Good news, 20 years on, the BSE epidemic is finally over
The first hint of catastrophe came a quarter of a century ago. In October 1987, David Brown of The Sunday Telegraph described “a mystery brain disease [which] is killing Britain’s dairy cows and vets have no cure”. A few months later, he disclosed that the government had launched an inquiry into what was now being called bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. By the end of the decade, his stories were referring routinely to “mad cow disease”, and a chilling new phrase had entered the language.
The BSE epidemic cost us billions, and devastated the British farming industry. Now, that plague is at an end. A few days ago, in New Scientist, we described how just 17 cases were recorded worldwide in cattle last year.
To read to full article click here and visit the Telegraph website.
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