The elderly man, a retired electrician, had no family history of brain disease and was healthy until he complained of pains in his hands and then became forgetful and started having hallucinations and paranoid delusions. But the scientists said he ate meat pies and sausages at least once every week and pate every month. Researchers suspect humans get vCJD, which was first identified in 1996, by eating meat contaminated with mad cow disease or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Last month an inquiry into a cluster of vCJD deaths in central England said local butchering practices were the most likely cause of the vCJD cases. Because of its long incubation period, which can be up to 30 years, scientists say it is impossible to predict how many people will be struck down by the disease.
Estimates range from thousands to tens of thousands over the coming years.