The official line is that BSE will eventually die out in the British beef herd, it's demise hastened by a massively expensive culling programme.
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However, important unanswered questions remain concerning BSE. Many of these are raised by the large number of infected cattle (27,000) born after the 1988 feed ban. It is now generally acknowledged that the feed ban was initially improperly enforced and moreover, only applied to cattle feed. The same mills that were producing cattle feed were also producing sheep, pig and poultry food containing MBM, allowing many opportunities for contamination. As a result, in March 1996 the use of all mammalian MBM in animal feed was prohibited in the UK. Up to 10% of calves born to cows which die of BSE will themselves die of BSE caught from their mothers. Similarly, there is a possibility of environmental transmission similar to that known to occur with scrapie. This could potentially sustain the epidemic and make it very difficult to eliminate completely. |
