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By Todd Zwillich
WASHINGTON, Mar 19 (Reuters Health) - The nation's largest dietary supplements industry group has issued new guidance to manufacturers amid concerns that some products contain cow brains and other organs that could pose a risk of transmitting "mad cow" disease or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
The guidance, published by the National Nutritional Foods Association (NNFA), encourages manufacturers to eliminate all bovine (cow) neurological tissue from their products. Consumption of brains and spinal cords from cows infected with BSE are widely believed to be the source of the human brain wasting illness known as new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).
"It becomes of paramount importance for manufacturers to choose raw materials in a manner that will minimize the risk of transmission" of BSE, the document reads. It states that "no neurological bovine materials should be purchased or accepted" by dietary supplement makers when they choose ingredients for their products.
About 200 dietary supplement products--0.5% of the total US market--contain potentially risky cow tissue including brains and spinal cords, according to the association. One of the most common is a product used by chiropractors containing cow hypothalamus tissue--a type of brain tissue--that is supposed to support hypothalamic functioning in humans.
While the latest guidance constitutes no more than a recommendation for manufacturers, "the message is to stay away from these high-risk products," said Dr. Phillip Harvey, NNFA's director of science and quality assurance, in an interview with Reuters Health.
The organization currently offers its seal of approval to dietary supplement makers that meet its standards for good manufacturing processes. Approved products that fall behind on manufacturing standards are subject to remediation or expulsion from NNFA. It is possible that "a handful of companies" who make products containing cow brains and spinal cords could still carry the seal, Harvey noted.
But the association, which represents some 4,000 retailers, manufacturers and wholesalers, could soon move to ban such products from companies seeking to acquire or keep membership.
"We're probably close but we're not there yet. Since these products are so suspect, why are we even dealing with them? Why risk the credibility of our companies because of the bad apples in the lot," Harvey said.
The federal government has already placed an import ban on any bovine central nervous system products originating in European countries that have seen cases of BSE. Most manufacturers and raw materials distributors use purification techniques before making products, but there is no way to identify or selectively remove the infectious proteins known as prions that are thought to cause BSE.
The National Science Foundation and United States Pharmacopoeia are currently considering quality programs designed to keep contaminants out of herbal products, vitamins, and other dietary supplements.
"People want to know that they are taking safe products," NNFA CEO David Seckman told reporters at a briefing on Friday.
"There is no evidence on either side that (purification) would remove or not remove a prion."
Concerns over BSE and vCJD during the last few years have cause several manufacturers to move away from bovine brain ingredients and instead use brain parts from pigs and chickens in their products, he said.
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