Researchers in Britain have blamed traditional practices in butchers' shops for a cluster of five cases of variant CJD, the fatal disease which is caused in humans by eating beef contaminated by mad cow disease. The practices were outlawed in 1989, but all those who died from the disease were infected before then.
On the surface, the village of Queniboro in Leicestershire is a perfect picture of rural English life. But it is the place where the effects of BSE on human health have become very real. 1,800 people live there, over the last three years, five people have died from variant CJD, the human form of the disease. It is the first cluster of variant CJD, and it is an opportunity to understand how it spreads.
Researchers told villagers this morning of their best guess about the cause. They ruled out school dinners, and those who died went to two or three different butchers. But these butchers used old-fashioned methods which have since been banned. They bought whole carcasses from a local abattoir when the butchers removed the animal's brain, the surrounding membrane was cut, allowing the infectious agent to contaminate the meat.
The report raises more questions for those who have lost loved ones. One of the worrying questions is just how long variant CJD can lie dormant? Ninety-five people have so far been diagnosed with it in Britain. This study points to an incubation period of 10-16 years - meaning that many more cases will emerge.
