In Great Britain, BSE spread among cow herds when diseased animals were rendered into cow feed. Sixteen people died after they apparently ate meat from tainted cows. The rare disorder kills about 250 people a year in the U.S. Kuru . Scientists discovered in the 1960s that the disease spread among New Guinea tribespeople who ate the brains of dead relatives. It's found in sheep.
Scientists believe it has never caused death in humans.
A new form of CJD that has killed 16 people in Great Britain and France. Jumping the Firewall Scientists and public health officials in the U.S. are scrambling to keep BSE out of this country. In 1989, the USDA banned the import of live cattle and most beef products from Great Britain and other countries where BSE exists. But some of the cows were already out of the barn. Between 1981 and 1989, the U.S. imported 496 cows from Great Britain.