Specified risk materials

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Specified risk materials (SRMs) are the parts of ruminant animal most likely to be contaminated with TSE prions. These can include brains, eyes, spinal cord, and other organs. The exact definition varies by jurisdiction.

In the EU, SRMs are carefully excluded from the human and animal food chain. Canada has passed a measure that will limit the uses of SRMs beginning July 2007.^{[citation needed]}

On January 12, 2004, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the USDA published new rules enhancing its BSE safeguards in order to minimize exposure to BSE infective tissues and better protect public health. These measures included: Banning from the human food supply all tissues that science tells us could be infective in a cow with the disease including the skull, brain, trigeminal ganglia, eyes, portions of the vertebral column, spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia of cattle aged 30 months or older, and the tonsils and the distal ileum, (a part of the small intestine) of all cattle.^{[citation needed]}

Rules regarding the use of SRMs are intended to prevent the spread of TSE diseases, including mad cow disease.