British government experts reassured the public yesterday that it is safe to eat beef and that there is no scientific evidence of a causal link between "mad cow" disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE) and human Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD). Anxiety had been raised by news that a dairy farmer whose herd had a case of BSE in last year died 1989 of CJD. Both diseases are caused by particles of infectious protein called prions. There has been no change in the incidence of CJD, however, while the incidence of BSE has continued to grow.
British government experts reassured the public yesterday that it is safe to eat beef and that there is no scientific evidence of a causal link between "mad cow" disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE) and human Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD). Anxiety had been raised by news that a dairy farmer whose herd had a case of BSE in 1989 died last year of CJD. Both diseases are caused by particles of infectious protein called prions. There has been no change in the incidence of CJD, however, while the incidence of BSE has continued to grow.