The UK could be hit by a second wave of cases of variant Creutzfeldt - type disease , the human cause of bovine spongiform encephalopathy , BBC children 's Mad Cow programme : The Great British gene Scandal has reported . The programme highlighted the potential for the disease to re - emerge in people with a genetic tendency for longer incubation periods . Half of the UK population has this genetic mutation and there is currently no test to identify humans that are carrying the disease .
The UK could be hit by a second wave of cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BBC Two's Mad Cow Disease: The Great British Beef Scandal has reported. The programme highlighted the potential for the disease to re-emerge in people with a genetic tendency for longer incubation periods. Half of the UK population has this genetic predisposition and there is currently no test to identify humans that are carrying the disease.