New Zealand to Lift ‘Mad Cow’ Donor Deferral This Week

Beginning Thursday, individuals who lived in France, Ireland and the United Kingdom for six months or more between 1980 and 1996 will be eligible to donate blood and plasma in New Zealand, the New Zealand Blood Service (NZBS) announced Feb. 23. 

In August, NZBS made a submission to Medsafe recommending that the deferral, introduced in response to concerns about human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) during the “mad cow” disease outbreak be removed. Medsafe approved the recommendation in November, allowing NZBS to begin updating its systems and processes to support this change.

New Zealand joins countries like Australia, Canada, Israel, Singapore and the United States in easing or eliminating geography-based donor deferrals related to vCJD since 2022.