Fortunately, the United States government began placing what are referred to as "firewalls" in place to keep bovine spongiform encephalopathy, known as BSE, out of the U.S. cattle herd not long after the first case was diagnosed in the United Kingdom in 1986. Those firewalls are primarily responsible for the fact that only two cases of BSE, as of 2006, have been diagnosed since the first case was detected in the United States in 2003. As more was learned about the disease, and after a possible link was made between BSE and new variant Cruetzfeldt-Jacob disease in humans, additional firewalls were put in place to further reduce the possibility of transmission of the disease to either cattle or humans. Once the first case of BSE was diagnosed in a cow imported from Canada, additional firewalls were put into place to eliminate the possibility that infective material from cattle would enter the human food supply. The removal of what are termed "specified risk materials" from carcasses at harvest virtually eliminate the possibility that beef we eat will contain any infective material.

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