The Generative Brain

Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SaBTO), United Kingdom

SaBTO is the UK expert advisory committee that advises ministers and health departments on how to keep blood, cells, tissues and organs used for transfusion and transplantation safe. It replaced the earlier committee on the Microbiological Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (MSBTO) after an external review, with a new chair and members announced in December 2007 and an inaugural meeting planned for January 2008. For prion disease its role is to set the policy behind the UK vCJD blood and tissue safety measures: the JPAC donor rule deferring anyone transfused since 1980 reflects guidance from SaBTO and its predecessor, and in 2019 SaBTO withdrew two paediatric vCJD measures (imported plasma and apheresis platelets) while keeping leucodepletion and other measures. In 2025 it approved a CJD Review Group report on donor selection and set up a working group on amyloid-beta transmission risk. This entry is information only and says nothing about any person's eligibility to donate or receive blood or tissue.

Key facts

  • SaBTO advises UK ministers and health departments on the most appropriate ways to ensure the safety of blood, cells, tissues and organs for transfusion or transplantation.
  • The current committee has 16 members under a chair, with expertise that includes a prion disease specialist, virologists, clinicians, a health economist, a nurse and a lay organ transplantation representative; its secretariat is provided from NHS Blood and Transplant.
  • SaBTO publishes meeting papers and minutes from September 2012 onward, with earlier minutes held on the National Archives website, plus member biographies, a register of interests, a code of practice and terms of reference.
  • According to a search excerpt of a December 2007 Department of Health memo, an external review of MSBTO commissioned at the end of 2006 recommended a new, more visibly independent committee with an independent chair and new members, and the new committee was to hold its inaugural meeting on 23 January 2008.
  • The JPAC whole blood donor selection entry on transfusion, which defers anyone transfused since 1 January 1980, states that it reflects guidance from SaBTO and its predecessor, the Department of Health committee on the Microbiological Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs.
  • In 2017 to 2018 SaBTO set up a working group to review continued importation of plasma and use of single donor apheresis platelets for people born on or after 1 January 1996 (the cut-off for dietary BSE exposure), drawing on the ACDP blood safety risk assessment, a survey of paediatric hospitals and trauma centres, and health economics.
  • At its 37th meeting on 19 March 2019, after stakeholder engagement from February to March 2019, SaBTO agreed to withdraw imported plasma and apheresis platelets as vCJD measures for recipients born on or after 1 January 1996 or with TTP, while other vCJD risk reduction measures stay in place; the working group report was finalised in September 2019.
  • The MHRA records that the 2019 SaBTO review led to these measures being withdrawn while leucodepletion stayed in place.
  • The March 2019 SaBTO report, as cited by the MHRA, put the average added risk of death from transfusion-acquired vCJD at 1 in 5.2 million units of UK plasma transfused, with a worst case of 15 clinical cases from fresh frozen plasma over 50 years, using a DHSC model; the MHRA used this level, judged acceptable by SaBTO, as a benchmark for UK plasma in immunoglobulins.
  • A search excerpt of the 2019 report says leucodepletion was outside its scope and that the DHSC modelling was reviewed by ACDP TSE experts.
  • SaBTO recruited a prion disease specialist member, appointed by March 2019.
  • In the year to December 2025 SaBTO approved a CJD Review Group report on possible changes to donor selection criteria relating to CJD transmission via blood, tissues and organs; the annual report does not say what the changes are.
  • In the same period SaBTO set up an Amyloid Beta Pathologies Working Group to assess transmission risks of amyloid-beta pathologies from donated blood, tissues and organs, including surveillance options and blood-based tests.
  • SaBTO also issues microbiological safety guidelines for organs, tissues and cells used in transplantation, first published in 2011, replaced by a 2017 version and last changed in January 2024.
  • The 2024 German Arbeitskreis Blut S 27 statement on vCJD donor exclusion lists the 2019 SaBTO report in its references (as recorded in the atlas from the article record; the reference list was not re-read for this entry).

Timeline

  1. 2006External review of the predecessor committee MSBTO commissioned (search excerpt).
  2. 2007Chair and members of the new committee announced (search excerpt).
  3. 2008Inaugural meeting planned for 23 January 2008 (search excerpt).
  4. 2011First SaBTO microbiological safety guidelines for organs, tissues and cells published.
  5. 201833rd meeting held; working group on plasma importation and apheresis platelets under way.
  6. 201937th meeting agrees to withdraw imported plasma and apheresis platelets as vCJD measures for those born on or after 1996 or with TTP; leucodepletion kept.
  7. 2019Paediatric Components Working Group report finalised.
  8. 2021MHRA immunoglobulin risk assessment uses the 2019 SaBTO risk level as its benchmark.
  9. 2025By the 60th meeting, CJD Review Group report on donor selection approved and Amyloid Beta Pathologies Working Group set up.
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