It theoretically puts anyone who ever ate English beef at risk. It was spawned in the miasma of rendering plants and slaughterhouses, our own hell's kitchens. And the disease organism is a mystery. Whatever it is, nobody has the vaguest idea how to kill it. But perhaps the crucial reason mad cow grips Europe is its cultural resonance.
Every culture gets the disease it deserves.
It was so threatening because it seemed vengeful confirmation that American cities were foul, murderous places. AIDS became an obsession because it nourished existing anxieties about the sexual revolution and gay rights. Mad cow is a rage because it encapsulates the dreads and frets of today's Europe. Europe unlike the United States has been seized by fears of genetically modified food and scientific meddling in agriculture. Mad cow perfectly fulfills those fears.