TSE-infected animals must not be used for medicines and cosmetics
There can be no question of manufacturing medical products or cosmetics from the recycled bodies of animals that may have contracted transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE), in the opinion of the Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) of the European Commission, Directorate-General XXIV. The bodies of TSE-infected animals must be incinerated, along with the high-risk material extracted from them, such as spinal cord or intestines. The SSC gave this opinion because the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries, among others, use various parts of recycled dead animals. The animals in question include not only cattle and pigs, but also wild and exotic animals, laboratory animals, cats and other furred creatures, as well as poultry and fish. European experts consider the industrial processes currently used to inactivate conventional infectious agents are inadequate to deal with TSE-infected material.