- Hindsight blinkers Britain's mad cow disease response
- BSE uncertainties drag on
Current Biology, Volume 11, Issue 22, 13 November 2001, Pages R895
SummaryA recent mix-up in studies on brain tissue of animals has set back Britain's efforts to determine human exposure to the BSE agent through contaminated meat products. Nigel Williams reports.
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- BSE – a wolf in sheep's clothing?
Trends in Microbiology, Volume 10, Issue 12, 1 December 2002, Pages 563-570
Matthew Baylis, Fiona Houston, Rowland R. Kao, Angela R. McLean, Nora Hunter and Mike B. Gravenor
AbstractThe entire sheep flock in the UK has been threatened with slaughter if BSE is found in farmed sheep, largely on the grounds that an epidemic of BSE in sheep could be harder to contain than was the case for cattle, and that lamb could present a greater risk to consumers than beef. However, identifying BSE in a sheep is not straightforward, because of its similarities to the related disease, scrapie. Here, we review the likelihood that any UK sheep have BSE, how they might have got it, how a case could be identified and what the Government is doing in terms of surveillance and possible control methods.
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Copyright © 2005 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.
Current Biology, Volume 15, Issue 3, R74, 8 February 2005
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Fears lessen for human BSE
- Alarm bells rang eight years ago with the evidence that mad cow disease could pass from cows to humans via the food chain. But new research suggests that the disease, although still a problem in a number of countries, will have a limited effect on the human population. Michael Gross reports.