July 23, 2009

Fish consumption is widely recommended to fight off certain illnesses but eating farmed fish could very well infect humans with mad cow disease, according to a research team in the University of Kentucky.

 

Farmed fish are fed byproducts rendered from cows, a totally unnatural source of fish food, said Dr. Robert Friedland and his research team in a study.

 

The risk of transmission of mad cow disease from farmed fish to humans looks slim because there are often barriers between species that help prevent infections, but there are also several reasons to be concerned about fish spreading the disease to humans, the study said.

 

First, the fish could be carriers of the disease from eating infected meat products, even if the fish does not appear to be sick or infected. It is also possible that eating prion-infected cow parts could result in fish experiencing pathological changes that allow the prion infection to be transmitted between the two species.

 

Based on these possibilities, the scientists are calling for government regulators to ban feeding cow meat or bone meal to fish until this common practice is proven safe.

 

It is still unproven that fish can transmit the mad cow disease to humans, but the practice should be banned out of caution, Friedland said.

 

While no such cases have been reported yet, the incubation period of these diseases may last for decades, which makes the connection between feeding practices and infection difficult, he said.

 

Therefore, enhanced safeguards need to be put in place to protect the public, Friedland concluded.