INDEPTH: MAD COW
A Crisis for Britain
CBC News Online | Updated February 4, 2005
French T-bone steak |
Since its official diagnosis in 1986, mad cow disease or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE, has been a puzzle for scientists, a headache for governments, and a worry for consumers of beef.
The disease, a threat to herds throughout the EU, was initially centred in Britain. A veterinarian working with cattle saw the first signs of BSE there in 1985. The following year, Britain's central veterinary laboratory officially diagnosed mad cow disease.
Its origins were a mystery, and its similarity to a human disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, CJD, were troubling. Researchers started looking for the source of BSE, and experimenting to see if the disease could be transmitted between species.
In 1988, as a precautionary measure, the British government ordered cattle infected with BSE to be slaughtered. Bans were imposed on the sale of milk from cows suspected of having mad cow disease. The practice of using animal products in cattle feed was also stopped.
This latter measure was taken because scientists began to suspect BSE may have come from sheep infected with a similar disease called scrapie.
In 1989, Britain banned human consumption of cattle offal, including spleen, thymus, tonsils, intestines, brain and spinal cord. This decision was spurred by growing consumer concern over CJD possibly coming from cattle.
The following year, Britain was still trying to quell consumer fears about its beef. A House of Commons inquiry gave British beef a clean bill of health but the damage had already been done. Twenty-three non-European-Union countries, including Canada banned imports of British beef.
Though the British government maintained humans could not contract CJD from eating beef infected with BSE, curious cases of the disease were cropping up.
The disease usually affects elderly people, and there is a one-in-a-million chance of contracting the condition. But in 1993, a dairy farmer whose herd fell prey to mad cow disease, died of CJD. Four slaughterhouse workers had also recently died. In May, 1995, the first teen known to be infected with CJD was discovered.
Some doctors said the increase was due to better detection methods, but others weren't so sure. Consumers continued to cut beef from their diets, and hundreds of school cafeterias pulled beef from their menus.
Then, in March of 1996, a panel of scientists delivered a blow for the British government. After examining 10 recent cases of CJD, they said there appeared to be a link between mad cow and human CJD. They said the disease was a new variant of CJD, vCJD.
After the announcement, the banning of British beef began in earnest. First it was France and Belgium. Then the McDonald's restaurant chain stopped serving British beef in its 660 outlets across the U.K. Within a week, all of the EU was onboard with a ban on British beef that would remain in place for some 2 � years.
At this point Britain resorted to culling its herd to try to curb the outbreak. Since 1986, 160,000 cases of BSE-infected cattle had been reported.
By late 1998, the situation in Britain seemed to be under control. The EU decided Britain had finally put sufficient measures in place to halt the spread of mad cow disease, and the EU ban on British beef was lifted.
In November 2000, France discovered its first homegrown case of BSE. Until then, all of its cases could be traced back to England. Next it was Germany declaring that two cows born and raised on German soil were infected with BSE.
As of February 2005, vCJD had been confirmed or deemed probable in 168 people worldwide, most of them in Britain, but also in France, the United States, Ireland, Italy, Canada and, most recently, Japan. The disease has been blamed for the deaths of at least 148 people. As well, some 175,000 cattle had also perished or been slaughtered as a safety measure. Britain's billion-dollar beef industry was staggering back to its feet. The crisis seemed to be coming to a close.
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