University of Louisville neurologist Robert P. Friedland, M.D., raises concern about the safety of consuming farmed fish as it might pose health risk. He told that farmed fish could transmit Creutzfeldt Jakob disease–commonly known as mad cow disease–if they are fed byproducts rendered from cows. The news force the government to appeal the regulators to ban feeding cow meat or bone meal to fish until the safety of this common practice can be confirmed.
According to Friedland this has not been proven that fish can transmit the disease to humans. He further said that the practice of feeding rendered cows to fish should be prohibited. It is told that creutzfeldt Jakob disease is an untreatable, universally-fatal disease that can be contracted by eating parts of an animal infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or mad cow disease).
The risk of transmission of BSE to humans who eat farmed fish would appear to be low because of perceived barriers between species. Scientists said that there is possibility for a disease to be spread by eating a carrier that is not infected itself. However, no cases of Creutzfeldt Jakob disease have been linked to eating farmed fish. This does not assure that feeding rendered cow parts to fish is safe. The incubation period of these diseases may last for decades, which makes the association between feeding practices and infection difficult, said Friedland.
