The dbSNP BED format has been updated to comply with current
standard BED specifications
(https://genome.ucsc.edu/FAQ/FAQformat.html#format1 ); it has been QA tested
and is compatible with standard BED tools and genome browser uploads such as
the NCBI Remap Service (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genome/tools/remap), the
UCSC Genome browser (https://genome.ucsc.edu/cgi-bin/hgGateway) and the EBI
Genome Browser (http://www.ensembl.org).  

The BED format update replaces dbSNP's 30 field BED format
(https://ftp.ncbi.nih.gov/snp/specs/BED_rsDocsum_Mapping.README.txt) with a
format that contains only three required fields and three optional fields:

Required Fields:
1.	chrom:  The name of the chromosome (e.g. chr1, chr2, etc.).
2.	chromStart:  The Reference SNP (rs) start position on the chromosome.
Note: The first base in a chromosome is numbered 0.
3.	chromEnd:  The rs end position on the chromosome.

Optional Fields:
4.	name:  The dbSNP Reference SNP (rs) ID
5.	score:  dbSNP does not assign a score value, so this field will always
contain a 0 .    
6.	strand:  This field defines strand orientation as either + or -.

The previous 30 field format is now known as the BED Extended format in the
output format selection below.

Please send corrections and comments to snp-admin@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

Regards,

dbSNP Production Team