BSE BAN RECONSIDERED
Britain is considering lifting its ban on meat from cattle over 30 months old. The ban, unique to British cattle, is meant to reduce the chance that people will get vCJD from eating BSE-infected meat. But Christl Donnelly and Neil Ferguson at Imperial College, London, calculate that consumption of beef from cattle older than 30 months that have tested negative for BSE – which is not foolproof – would cause only 0.04 more cases of vCJD in the UK in the next 60 years. However, the researchers calculate uncertainties in the data mean the risk could be…
