WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government should set up a system to monitor deaths from the human equivalent of "mad cow" disease because the toll could be much higher than previously thought, three groups said in petitions filed on Thursday.
The groups also asked for federal action to reduce the chance that livestock would consume feed carrying agents of the disease. The human variant is Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.
About 200 people a year die from CJD in the United States, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CJD usually strikes people over 50 years old.
More stringent U.S. action was needed, the petitioners said, because of the possibility people could contract a new strain of CJD by eating meat from infected animals. Officials say no case of "mad cow" disease has been detected in U.S. cattle.
The petitioners said studies of deaths attributed to dementia "suggest much higher levels of CJD than commonly suspected" and requested the CDC require health officials to report deaths from CJD-like diseases.
The petitioning groups asked the Food and Drug Administration for tough limits on the inclusion of ingredients from dead carcasses in feed for live animals. FDA introduced rules in 1997 to restrict such usage but exempted material from the remains of hogs.
The petitions were filed by the Humane Farming Association, the Center for Food Safety and the Center for Media and Democracy, as well as relatives of some CJD victims. Spokesmen for the CDC and FDA were not immediately available for comment.
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