There is nothing we could have done about the cases of vCJD we are seeing at the moment. Scientists believe BSE was caused by feeding the carcasses of sheep infected with a related brain disease to cattle. Dealler said it dates back to World War Two when Britain was under pressure to increase output from its limited amount of land. Both Dealler and Ray Bradley, a retired pathologist with the Veterinary Laboratory Agency where the first case of BSE was diagnosed, said vCJD sufferers would have been infected before the government imposed a ban on feeding animal remains to cattle. It fits fairly well with diet but we are not sure why younger people, and not older ones, are going down with it.
Most scientists are convinced that eating contaminated beef is the most likely mode of transmission.
Both diseases are caused by tiny mutated brain proteins called prions that are normally present in the brain and other tissues. The illness develops when the proteins fold in an abnormal way. They multiply, clump up and cause the brain to become spongy and wither. Sufferers become confused, lose their coordination and slowly deteriorate and die. Death usually occurs about a year to 18 months after the onset of symptoms.