The page you requested is not available at the moment. If you typed in a URL , please make sure you have typed it correctly. If you are trying to register, subscribe or enter a competion , please try reloading this page. Scientific advisers are to review the results of an eight-month investigation into the deaths of five people from vCJD in a small area of Leicestershire to see if it can explain the rapidly mounting death toll. Ninety Britons have died of the disease since March 1995, seven more have been diagnosed with it.
Experts are reluctant to predict the eventual toll.
Dr Philip Monk, consultant for communicable diseases for Leicestershire health authority, and his colleague Dr Gerry Bryant outlined a number of key elements to their theory at a meeting in Queniborough. The beef involved came from locally reared cattle and be cause they were a by-product of dairy herds, they were fed meat and bonemeal, derived from cattle and sheep remains, to fatten them up. This is regarded as a key factor in spreading BSE through the national herd. Traditional slaughtering methods used in small abattoirs were also to blame, the doctors said. The messy splitting of cattle heads to remove the brains could have cross-contaminated other meat.