BSE agent: there may be even more trouble ahead

Newspaper reports suggest that the European Union is poised to ban the human consumption of brain, spinal cord, and spleen from goats, sheep, and deer. This follows publicity given to recent laboratory experiments showing that BSE is transmissible to sheep. Kenton Morgan, professor of epidemiology at Liverpool University's faculty of veterinary science, said that the possibility of transmission was not in doubt, although its clinical significance is. “We have not yet seen any change in the clinical presentation of scrapie in sheep,” he said.

Accepted facts about …