommends SRM removal as follows: tonsils and intestines in cattle at all ages; brains, eyes, spinal cord, skull and vertebral column from animals over twelve months of age. In the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

(E.U.), SRMs are excluded by law from the human and animal food chain.

Removal of BSE SRMs

The

World Organization for Animal Health The World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), formerly the (OIE), is an intergovernmental organization coordinating, supporting and promoting animal disease control. Mission and status The main objective of the WOAH is to control epizoo ...

(OIE) has established recommendations and guidelines for SRM removal based on the level of risk. In the U.S.,

tonsils The tonsils are a set of lymphoid organs facing into the aerodigestive tract, which is known as Waldeyer's tonsillar ring and consists of the adenoid tonsil, two tubal tonsils, two palatine tonsils, and the lingual tonsils. These organs play an ...

are removed from cattle of all ages. SRMs must be removed at slaughter and disposed as inedible material. The dorsal root ganglia must be removed during the deboning process and in animals older than 30 months, the vertebral column (excluding the vertebrae of the tail, the transverse processes of the

lumbar In tetrapod anatomy, lumbar is an adjective that means ''of or pertaining to the abdominal segment of the torso, between the diaphragm and the sacrum.'' The lumbar region is sometimes referred to as the lower spine, or as an area of the back i ...

and

thoracic vertebrae In vertebrates, thoracic vertebrae compose the middle segment of the vertebral column, between the cervical vertebrae and the lumbar vertebrae. In humans, there are twelve thoracic vertebra (anatomy), vertebrae and they are intermediate in size b ...

, and the wings of the

sacrum The sacrum (plural: ''sacra'' or ''sacrums''), in human anatomy, is a large, triangular bone at the base of the spine that forms by the fusing of the sacral vertebrae (S1S5) between ages 18 and 30. The sacrum situates at the upper, back part ...

) is removed to be certain the dorsal root ganglia is extracted in its entirety.

References

{{Reflist Meat industry Cattle Food safety Prions

BSE

BSE SRMs

Removal of BSE SRMs

See also

References