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Mad cow disease is down but not out. A case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the cattle infection that causes the lethal human brain disease vCJD, was confirmed on 18 October in the UK. The cow had died unexpectedly on a farm in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, so was tested under routine surveillance procedures.
“The BSE case is a very unwelcome development of course, but not a complete surprise. The positive angle to this story is that our surveillance system is working,” says Mark Woolhouse at the University of Edinburgh.
That cow, its …