The National Health and Medical Research Council has issued a warning to Internet users not to purchase products online which contain overseas animal ingredients, amid fears of a 'Mad Cow' outbreak.
According to a NHMRC expert committee, unregulated nutritional supplements which contain cattle parts are being included in some health and nutritional supplements and sold in cyberspace. Although ingredients are advertised, the origin of the cattle is unknown.
-Our committee is aware of products listed for sale at various international sites on the Internet that contain raw bovine brain or pituitary glands [from cattle] which are offered as nutritional supplements," committee member Professor Graeme Ryan said.
The NHMRC was drawn to the potential risks of purchasing contaminated products online by the Therapeutics Goods Administration (TGA), which is an Australian organisation responsible for regulating drugs and materials for human use.
The concern is that small amounts of brain tissue can be potentially infective of mad cow disease to cause the human equivalent called variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (CJD), which occurred in Britain and more recently in Europe, according to Professor Ryan.
-It's possible that people can order tablets from alternative medicine suppliers on overseas sites, where there is no regulation of what is in the tablets," he said.
-If it comes from European cattle there is a need to be alarmed," he said.
The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) is aware of the potential threat of importing such materials from overseas, and will be inspecting 100 percent of products arriving in Australia.
-There is an uncertainty as to how successful quarantine would be, tablets are sealed in packets which could be hard to detect,"
Professor Ryan says it is alarming that consumers can order unregulated products over the Internet which are potentially dangerous.
