These guidelines provide evidence-based information to national regulatory authorities especially to those where Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) has not yet been reported and where surveillance systems for BSE and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD, the human disease caused by infection with the BSE agent) may not be in place. The information is intended to assist in conducting risk assessments and selecting measures to reduce the risk of transmitting vCJD by human blood and blood products and other medicinal products of biological origin collectively called biologicals.