Summary of the Health Canadas advisory
Health Canada’s Health Products and Food Branch (HPFB) is responsible for assessing risks to human health from diseases of animal origin that may be transmitted through health products and food, and for
developing regulations and policies to mitigate risks from products regulated under the Food and Drug Act as well as various associated regulations. While extensive disease surveillance in Canada and elsewhere has
not provided any direct evidence that CWD has infected humans, the potential for CWD to be transmitted to humans cannot be excluded. In exercising precaution, HPFB continues to advocate that the most prudent
approach is to consider that CWD has the potential to infect humans. This position has been aligned with that of the World Health Organization (WHO) since the late 1990s, and remains consistent with the WHO’s
2012 position that “No tissue that is likely to contain the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) agent, nor part or product of any animal which has shown signs of a TSE should enter the (human or animal) food
chain.” This precautionary position on TSEs is also consistent with the conclusions documented by the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) Secretariat in 2003, and a systematic literature review conducted by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) in 2017. The findings of the macaque experiment do not change HPFB’s current position with respect to the safety of food and health products and CWD, which considers that a precautionary approach to the management of the potential risks of
exposure through food and health products is warranted.
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