Mad Cows and Englishmen
Peter Atkins and Paul Brassley uncover alarming 19th-century precedents for the ‘mad cow’ fiasco.
A political tornado has swept through Whitehall and on to Brussels recently because of sensational media stories about the potentially widespread damage to human health which may result from the consumption of beef. The stories have been fuelled by the findings of an expert consultative committee of the Ministry of agriculture, Fisheries and Food that the brain-degenerative human condition Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease may be caused by beef products infected with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) - or 'mad cow disease' - amongst the British daily and beef herds. As a result, the European Union has imposed a worldwide ban on the export of British beef and there have been economic consequences for many EU livestock farmers as the consumption of beef has fallen in some countries by up to 50 per cent.
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