BSE can lurk undetected Catherine MacBride/Getty
Mad cow disease is down but not out. A case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the cattle infection that causes the lethal human brain disease vCJD, in the UK. The cow had died unexpectedly on a farm in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, so was tested under routine surveillance procedures.
“The BSE case is a very unwelcome development of course, but not a complete surprise. The positive angle to this story is that our surveillance system is working,” says Mark Woolhouse at the University of Edinburgh.
That cow, its offspring and any…
