France prepares for more cases of vCJD

France can expect many cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), the country's health minister, Dominique Gillot, has warned. Although only three confirmed cases of the disease have emerged in France, Ms Gillot admitted that many more could follow. “With the rising number of cases of mad cow disease, it is highly probable that we will have several dozen cases [of vCJD],” the minister told the Parisien-Aujourd'hui newspaper.

President Jacques Chirac has urged his government to ban without delay the use of meat and bone meal in any animal feeds and to move towards systematic screening of cattle for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). This would mean …