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BOVINE spongiform encephalopathy, aka “mad cow disease”, is almost extinct just 25 years after it was discovered. However, more cases of the human equivalent, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), may be waiting in the wings.

Â鶹´«Ã½‘s analysis of the latest official BSE figures reveal the death throes of a terrifying disease that scratched beef from the menu for decades and decimated much of the world’s beef industry. So far vCJD has claimed 170 human lives, mainly through consumption of BSE-infected beef.

In 2010 just 17 cases of BSE were…